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Such was the case when the son of Thailand's former Minister of Interior Chalerm Yubamrung flew the coop after allegedly shooting and killing a police officer at Bangkok’s Club 20 in 2001. The son, Duang Yubamrung, escaped to Malaysia, and told the Thai media he wanted to wait until Thai society reformed and learned how to deal with the “truth” before he came back.
Yubamrung finally returned to Thailand and faced trial a year later, but by then witnesses of the reportedly execution-style shooting had “forgotten” what happened in the bar, or been “convinced” to shut up. Yubamrung was later reinstated in the military.
An oddly similar case arose recently concerning Thailand's Region 5 police chief, Lt. Gen. Somkid Boonthanom, who has been charged with involvement in the assassination of a Saudi businessman in 1990. The police general is irate that to date he has not been given the opportunity to confront a witness against him. To underline his displeasure, he has accused the Department of Special Investigations as lacking transparency because it would not turn over the witness to him – or at least, as one observer commented, to "let him know where the person lives." Indeed.
Thailand's past is littered left and right, front and back, deep and long with witnesses who were convinced to keep quiet or who were otherwise eliminated to make sure they could not testify against such offenders as forest encroachers or corrupt police and politicians. There is also an endless charade of individuals and groups who pretended to want to help but lacked the moral and ethical resources to do so.
The country's judicial system, from law enforcement to the final appeals court, is rife with lack of protection against violations of human and civil rights. It is popular to cite the courts as the answer to injustice, when in fact abuses should be prevented from the very beginning.
Almost all members of society are aware that the only way to avoid injustice is to stay away from any type of cause to begin with. When faced with a violation of rights, it can take five, ten or more years of litigation and attendant costs and emotional turmoil to achieve justice. In that case, the obvious choice is not to become involved.
That means don't testify against important people, don't advocate rights for disadvantaged groups, and don’t spill the beans on corrupt members of the Chamber of Commerce or on illegal deals between business interests and state officials.
Astoundingly, Thai society has taken great care, under the leadership of its elite rulers, to ensure that even admonitions from the king need not be taken to heart. The king's very public remarks during his birthday speech at the end of 2004 that he was bothered by lèse majesté cases only led to many, many more such cases being filed, at the behest of Thai officials who cited national security and the need to protect the monarchy.
Foreigners are often labeled as being ignorant, or of twisting what happens in Thailand into falsehoods that damage the country’s image. Foreigners don't understand why witnesses keep losing their memories, for example, or why Thais can claim to honor the king but almost totally ignore his express wishes except when it comes to public “loyalty” demonstrations.
Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is surely one who recognized his society’s failings, but his compromise was to play the game for all it was worth, for personal gain. He ended up losing, for the time being. No doubt, like Duang Yubamrung, he wants to wait until Thai society learns how to deal with the “truth” before he comes back. By that time perhaps no one will remember what really happened in his case, either.
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(Frank G. Anderson is the Thailand representative of American Citizens Abroad. He was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Thailand from 1965-67, working in community development. A freelance writer and founder of northeast Thailand's first local English language newspaper, the Korat Post – www.thekoratpost.com – he has spent over eight years in Thailand "embedded" with the local media. He has an MBA in information management and an associate degree in construction technology. ©Copyright Frank G. Anderson.)
