A lesson or two from Thailand

TWO weeks ago when I mentioned to friends in Kuching that I was going to Bangkok for a holiday, I was advised to take along two shirts – one yellow and the other red.

In the parts of the Thai city dominated by the middle class, Southerners and the royalist establishment, wear the yellow one; at those sections where the sympathisers of the poor, rural supporters of the then Prime Minister Yingluck and her brother, former PM Thaksin, normally congregate, change into the other shirt. This changing of colours is a safety measure – the art of survival in a foreign land.

In the event, none was necessary. Bangkok was peaceful and business was as brisk as ever. I was there some 30 years ago. Since then the city has changed a lot in many respects – more skyscrapers, shopping malls and hotels. More and more tourists are coming from China. More cruise boats – bigger, longer and more luxurious – on the Phraya River now.

When I told the same superstitious Kuching bunch that I would fly Malaysia Airlines, they raised their eyebrows. They probably prayed for my safety, for which I was thankful. I’m home, safe and sound.

During the 20-minute drive by taxi from the hotel to the Suvarnabhumi Airport – the driver asked what my plane was. When told that it was MAS, he had some unkind remarks about our national airline. I was not amused and told him to concentrate on his driving which was more dangerous than a flight by MAS.

As it transpired, it was one of the most pleasant flights from Kuching via KL to Bangkok and back after four days. While the food as such was not fantastic, other services were excellent. The aircraft  is new. The pilot was extra careful. At the slightest turbulence, his assistant would advise everybody to securely fasten their belts; those going to the toilet would have to wait for a while and those already ‘ensconced’ there to come back as soon as they had done their business.

I was a tourist looking for a change from Kuching’s air and while in Bangkok trying to get in touch with friends from the student days. Jit Nilpanich was in the foreign office, Dr Rai was with Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in Bangkok and Dr Benson with the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand (EGAT) – all happily retired but fully ‘employed’ as drivers or voluntary minders to their respective grandchildren.

The rest of the time was spent on chaperoning Auntie Di for window shopping and reading the local papers – The Bangkok Post and The Nation. From these English papers a lot of information was obtained and, perhaps, a lesson or two for my Malaysian readers. Two issues attracted my attention – curb on the freedom of the press and the Thai Reconciliation Campaign.

Freedom of the press

The junta calling itself the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) led by General Prayuth Chan-oca has issued an order banning criticism of itself. It prohibits criticism by print, broadcast, electronic or online media – of its operations, staff and related people.

Mobilising people for an anti-NCPO activity is also taboo.

The NCPO also prohibits the “running of stories on scholars, former government officials and former employees of the courts, judicial officers and independent organisations that may cause or worsen conflicts, distort information, confuse society or lead to the use of violence”.

Like in Malaysia, there is prohibition on the dissemination of false information and state secrets in any form, as is insulting the monarchy or defaming any person, threatening national security and so forth. The junta has threatened to shut down any media outlet immediately if it fails to follow the order. If the NCPO issues information, the media must disseminate it.

This order has apparently rattled the local journalists used to enjoying the freedom of the press until the coup d’etat in May. The Thai Journalist Association (TJA) expressed concerns that the NCPO’s  order could lead to violations of the people’s right to be informed and would risk putting too much censorship power in the hands of the person in charge of censorship. It said that many media organisations were already exercising restraint even before the order was issued, in order to ensure that their reports and analyses did not fan political conflict.

The TJA led by its president, Pradit Ruangdit, sought a meeting with the Junta’s spokesman, Colonel Winthai Suvari to seek some clarifications on the order. The last I heard about the meeting was that the parties had reached an understanding: the media people agreed to impose self- censorship on whatever they would write and the military would tolerate some criticism.

Hopefully, we in Malaysia will never see a military government in place.

Reconciliation

The NCPO is running a campaign called ‘Happy Events’ as an exercise to unite a politically polarised nation. All sorts of cultural activities are being carried out to make people happy. I was told by the man manning the hotel lift that “when people dance they are happy; when they sing, they are happy; when they smile, they are happy. And when they are happy, they don’t fight each other”.

I put on a smile, to be polite.

In order to make the Red Shirts people happy, the junta has allowed the former Prime Minister, Yingluck, to go abroad. She was allowed to attend the 65th birthday party of her brother, Thaksin, held in Paris. Many Thais think that Yingluck will not return because she is facing serious allegations at home in connection with her government’s rice-buying policy. The heavily subsidised purchasing of rice by government was very popular among the farmers in the north whose votes had brought her brother into power in 2006 and her five years later. But it soon became a curse for them because the scheme failed miserably – allegedly mismanaged by the corrupt functionaries of the Preu Thai Party of which the Shinawatra family was associated.

The cost to the taxpayers is a whooping 200 billion baht (RM200 billion) in subsidising rice purchases. The farmers complain that they have not gotten the guaranteed price at 15,000 baht per tonne from the millers as promised during election time. Compounding the problem, recently, China cancelled an order for 1.2 million tonnes of rice after learning there was a corruption probe on the deal. And banks refuse to provide loans for the transactions, so vast stockpiles of rice remaining unsold and a huge bill for the government to pay.

What the junta is going to do with so much rice – no one at the FAO office could or would answer my question.

Thais are wondering if Yingluck will return home. If and when she does return, the media people would be lucky if they were allowed to interview her. Writing about her meeting with her brother in Europe would, it appears, violate the Order of the NCPO. But I’m sure that the journalists in Thailand will use their discretion or wisdom whether or not to publish what she says.

I wish I could be around for the occasion. To Bangkok, I’d fly MAS again given half the chance.

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