The saga of "The Midnight Blues" is continuing in Thailand with at the centre Deputy Prime Minister Purachai Piemsombun, who should become a Monk according to some angry Thai nightclub owners. Purachai is known for his obsession on cleaning up Thailand under his "Social Order Campaign". As Interior Minister in 2001, "Mr Clean" curtailed the 2am closing time for all night entertainment in Thailand.

Ironically, Purachai is very popular in Thailand and would even make a chance if he agrees to run for governor of Bangkok, because conservative Thais who do not go pub-crawling, drinking or dancing, think it is no big deal to close all entertainment venues early and loose billions of Thai Baht from "The Goose With The Golden Eggs", the tourism industry.

A recent report has estimated that the new "Midnight Rules", if enforced to Thailand's tourist areas, would cost more than 1,000,000 Thai people their job and a loss of 5 billion Baht (1 US$ = 39 Baht) a year for the Thai economy. Some even predict that the "Midnight Curfew" together with the violence in South Thailand and the Bird Flu crisis could be the start of a new economic bubble burst in Thailand.

Tomorrow the Thai Cabinet is scheduled to review the draft legislation on closing times and entertainment zones to determine whether Thai authorities will be able to enforce, as early as 1 March 2004, the "Midnight Closing Rule" on all entertainment venues that are located outside the designated zones.

"Enforcing the new midnight rule will only be possible after the government officially designates "entertainment zones" and the draft legislation can become law", a high placed police officer said. "Currently, we don't know what areas are zones and what areas are outside the zone", he added.

"We will have to stick to the old rule of a 2pm closing, until official ministerial regulation on the designation of entertainment zones comes into effect", he further added.

The zoning draft, if approved, will regulate the designated zones. It is currently being prepared by Deputy Prime Minister Purachai Piumsombun and has already won approval from Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Noor Matha.

Meanwhile, massage-parlor tycoon Chuwit Kamolvisit, supported by other Thai political figures and tourist officials are preparing a contra-draft, agreeing with a zoning for nightlife areas in Thailand but awarding much more and much later operating hours to the tourist zones in Thailand.

"Areas that attract large number of tourists like Patpong and Sukhumvit in Bangkok plus beach resorts such as Koh Samui, Pattaya, Phuket and others should be allowed to remain open till 3 am," they are proposing. In their draft they are recommending that the number of tourists visiting a certain area for nightlife entertainment should be the main factors to determine the closing time for this area. Non-Night-Zones in tourist areas should be allowed to stay open until 1am.

The Chuwit group plan to submit their contra-proposal to the Office of Prime Minister Thaksin tomorrow, before the draft discussion by the Thai cabinet takes place.