On Sunday arvo, long time Sukhumvit Soi 10 resident and friend of the Rat Khun Rob, breathlessly reported of the demolition in the early hours of a substantial portion of the Soi 10/main drag area, and weeping Issan immigrants surrounding him as he tried to work out exactly what was going on.

Later on, newspaper reports and further accounts fleshed out the details so we can provide a full report here.

It seems that around 4 am on Sunday morning, tenants of 'Sukhumvit Square' - an untidy gaggle of 50 or so down-market souvenir and beer bar outlets with up-market prices catering to 3 to 4 star tourists staying around Sukhumvit 10 - were awakened by banging on the doors and commands to '...get out or be buried...' as bulldozers moved in to demolish the area.

Sun-up revealed a mass of devastation, broken lives, injuries to tenants, smug goons, and serious questions on the bases of doing business and resolving business disputes in Thailand - especially in the booming property development and construction industry.

Impersonating police officers and government officials these paid goons leveled the areas in 2 hours before sunup, leaving a mass of injured tenants and many who lost all their belongings including savings and passports in their wake.

Apparently, the action was the ultimate result of a three-year-long ongoing dispute between the property owners, Sukhumvit Silver Star and the lessee BTR Holdings Co, who according to the former had refused to vacate the premises. According to a "Nation" report, the goons included moonlighting security guards from Tesco Lotus, as well as off-duty military.

We of course don't know the full details of the dispute, but the fact that it has devastated the lives of mainly poor and provincial immigrants suggests a supreme arrogance on the part of both business groups and a complete lack of regard for those, who at the bottom level, were paying to rent the various small businesses, thereby providing income for the businesses. Given the nature of the offerings, some may have, to be honest, been operating on the edges of the law. That does not however provide a justification. Many businesses in Bangkok operate on those same edges of the law, and only buying protection saves them from similar fates.

Thankfully, charges have already been laid against many of these goons, though given precedents, this does not necessarily mean they will pay an appropriate penalty. Whether action is taken against the two supposedly respectable business groups whose dispute in the end caused the greatest loss to their innocent renters, is even more in question.

At the very least, this bulldozing of the people in the middle of one of Bangkok's busiest farang tourist areas, may well bring into relief the dark side of of doing business in Thailand.