That's no slum, it's a palace

2003-10-17 09:31

Bangkok - A giant banner emblazoned with the image of Bangkok's stunning Grand Palace temple compound has been strung up in front of a sprawling riverside slum to hide the "eyesore" during this week's Apec summit.

At 360m in length and 10m high, the banner, which was installed on Thursday as the group's foreign affairs and trade ministers jetted into town, is reportedly the largest in the world.

"The purpose is to improve the landscape at Tha Tien area," Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) official Kosin Theswong told reporters, referring to the inner-city slum.

"There was no opposition from the residents. As a matter of fact they were in favour of the project, just like the other initiatives which included erecting paintings and sun shades around the Grand Palace," he said.

The banner has been installed along a stretch of the Chao Phraya where Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders will watch a cultural show and spectacular royal river barge procession on Saturday night.

Rickety dwellings

Instead of gazing onto the slum and its rickety collection of waterside dwellings festooned with drying laundry, they will instead see the banner which bears the message "A Warm Welcome to Thailand to all Apec Delegates".

Community leaders confirmed they supported the beautification effort, a brainchild of Bangkok's hard-man governor Samak Sundaravej that cost 9.0 million baht (about R1,5m) to construct.

"We want to participate too and we are diligently cleaning our community for a more pleasant view," Tha Tien Community chairman Kriangkrai Olarnphanasakul told The Nation newspaper.

'Hollywood-style'

Bangkok senator Chirmsak Pinthong derided the move as a distortion and an attempt to establish a Hollywood-style studio set in the heart of the Thai capital.

"Things like this may attract criticism from foreign media," he told The Nation.

Thailand's normally grubby and chaotic capital has been transformed for the meeting of Pacific Rim leaders including United States President George W Bush and his counterparts from Russia and China who will hold a summit next Monday.

Beggars, vagrants and stray dogs have been ejected from the city while government workers have been told to stay home to ease the city's notorious traffic jams.

- AFP