Who should be more embarrassed after the cancellation of the ASEAN summit that was to have been held last weekend in Pattaya, Thailand: Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as whole? Mr. Abhisit is certainly in the hot seat after insisting that the summit can and should go ahead as planned (after a previous cancellation) and the spectacle accompanying his government's failure to protect the assembled grandees was broadcast to the world. But equally troubled is ASEAN, which has, as usual, turned a blind eye to the domestic travails of a member nation. As a result, it has been unable to conduct badly needed business. At a time when the world is being told that the future belongs to Asia, regional institutions are demonstrating their impotence.
It is tempting to call the chaos in Thailand karma. Mr. Abhisit came to power last December when his supporters capped months of protests against the previous government by occupying and closing Bangkok's two main airports. That forced the cancellation of the originally scheduled ASEAN summit. A court dissolved the then ruling party on charges of corruption, several lawmakers shifted their loyalties, and Mr. Abhisit was elected prime minister.
Supporters of the previous government vowed to reverse that turn of events and they have borrowed the tactics of their opponents. They took to the streets to block the government from functioning and aimed to disrupt the rescheduled ASEAN meeting. They overran the conference center where the summit was to be held, forcing Mr. Abhisit to declare a state of emergency and to evacuate the leaders who were present.