A Do-What-We-Want Law in Thailand May Enable Airport Runway
- Article 44 gives junta power to bypass regulatory requirements
- Planned runway is part of broader infrastructure plan
A plane makes its approach to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. Thailand is spending about $83 billion over the next seven years to build new railways, roads and customs checkpoints to remove bottlenecks that hamper trade with its neighbors.
Photographer: Thierry Falise/LightRocket via Getty ImagesIn a move that may be cheered by tourists but faulted by democracy campaigners, Thailand’s military junta aims to use a special-powers rule to speed up the approval of a new runway at Bangkok’s increasingly stretched main airport.
The measure known as Article 44 makes any action the junta takes "lawful, constitutional and final" and it has been used for everything from banning protests to giving soldiers authority to arrest people. It has also been invoked to kick off a slew of infrastructure projects that the slowing economy badly needs.