The Thai government appeared to backtrack yesterday on its widely criticized plan to impose a midnight curfew on Thailand's infamous nightlife, saying it might only apply to venues that opened since the rule was announced.
As part of its campaign to curb youth crime and promote traditional values, the government announced in January that all nightspots, including clubs, restaurants and massage parlors, outside specified entertainment zones, would close at midnight instead of 2am.
But an Interior Ministry spokesman said lawmakers would consider a draft revision to scale back the plan -- which was supposed to come into play on Monday but was put on hold.
The draft revision, to be discussed at a Cabinet meeting yesterday, suggests that the new rule should "apply only to those businesses that opened after [it] was proposed in January," said Arisman Phongraungrong, a spokesman for Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Maleenonda.
"For the venues that were operating before then, they will continue to close at 2am as the old law prescribed," he said.
The proposal will then be reviewed by legal experts and returned to the Interior Ministry for final approval in about two weeks time, Arisman said.
Business owners, bar workers and other employees in the entertainment industry strongly protested the initial plan, saying they were not consulted and that it threatened their livelihoods and the tourism industry.
There has been widespread confusion about how the new closing hours rule would be applied and police admitted they had received no instructions on how to enforce the regulation.
The plan emerged as part of the government's efforts to curb growing juvenile crime, restore traditional values and change the country's well-entrenched image as a raunchy paradise for sex tourists and thrill seekers.
The country will introduce a 10pm youth curfew on March 29.
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