That Was The Year That Was – the Thai Year in review - part 3

That Was The Year That Was – The Thai Year in review - part 3

 

Rooster’s Dozen – top stories in a year of sadness and madness

 

 

The year 2016 hit the heights of both sadness and madness.

 

Thais of all social strata and backgrounds were united as one in October when the tragic news of the death of revered monarch King Bhumphol Adulyadej saddened the nation.

 

Though only the most optimistic of people could have seen a recovery for his majesty after years of confinement to Sirirat hospital and reduced public appearances, the sense of shock was still intense and profound.

 

Crowds continue to flock to the area of the Grand Palace and Sanam Luang and the majority of the public in the capital remain in black when going about their daily business. Perhaps only the cremation expected late in 2017 will change that.

 

The departed king’s eldest and only son became Rama X officially in December as a new era began for the Thai people.

 

This was clearly the overwhelmingly biggest story of the year but many others that filled the “pages” of Thaivisa news were light hearted and quirky as much as serious or were sometimes a typically Thai mélange of both.

 

So here is my take on some of the biggest and most comment worthy stories of the year in Rooster’s Dozen – the article is featured in two parts so here are my first six.

 

Lady Kai

 

The story of Monta Yokratanakan captivated the Thai public and increasingly entertained the foreign community of Thailand through English translations of the stories. Her fall from grace to prison on lese majeste charges was really the result of the action of a human rights lawyer and a nineteen year old former employee who brought charges against her. These swiftly developed into human trafficking claims and even involvement in land transfer scams and the death of a person in the north east. When her alleged impersonation of a princess came to light the game was up and she has been on remand ever since. She is fighting the charges but whether it is high ranking people hanging her out to dry to protect themselves or something less sinister she is unlikely to see the light of day anytime soon.

 

The Owens from Wales

 

When the Owen family went out for a late night drink in Hua Hin little did they know they would wind up in hospital as well as plastered wall to wall in not just the Thai media but in stories throughout the world. The three family members were assaulted in Soi Bintabaht by some local thugs one of whom was captured kicking Rosemary in the face when she was on the ground. While assault and battery was a constant theme of the year particularly by drunks this story really hit home as it was against tourists. While the authorities initially tried to keep it quiet it proved impossible. Those responsible were jailed for two years while the term “spoiling the image of tourism in Thailand” became as ubiquitous as fleeing the scene. Of course it was not the only attack on tourists by any means – Pattaya and Phuket in particular were full of them – but it was easily the highest profile one of its kind this year and attracted the attention of senior

government, tourism officials and police who – faced with the CCTV evidence – could no longer sweep such an event under the carpet.

 

No sex please, we’re Thai.

 

The pronouncements of the Sports and Tourism Minister Khun Kobkarn Wattanavarangul became fodder for the forum posters throughout the year. None of her “initiatives” was more severely lambasted than her pronouncement that she intended to bring an end to the sex tourism industry. She claimed that no tourists really wanted that or came here for it. While most tourists may indeed be uninterested in pay for play, it was clearly an absurd generalization and her campaign to end sex tourism quickly withered as she was probably advised by those with multiple fingers in such pies that it really was a tad OTT. The well-meaning former CEO of Toshiba then embarked on the “zero-dollar” tour issue with zeal but perhaps not the required foresight or forethought. Towards the end of the year other high ranking officials said that mistakes had been made as the Chinese not only stopped paying for such tours but stopped coming altogether. Khun Kobkarn redeemed herself somewhat with a better display during the aftermath of the death of the king helping tourists to understand what this meant for the people and country.

 

The Body in the Freezer

 

The arrest of three Americans in Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok in September for forging passports could have passed into obscurity were it not for the fact that a cut up body was found in their freezer. A policeman was shot during their arrest and no one could seem to decide the real names of the men or what they had actually done. Another high profile murder involving a foreigner occurred later in the year when an Israeli national was arrested in Bang Bua Thong. His identity was clear and so was that of his compatriot found in cement under the stairs but his involvement in the disappearance of his wife has still to be ascertained. Dozens of gruesome murders – mostly Thai on Thai - filled the news stories of Thaivisa over the year though many forum posters would be happier when these are followed through to their conclusions. People want to be sure that justice was done when the headlines died down and that appropriate sentences were handed out.

 

Nang Fa Karaoke

 

The raid of the Nang Fa Karaoke lounge in Pattaya by cops allegedly extorting money was another story that could have been filed under “So What?” Were it not for the hilarious events that followed the bungled attempt to extract money it too may have been quietly forgotten without another word. The owner of the lounge said that she had connections in high places in the police, a claim that the leader of the extortion gang pooh-poohed. Even when she put the head of Chonburi police on the line they laughed it off as a pathetic attempt to avoid paying up. The penny finally dropped when the head of the national force called back and was put on loudspeaker on the mobile phone. For me this is the funniest moment of the year. The cops scarpered and eventually turned themselves in but, not surprisingly, this is another case gone quiet and dealt with “internally” after the inevitable transfers to HQ while it blows over. The raids on the Nataree Massage parlor in Bangkok were not as funny though months have passed with no word about the influential owner wanted in connection with human trafficking at the venue. No one is holding their breath he will check in any time soon.

 

Pattaya Bridge Players

 

A story that made international headlines was the raid on a group of Bridge playing pensioners in Pattaya in February. The hauling off to clink of a bunch of pensioners having a harmless game of cards was ample fodder for news organizations after a fun human interest style story. Those in Thailand saw the funny side too, though many complained that the authorities really should find better things to do – like arrest criminals. Of course the incident centers around the old hot chestnut of illegal gambling in the kingdom and the Euro football tournament in June saw a huge number of arrests and the debate about legalizing certain forms of gambling continues to rage unabated.

 

Indeed, if you took gambling and drugs out of Thailand’s news there would seem to be little left at times.

 

Professor Wanchai’s very public death

 

The hunt for and subsequent cornering of Professor Wanchai led to much soul searching in the Thai media. The professor had been angered by spurious claims that he was unqualified and so he walked into a classroom and shot two colleagues at point blank range in Bang Ken. He fled but was soon found holed up in a short time hotel. His end was filmed on television and it was drawn out and the stuff of soap opera filled with an equal mix of sadness and high drama. As the prof held a gun to his head on National TV all and sundry from relatives to alumni were called to try and talk him out of killing himself. After about six hours of live coverage, he eventually walked round a corner and ended it all with a single shot. The live coverage, clamor for photos of his body and follow up stories painted the press in a poor light and the prime minister, as he did on many stories, voiced his concerns and opinions as a spokesperson for Thai “morality”.

 

Care Bears and police initiatives

 

The Thai police – mindful perhaps to improve an ever worsening public image of corruption - came in for much ridicule for a number of “initiatives” seemingly to make them look better. Top of the list was quickly abandoned Care Bears who made just one appearance in Walking Street to ensure tourists that the force were looking after them. Met chief Sanit Mahathavorn chipped in with many ideas of his own including encouraging officers to use “calming” hand gestures to deal with volatile situations like drugs’ busts and unruly teen gangs. Then this week the force said it had ordered thousands of kilos of rice to give away to motorists who obey the traffic laws. Meanwhile, police enforcement on the roads remains sporadic at best and the road carnage – nothing short of a national disgrace – continues. Upwards of a million people will die on the Thai roads in the next 40 years if nothing is done – a sobering thought.

 

Graap My Rot and other road rage

 

Towards the end of the year the story of presenter Nott who made a motorcyclist kowtow (or graap) his Mini Cooper after scratching it, was a big media event for more than a week in the Thai news. It had all the elements of celebrity and the downtrodden, a staple of nightly soaps. Nott lost his job and of course ordained. Other high profile figures like Jenpop, the heir to a huge fortune who killed two graduate students after driving his Merc into their Ford and the general’s son handed a beating outside the toilets of a now shuttered bar in Chiang Mai captivated the Thai public’s need for real life soap opera – especially as they had to do without for so long during the initial mourning period for the late king as TV programs fell silent.

In the same soapy vein was the story of a pump attendant in the north east who a civil servant unkindly abused for being ugly. The lady ended up appearing in a movie role as herself such was her “insta-fame”.

 

Monks behaving badly

 

The issue of both high profile monks and their country cousins behaving badly became a recurring theme on Thaivisa this year. It was not just Phra Dhammachayo, the alleged embezzeler at Wat Dhammakaya, or the sunglass wearing jet setting fugitive from justice still in the US that captured the imagination. Monks everywhere murdered raped and pillaged in seemingly equal measure. Children were assaulted by the clergy, animals abused, one even took a scythe to a member of the public over a small debt while another exposed himself to a woman. Monks impersonated each other, held drugs and booze parties and caused dozens of “irate villagers” to bring in the authorities demanding the inevitable defrocking. It began to look like the activities inside temples were indistinguishable from the various dens of iniquity outside the walls. Many posters on Thaivisa wondered how the public could have any respect left for their guardians of Buddhism.

 

Pokemon Go

 

In September and early October it seemed as though every single story had to have some angle connected with the augmented reality game Pokemon Go or it could not be considered news! The craze swept the nation with teachers joining pupils at schools in the lunch break and police looking after the public who had wandered off into desolate areas to hunt down the prancing Pokemon. Warnings were issued about the safety of players in cars and on the sidewalks of the cities and it seemed like it would never end. Events in October, however, banished Pokemon Go from the news as quickly and as assuredly as it had arrived and it has not been heard from since. Rooster can only say, thank Buddha for that.

 

Harold and Nong Nat

 

Final word for 2016 has to be the saga of the relationship of aging and balding US millionaire businessman Harold Nesland and his young ex porn star wife Nat Ketsarin otherwise known as Nong Nat. Their exploits – usually shamelessly coming from busty Nat herself posting on Facebook and Instagram – were a monthly staple on the forum after their marriage was confirmed in April. Rather in the manner of the Kardashians we were treated with detail after detail of Nat’s apparent devotion to Harold and his boundless kindness to her burgeoning bank balance. Even posters who screamed “This is NOT news!” were clearly still reading it. Obviously having a Thai wife or girlfriend was something the great majority of the forum were able to relate to and as various surveys conducted this year have attested to, if you are male and over 50 you represent the average on the site. Maybe they could put themselves in Harold’s shoes!

 

Rooster