After a break on Wednesday to celebrate His Majesty the King's 86th birthday, anti-government demonstrators on Friday resumed their protests against the Yingluck Shinawatra government. It is difficult to predict how and when the protests will end, and the conflict settled.
This is because it is still unclear how the demands of protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban can be met. Mr Suthep wants to assemble a "people's council" to replace the House and an interim government to take over power from the Yingluck administration. Legal experts widely view the plan as unconstitutional.
While political uncertainty prevails, the ongoing crisis has dealt a serious blow to the economy.
Thailand's economic growth relies on the performance of its four engines, namely net exports, government spending, private investment and domestic consumption.
As the global economy has been in the doldrums because of problems in Europe and the United States, Thailand's exports, which account for more than half of our economic growth, have suffered a major slowdown. Coupled with the government's mistake in persisting with the costly rice-pledging scheme, which has adversely affected the kingdom's rice exports, net export growth this year could register a zero.
The government's plans to invest in various megaprojects, in particular the water management and flood prevention scheme and the infrastructure programme, have been halted because their transparency is in doubt. The government-spending engine is not functional as well.
The halting of these megaprojects has also affected private investment, already at a low because of flagging public consumption.
When the Yingluck government took office in 2011, it implemented several populist policies. The prominent ones, which were the Pheu Thai Party's flagship election campaign promises, were the raising of the minimum wage to 300 baht a day, the reduction of excise tax for first-car buyers, and the rice-pledging scheme. The policies were offered in the hope of winning the 2011 election as well as stimulating domestic demand and boosting the economy.
But the party did not think of the negative sides of these policies.
The first-car policy not only adversely affected car sales this year, it has also resulted in low consumption as many first-car buyers have been forced to cut back on spending to pay off car instalments. Some labourers now enjoy a higher minimum wage, but their real incomes have not increased given rising inflation and higher goods prices. Worse, some have become jobless as their employers cannot afford to pay them.
At the same time, rice farmers have also suffered. Many have not been given the prices for their crops they were promised by the government; others are still waiting for money because the government has now delayed the payments.
The only sector which can help the economy grow is tourism. But the anti-government protests during the peak travel season have killed off this hope. Many countries have already issued warnings for their nationals not to come to Thailand.
During his birthday speech on Wednesday, His Majesty the King stressed the importance of unity and solidarity. In his previous speech, His Majesty noted that when Thais fight each other, the winner will only stand atop the ruins of the country.
It is time for all Thais to unite and stop fighting.