Royal Cliffs Rumble

General MacArthur announced to the Filipino people, as he fled the siege of Corregidor in 1942, "I shall return."

Arnold Schwarzenegger adopted an altered version of the American Caesar's famed words in the 1984 movie TERMINATOR.

"I will be back."

And now deposed Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, has come up with his version of the legendary tagline.

"I won't go away."

A military coup forced the ex-police officer from office. The government seize $2 billion in assets. Guilty verdicts for corruption kept him out of the country. The sentence - prison time. His arch-rival the Democrats ousted his brother-in-law four months ago. They have vowed to restore democracy, but the billionaire in exile has refused to accept defeat like the long-standing feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys.

Yesterday afternoon 10,000 of his faithful descended on Pattaya in a cavalcade of taxis, buses, and trucks. After defeating local pro-government supporters, the red-shirts stormed the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, shattering the glass doors and seizing control of the hotel, the site of the Asean summit meeting. Asian leaders were airlifted from the roof by helicopters a la fall of Saigon.

Sam Royalle lives by the Royal Cliffs.

"I saw the protesters and drove the other way. But I had to ask myself, "Where are the cops?"

A state of emergency has been declared in the beach resort. A little too late for the summit and the victorious red shirts have commuted back to Bangkok to celebrate Songkran.

A foreign ministry spokesman said, "The protesters want to humiliate the government."

Obviously they achieved their goal with the present PM leaving the resort under army protection and the fugitive leader of the red shirts can glow with the hope of resuming his place at the head of the Thai nation.

My wife dismissed this possibility. "He has money. He only wants to come back to get more."

"The two billion in frozen assets.

Before the invasion of Iraq Saddam offered to leave his country for $1 billion. Gw Bush refused to pay his way out of a war. Mission accomplished within a month. One billion would have been cheap and maybe that number might buy off Thaksin for a year or two.

Mai pang!

And certainly better than losing face.

Som num nah.