The political instability is causing headaches for the Thai stock exchange. Investors have seen one trillion baht wiped off share values on the stock market over the past three weeks as a result of domestic political tensions and global inflation concerns.

The protests that swept threw Bangkok today have not been reassuring for anyone, especially foreign investors. Even Thai people are on edge as they don’t know what is going to happen over the next few days. There is a real restlessness in the air, the Thais are wondering when the violence will start or the army will step in under orders from the prime minister or to perform another coup.

The Thai people cannot have any faith in politicians at all. How could they? The ridiculous fighting that has carried on for so long is embarrassing the country. It makes Thailand look foolish. Thailand spent from 1932 – 1973 in mostly military rule. Ever since democracy after terrible clashes between the military government and students where 1,577 people lost their lives, Thailand’s political position hasn’t really improved.

Many Thai governments have been suspected and accused of corruption, there are daily scandals involving ministers, dodgy deals that are done for family and relatives of ministers. It is hard for people in the western world to believe one word that a politician says, but here in Thailand you nearly need to take everything being said with a grain of sand, more than likely 99.99% of it wouldn’t be true.

This is a run down of what has happened so far today, being 20/06/2008.

Today was D-Day for Thai politics. The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) today marched from their home of two weeks of protesting to Government House. They want the current government out of power; they say that the current Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is a puppet for Thaksin Shinawatra the former Prime Minister who was ousted in a coup nearly two years ago.

After nearly three weeks the PAD decided to make a move to the steps of Government House. The PAD were very clever as they leaked a story on Thursday saying the protesters would break into nine battalions and then follow designated routes as they marched to Government House. But instead, the PAD divided up their protesters into just four groups, and by the time the police were aware of the changes, they did not have enough time to make the necessary adjustment to their plan.

It didn’t take long and protesters were able to break through the police blockades, there were attempts to stop them but there were too many protesters compared top police. The police had parked trucks across a main road and protester started to rock them trying to turn them over. Police eventually relented and protesters broke through and are now on the front door of Government House.

The Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is on standby and will appear on a live TV broadcast to address the Thai people if the People’s Alliance for Democracy decides to raid Government House instead of laying siege this evening. Many speculate about a possibility for declaring an emergency to clear protesters out of the seat of the government.

There are rumours being reported that the Army chief General on Friday left his office at about 4 pm for an undisclosed destination. Sources said he was summoned to meet Prime Minister at the Army Officers Club.

So things are looking unstable and no-one is really sure what is going to happen, news stations are carrying live images and continually updating their news sites. At the moment protesters are sitting peacefully in the street in front of Government house, the crowd has been estimated at 15,000 plus. It is another dark day for Thai politics and Thailand in general.