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Justice for the Rich vs. the Downtrodden

Posted on March 1, 2013 | 2 Comments

Now that the two suspects in the tortured Karen girl case have jumped bail what chances does the young Karen abuse survivor have to see justice served inThailand’s flawed judicial system?

Justice is ‘blind’ — to the rich’s crimes

The rich and powerful have always had a better chance at evading punishment than their poorer and less connected counterparts. But with the internet and social media it has become increasingly difficult to hide this privilege.

In Thailand increased scrutiny and real-time exposure of how the rich and powerful use their money and influence to circumvent justice has not translated to more prosecutions of wealthy and influential criminals.

Amid case after case of blatant exploitation of power and influence, the Thai public has become almost desensitized by the impunity of the rich and come to expect different standards of justice applied to the rich and the poor.

Why wouldn’t we? We now have a sitting government minister whose father was convicted of murder and corruption and on the run for years dodging his 20 years jail sentence until the need for medical care forced him out of hiding early this month — then, after he voluntarily gave himself up and spent 10 minutes in prison he was whisked off to a hospital in his hometown in a VIP style. Investigators are now supposedly looking into who aided the minister’s father, a well-known ‘jao poh’ (mafia boss), in his six-year flight. Suspects include his relatives and government officials. Having failed to locate the fugitive for six years, the police have asked for another 15 days to wrap up the investigation. Arrests of anyone important will be a surprise.

'Kamnan Poh' Somchai Khunploem, father of Thailand's culture minister who gave himself up after 6 years as a fugitive avoiding 20 years sentence for murder and corruption

‘Kamnan Poh’ Somchai Khunploem, father of Thailand’s culture minister who gave himself up in early February 2013 after 6 years as a fugitive avoiding 20 years jail sentence for murder and corruption, source: Bangkok Post

We have also had a member of parliament accused of murder hiding behind parliamentary immunity, as well as a celebrity who was caught on camera shooting another person in the head but still remains free weeks after the crime was committed. But the Thai public knows that even the evidence on CCTV camera can be trumped by inexplicable retroactive loss of sight and memory among a mass of witnesses. I refer to another sitting cabinet member, a deputy prime minister, whose son was involved some years ago in a police killing, a point-blank shooting, in a pub in front of hundreds of witnesses, and CCTV cameras, but eventually let go due to “insufficient evidence.” This son later became a police officer because he was “a sharp shooter,” according to his father.

There is a privileged club of rich kids in Bangkok whose weapons are not guns but luxury cars, but likewise never have had to go to jail. Their victims include a Laotian migrant girl cut in half by a speeding Porsche; and a traffic cop on a motorbike killed in a hit and run by a Ferrari going at 200mph. The cases followed a usual pattern: ordinary people killed, negotiation when the suspect would report to the courteous police, bail granted, some compensation paid, no one in jail.

One of the few criminal cases involving a rich and well-connected defendant that went on trial involved a 17-year-old girl from a powerful family whose unlicensed and reckless driving resulted in a deadly clash with a van full of passengers, leaving nine people dead. She received two years suspended jail sentence and a few months of community service.

Highly accommodating ‘justice’ — for the powerful

So we Thais know well that while the rule of law is swift and unbending with the poor and powerless, it is highly accommodating and yielding to the rich and powerful.

In the few occasions that the rich and powerful are caught having done something bad, even horrible, they are accorded the kind of privileges that the poor without connections can only dream of, such as:

time to prepare self for police questioning in the privacy and freedom of one’s own home;
curtesy appointment at police station at own convenience to hear charges;
understanding about “unforeseen” personal difficulties such as sudden illness, busy schedule, a special visit to ancestor’s cemetery (a reason for more extension to meet the police);
bail (including in cases of rape or murder, premeditated or otherwise);
special discount in jail sentence, if any, by the court (usually jail time suspension).

The course of justice for the rich and the poor usually follows different paths, and the weight of justice is measured on different scales. To accommodate the rich and powerful the scale of Thai justice can be tilted so far to one side and topple over. Sometimes the weight on one side is so heavy that the scale of justice can’t take the strain and breaks completely.

This case is an example. Five policemen were found guilty in August 2012 by the court of murdering a teenage boy in an extrajudicial killing. Three of the policemen were sentenced to death but all of them were given bail despite this group of policemen having a history of threatening the witnesses in the case. The witnesses said they were “afraid of being killed” before the culprits would be “brought [back] to justice.” Nothing more is heard about the case. It would seem that Lady Justice herself was beaten senseless and left unattended in a coma.

‘Justice’ for the downtrodden – the odds for Burmese-Karen girl

When it comes the poorest of the poor and underprivileged like foreign migrant workers in Thailand, the impunity for the rich and powerful offenders is more or less guaranteed. The chance for justice being served has an inverted relationship with the size of the gap between the power and influence of the offender and that of the victim.

In the 12-year-old tortured Karen girl case, the alleged offenders may not be so well known as the relatives of the cabinet members mentioned above, but the victim is at the bottom rung of society. The gap is huge.

Thailand’s record of ensuring justice for the Thai poor is bad and between very bad and abysmal for the likes of the Karen girl.

Parents of 12-year-old tortured Karen girl, source: Noppatjak Attanon

The 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report on Thailand by the US State Department is a sobering read. Some excerpt:

The government implemented regulations allowing foreign victims to live and work temporarily within Thailand… The number of prosecutions and convictions pursued for sex and labor trafficking was disproportionately small compared to the significant scope and magnitude of trafficking in Thailand. Effective anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts were hindered byauthorities’ failure to identify and adequately protect victims…

Weak law enforcement as well as slow judicial process were also identified as part of the problem.

Some suspected offenders fled the country or intimidated victims after judges decided to grant bail, further contributing to the government’s already low conviction rates.

There is also a general tendency not to punish employers.

The government often chose to facilitate an informal dispute resolution rather than to pursue criminal prosecution of employers in cases of the labor exploitation of migrants.

Moreover:

Direct involvement in and facilitation of human trafficking by law enforcement officials reportedly remained a significant problem in Thailand; authorities reported investigating three cases of complicity among local law enforcement officials, but there were no prosecutions or convictions of complicit officials during the year.

(See the full summary report.)

Slavery was abolished in Thailand a century ago but it’s hard to believe that was history when reading cases of horrible treatments of some poor foreign migrants.

Another horrific case of Karen girl abuse surfaces

As we wait to hear news about arrest of the husband and wife suspects in the 12-year-old tortured Karen girl case, another case of horrific abuse of another Karen-Burmese girl has surfaced. A Thai-langauge newspaper Thai Rath reported on February 25 that a 17-year-old Karen girl was kept a domestic servant and abused for two years since she was 14 by a family of a high ranking police in Bangkok.

When she was rescued in August 2011 the previously healthy girl was blind and part of her lips was missing. Her body was covered with injuries: her skull cracked, her ears bleeding, her arms and teeth broken, her face damaged, one of her eyes blackened, along with other signs of beating on various parts of her body. Her menses were no longer normal.

The abuse victim said she had to work from 5am to midnight without breaks. Some days she had to go without food, and when there was food it was poured on newspaper sheets for her to eat. She slept in front of a washing machine and was given only one change of clothing to wear.

After the rescue (aided by a daughter of the matron of the house who apparently could no longer bare to watch), with the help of the Thai Lawyers’ Council and the National Human Rights Commission criminal and civil suits were filed a year ago. A complaint was filed with the anti-trafficking police unit on 14 February 2012 but there has been no development on the case.

A complaint was also filed with the Central Labour Court, demanding 1.25 million bath in damages for the victim. The Court resolved the case by ordering the complainant’s lawyer and social worker to go outside the courtroom to settle with the employer, who paid only 200,000 baht in damages with a condition that the complainant would not pursue criminal and civil complaints against her.

Concerned that the now 17-year-old Karen girl would never see justice, the Thai Lawyers’ Council and the National Human Rights Commission resorted to seek media attention and told her story to Thai Rath.

Couple jumped bail – Police know where they are but still no arrest

The 12-year-old Karen girl will get expert care for her injuries but doctors say she can only hope for partial cure. The physical damage on her body is horrendous but the mental and developmental damage is no less so. No amount of money and reparation can bring back her lost years and erase the horror. But at the very least, Thailand owes it to this girl and the other Karen girl to see that justice is done by bringing their abusers to the court of law.

The Kamphaengphet police have failed the 12-year-old Karen girl already once when they returned her to her abusers when she was nine. They failed her again with their handling of her merely as a piece of evidence, and again by letting the accused slip through their hands.

The Thai police seem to know where the couple might be hiding (in one of the casinos in Poi Pet, Cambodia), as well as who is aiding in their flight (an army officer, the father of the male suspect). The police told the media a week ago that they would have “good news in a couple of days.” No such good news has been reported.

Is there any hope for justice for the Karen girls?

How much can we hope to rely on the Thai police and the Thai court to ensure justice in the two cases involving the Karen girls?

The Karen Network for Culture and Environment has submitted a letter to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to see to it that the case won’t be forgotten and go the way of many cases before it.

Mr. Naing Htun, Burmese labor official, said he had expressed concerns to the Thai court that allowed bail for the couple but was assured that it wouldn’t prevent them facing justice.

I asked the police about the couple’s release on bail, but they said they had already gathered enough evidence, and now it was up to the prosecutors to do their work. They assured me everything would be done in accordance with the law.

I’m worried that this case will also disappear in the near future, because we have experienced many such incidents before… Whenever rights abuses happen, the Thais tend to be quiet and then forget about them after a while. We used to hire lawyers in labor disputes or abuse cases, but in the end, we Burmese always lost in court. (The Irrawaddy, 20 February 2013)

Thailand must do the right thing and act civilized

I believe Thai police can be effective when they choose to be. Catching fugitives who are presumably non-professional criminals can’t be beyond their ability. There are leads and there are means to get them back. The issue is whether there is a will to see justice done.

It is also not beyond the Thai court to see to due process. The question is whether the officers of the court will rise above their usual indifference and reach deeper into their compassion and sense of justice to see that the victims are no less human than their own children.

Thailand tends to decry shame when it comes to trivial things like funny videos or somebody saying something that tarnishes the country’s image. What Thailand — Thai authorities, Thai government — need to realize is that the real shame is rather in this kind of serious neglect in compassion, fairness, and justice.

By allowing this type of inhuman treatments and atrocious crimes to go unpunished, Thailand is saying to the world that it cares little about what is right. And that is truly shameful. It is a disgrace to us all. As a Thai I am deeply ashamed that poor foreign people, especially children, have been treated so terribly and that my country continues to let it happen again and again, and again.

Whether or not a society is truly civilized can be judged, not by the number of modern structures, glitzy shopping malls or fancy cars, but by the way the weak and powerless are treated in that society. By this measure, I am afraid that Thailand is still uncivilized.

Thai justice system needs to change to treat all equally and fairly before Thailand can call itself a civilized nation. And for change to happen, a signal must be sent from the top.

While the Thai police force may be a state within its own and immediate changes are difficult, but change is an ongoing process which often starts small. If the Thai government cares at all about justice, its top leader, the prime minister, should have come out to at least express dismay at what happened to the 12-year-old Karen girl, if not to assure the victim, the victim’s family and the public that justice will be served.

As a mother, I am sure Prime Minister Yingluck feels for these Karen girls too. But feeling sorry isn’t enough. As the prime minister, she can do more to help, to see that justice is done for these poor girls. It is not too late.

Note: This article was first published on SiamVoices, Asian Correspondent, on February 25, 2013.

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Posted in Thai Society, Politics, etc.

Tagged Burmese migrants, children's right, human rights, justice, social class, Thai law, Thai police

Couple jump bail: Thai justice system fails tortured Karen girl

Posted on February 20, 2013 | 4 Comments

Many eyes have been watching the case of horrific abuse of a young Karen girl from Burma by a Thai couple who allegedly abducted, enslaved and tortured her for five years since she was seven years old (I reported the details last week).

Given the shockingly cruel nature of the abuse, many have been hoping that the huge amount of attention might make a difference in this case and an underprivileged victim will for once get the justice she deserves.

But it is not to be. Thailand – more precisely Thai law enforcement – has failed the poor child yet again. While there have been criticisms of the insensitive treatment of the girl as a child victim by Thai media and law enforcement officials, it is tragic that this case is turning into yet another familiar failure of the Thai justice system.

Suspects failed to report for police questioning

Mr. Nathee Taeng-orn, age 35, and Ms. Rattanakorn Piyavoratharm, age 33. Source: Thai Rath

Mr. Nathee Taeng-orn, age 35, and Ms. Rattanakorn Piyavoratharm, age 33. Two suspects in the case failed to report for questioning with the police on February 18, 2013, and are now wanted on 100,000 baht bounty.

On Monday February 18, 2013, the Thai couple, the alleged abductors and abusers, failed to show up for questioning with the police as appointed. But that is hardly surprising as they have reportedly disappeared from their home ever since their release on bail on February 7.

The superintendent of Kamphaengphet, Muang district, said he suspected the couple had already fled and left the province. “They had made several monetary transactions.”

A bounty of 100,000 baht (US$3,350) has been set to find the couple and a team of investigators have been assigned to “track them down and bring them back.”

What on earth have the Muang district police been doing in the past ten days to have let the couple slip through their hands? That is, if they were serious about keeping them in town. The media have reported them not at home since the day they got bail!

Unusual attention and quick response – a false hope

As I said last week that this case would be a test for Thailand’s justice system. The Thai judicial system tends to be at best spotty and uneven and at worst unreliable and unfair, soft on the rich and powerful and harsh on the poor and powerless.

Ordinarily victims who are the likes of “Air” – an alias given to the 12-year-old girl – would have little hope of having their plight noticed, much less seeing justice done. The initial quick response from the Thai authorities offered a small hope that would turn out to be just a wishful thinking.

Thai authorities have shown strong sympathy for the victim – that is unusual in itself although it is hard to imagine any other reaction to this case. Equally unusual, the governments of both Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) have swiftly stepped in to offer help.

Since her rescue the child victim has been taken under the responsibility of the provincial unit of Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security which provides services to victims of violence, including human trafficking.

The Burmese embassy in Bangkok assured the Burmese migrant community in Thailand that their government was treating the case as a priority and would urge immediate legal actions from the Thai government. A Burmese labor official was dispatched to visit the girl in the government shelter in Kamphaengphet. He found that she was reunited with her family and beginning to recover from the trauma. He delivered 20,000 baht (US$670) from the Burmese Labor Ministry for the care of the girl.

Chief of Thailand’s Department of Rights and Liberties Protection under the Ministry of Justice also visited the child victim and handed her 30,000 baht (US$1,000) assistance money. The Nation reported:

He was confident that the police would investigate the case seriously and ensure justice was done for all those involved… As a Thai, he felt bad and apologised for what had happened to the girl, which was a serious human violation carried out by fellow Thais…

Although the girl’s parents were illegal immigrants, he would consult with the Interior Ministry about the possibility of making this a special case and providing Thai nationality to the abused girl, so that she could be entitled to healthcare and educational benefits. (The Nation, February 14, 2013)

Since the girl is an undocumented foreign migrant like her parents, the Burmese government would help her parents to obtain an identity document for her, which would be needed for her application for a Thai nationality should the Thai government really decide to give her one (under Thailand’s human trafficking law victims of trafficking even the undocumented are entitled to a temporary stay in the country while their legal case is ongoing).

The Thai government has been covering most of the Karen girl’s medical costs (which is what it is supposed to do by law). Funds have also been raised for the victim through the shelter. By Friday, February 15, around 100,000 baht (US$3,350) had been collected, most coming from Burmese migrant workers in Bangkok and in other parts of Thailand.

Moreover, the governor of Kamphaengphet has also visited the victim along with the spokesperson of the Prime Minister’s Office, who is a medical doctor. They are seen inspecting the girl here. The doctor took a lot of pictures of “Air” for later consultation with experts for the care she will need. Regarding the criminal case, the officials told reporters “let the law take its course” [but] also “let this be an example against use of child labor… child labor shouldn’t happen, let alone child abuse…”

Terrible crimes, a tragedy and travesty of justice

According to the social worker who has been taking care of “Air” at the government shelter, she was subject to cruel punishment during the five years with the couple for no other reason than she might have been slow to respond to orders. The punishments involving hot-water burning and earlobe-clipping were one-time incidents that happened some years ago, but various forms of physical punishment were routine. The girl said she begged the couple to return her to her parents but to no avail.

The video below shows an interview (in Thai) at the shelter with a social worker, the girl’s tearful parents, and the girl herself by reporter Noppatjak Attanon for a TV morning news show. Her mother said she has been brokenhearted over the loss of her child and the child returned to her was not the same. She also said that she was very angry with the couple whom she and her husband once worked for. She could not understand why the couple had treated her child so terribly, given they were very good workers for them. The family wants to return to Burma once the child’s legal case is resolved.

As the public has been informed, the couple were taken in to hear formal charges on February 7 and released on the same day on a 700,000 baht (US$23,350) bail. The Bangkok Post reported last Thursday:

The pair have been charged with seven counts of aggravated assault with use of torture or cruel treatment; conspiracy to hold a person and cause serious injury to them; conspiracy to hold a person and require them to perform forced labour; conspiracy to hold a person in slavery or servitude; conspiracy to abduct or detain a child under the age of 15 occasioning serious injury; kidnapping a child; and conspiracy to commit human trafficking.

Pol Lt Gen Wanchai said investigators would press an additional charge of sheltering illegal migrants against the couple on Monday, in addition to the seven counts that carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The suspects, who were arrested last Thursday, denied all charges and said they would testify in court. They were freed on bail after their lawyer offered 700,000 baht as collateral. (Bangkok Post, February 14, 2013)

The couple were told to return for further questioning with the police in the morning of February 18, but as we now know they never showed up.

Trauma relived (once again)

On the same day, the child victim was taken to the crime scene by police, accompanied by social workers to the house where she was held prisoner, enslaved and abused. She was asked to point out where she slept and worked, and the key places where she was abused and tortured with hot water burning and how she was put in the dog cage.

It was no surprise that the girl was again traumatized. She was reportedly shaken at some specific locations in the house, but supposedly the social workers were there to console her. The ordeal for the girl lasted one hour. The question is, was that the last time she would be put through a crime reenactment?

Meanwhile, the couple were not there to help reenact the crimes. The police and their entourage were given access to the house by the couple’s housekeeper.

Perhaps it is not appropriate to call this travesty a miscarriage of justice as it is doubtful if justice was ever conceived in this case. The police had four days to collect evidence before charging the suspects with many serious crimes, but then proceeded to give them bail despite a very high probability of their never returning for questioning.

Many Thai observers questioned the wisdom and the motive of the police in giving the couple bail (although it is the court that has the right to give or deny bail, it usually follows the recommendation of the police). In this case the police presumably did not oppose the bail request.

Whether or not the Kamphaengphet police did not oppose the bail request in good faith and simply misjudged the suspects’ trustworthiness is anybody’s guess.

Note: The article was originally published on Siam Voices blog on Asian Correspondent on February 18, 2013.

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Posted in Thai Society, Politics, etc.

Tagged Burmese migrants, children's right, human rights, justice, social class, Thai law, Thai police

Shocking plight of tortured Karen girl tests Thai social protection and justice systems

Posted on February 14, 2013 | 5 Comments

The Horror

Many in Thailand have been horrified by the images of a young Karen girl’s severely scarred body during the past few days.

The most widely circulated of the pictures in the Thai social and mainstream media is of the young girl standing bare chested wearing only a pair of shorts in a room full of Thai policemen and other men in plainclothes, some with their cameras focused on her. A police officer nearest to the girl closely inspects her body. The young girl in double-plaited hair is shown only from the back, her face unseen, but the scar patterns covering her back are clear enough to horrify and outrage anyone with a heart.

The Humiliation

Undoubtedly the girl’s body is the most compelling piece of evidence of the crime, but it also belongs to a young child of twelve. Pictures of the tortured girl are not shown here because as a child victim, the girl is entitled by law to protection from further trauma and treatment with more sensitivity and respect than she has received.

(Disclosure: I myself tweeted her picture when I first saw it on Twitter, gravely shocked. I later found that the picture tweeted was taken from a Daily News report.)

Even more horrific pictures of the girl’s deeply scarred body have been shared in Thai social media and shown in Thai-language newspapers, and a local English-language paper, although none reveals her face. A report by one of the two national English-language newspapers, The Nation, shows a picture of the girl fully covered in a shirt and a jacket and a baseball cap pulled down to cover her entire face.

The shock value of this news is evidently high, and the shock is for multiple reasons. But first about the poor girl.

The Hellish Five Years

According to news reports, the girl who has been given an alias “Air” was kidnapped when she was seven years old. “Air” is a Burmese national of Karen ethnic minority. Her alleged kidnappers and abusers are a Thai couple (pictures shown below) who owned a property near a sugarcane farm where her parents worked in the province of Kamphaengphet located between the northern and central regions of Thailand near the Thai-Burmese border.

After the kidnapping “Air” was kept enslaved in the couple’s house for five years and never allowed outside. She was made to do housework and care for pet dogs and cats, fed only twice a day and subject to unimaginable cruel punishments if she displeased the couple. She was never paid for any work she had done for them.

“Air” described her five years with the couple to reporters:

For the past 5 years I was done cruelness by the owner of the house in many ways and they ordered me to do all the housework… If they got [dissatisfied] they would hit me all over [my] body until I got injured. Sometimes they also slapped at my face and beat me, and if I cried, they would beat me harder until I didn’t dare to shout for [help] from anyone.

I felt as if I was in hell. Once I tried to escape about three years ago. But there was someone who sent me to the police, and the police took me back to the house owners again. My running away made them so much angry, they hit my head against the wall, and used a shoe to slap at my face, and used the scissors to cut at my ears for punishment. (Pattaya Daily News)

The details of the cruelties she endured are gruesome. In punishment she was sometimes put in a dog cage while boiling hot water was poured over her. She was never taken to hospital for her injuries. The only treatment she received for her body burns was cleaning of the wounds with saline solution.

When reporters saw her after five years of such treatments, “Air” had scars from being scalded by hot water throughout her body and her two arms were severely burned, much of the skin on her arm melted; the injuries affected the arm muscles connected with her body making her unable to normally lift or move her arms.

The Alleged Kidnappers and Abusers and Their Arrest

Mr. Nathee Taeng-orn, age 35, and Ms. Rattanakorn Piyavoratharm, age 33. Source: Thai Rath

Mr. Nathee Taeng-orn, age 35, and Ms. Rattanakorn Piyavoratharm, age 33, are the couple who allegedly kidnapped, enslaved and tortured “Air” over the past five years, since May 20, 2008, when the Karen girl was just seven years old. Mr. Nathee is an engineer in a factory and Ms. Rattanakorn an owner of a dog grooming shop. They are residents of Kamphaengphet and said to be related to some local “influential” persons.

Mr. Thanawat Sathit, head of the Kamphaengphet Children and Families shelter, told reporters that this is so far the largest case [of abuse] the shelter has come across. He admitted to being “afraid” because the alleged perpetrators are “influential”. After his shelter had taken in the victim, they were cautious and contacted the police to investigate the case in the night time.

The shelter officials notified the police on February 2 and it took the police four days to gather evidence and get arrest warrants. On February 7, 2013 the police arrested the couple.

The police charged the couple with multiple crimes, including abduction, child kidnapping, illegal detention, assault, forced slavery, forced labour, child labour, and human trafficking. The couple initially told the police that the girl “accidentally” burned herself with hot water but refused to say anything further, insisting they would only give their testimony in court. (So we are saved from hearing their defense that the child also clipped her own earlobes, hit her own head, and locked herself in the dog cage as she poured hot water all over herself, all by accident during her voluntary self-enslavement to serve them in return for their many kindnesses.)

The couple denied all charges and given the severity of the crimes were promptly released on 700,000 baht (US$23,333) bail. (Forgive my sarcasm, but murder and rape suspects are routinely given bail in Thailand–typically when the right connections and money are involved.)

The Rescue

It might be said that the poor child was finally released from her hellish prison by a cat. After her first failed escape three years before (in which the local police sent her back to her “employers” and she suffered severe punishment), the girl was understandably afraid to incur any more wrath of the couple.

But on January 31, 2013, the pet cat she was feeding ran out of the house. Fearing the punishment from the couple the girl climbed over the fence in search of the cat, and it then occurred to her that she could also make an escape herself. She went to a house of an old neighbor in the sugarcane farm and a couple of ladies then contacted social services.

A woman among the rescuing neighbors told reporters that she initially refused to go to social services, afraid that she would be sent back to her “employers” like the last time. But after much persuasion she agreed to go to the shelter.

The Outrage and Pouring Sympathies

The cruelty in this case has sparked huge outrage among the Thai public. Angry condemnations are thrown at the couple. It seems members of the public can find no curse words strong enough to condemn the man and the woman. They are called “evil,” “inhuman,” “worse than animals,” etc.

In my thinking, though, there are no animals capable of such wickedness and sickening cruelties. Only humans, the worst among us, are capable of such acts.

Sympathies have poured in for the girl, while many curse the couple to the worst hell. Some call for their death. It is this kind of crime that incites our most primitive anger and instinct to see justice done–an eye for an eye. Not many among us would cry cruelty if the couple were to be dipped in boiling oil before our eyes.

Members of the public are angry that the couple got bail, yet few are surprised. Some wonder if in other, more civilized countries where there is a real rule of law, this couple would be released on bail.

But the outrage doesn’t stop there.

The Social Protection

The social safety net in this case seems to have too many holes.

The deeper one digs into the story, the more questions emerge. Have the girl’s parents ever searched for their lost child during the past five years? Have the neighbors never seen the girl with any evidence of abuse?

Why did the police return her to her abusers and not her parents three years ago? Even if the girl showed no scars at the time, why didn’t the police return her to her parents? And even if the girl omitted the information about her parents (who could be illegal immigrants working without a permit) the fact that the girl ran away from the “house owners” as she called her abductors and abusers, should be enough for the police to send her to social services then.

A seven-year-old child is supposed to be in school. By Thai law all children under the age of 15 must be attending school full time, including all foreign migrant children living in Thailand. Thai public schools are required to take all children regardless of nationality or legal status. When a Burmese-Karen girl was found running away from her “employers”, why didn’t the police remember this law for compulsory education, and the child labour law that prohibits a nine-year-old from being made to work full time?

The Justice System

It isn’t that there aren’t any laws or social protection mechanisms in Thai society, even for the most downtrodden, but the problems have been and continue to be that laws are not enforced. And it’s often the law enforcers who neglect to enforce and uphold the laws, or to be concerned about justice and what’s right. Some may even be on the wrong side of the law.

Why were the couple given bail when their alleged crimes are so grave? Did the police support or oppose their bail request? Aren’t they seen as flight risks? (After their release days ago, they are reported to have left their home.)

The police have been quoted saying that if found guilty, the couple could be looking at the maximum punishment of life sentences. But whether the perpetrators will be justly punished remains a question in many minds.

The Remedy for the Victim

“Air” is now safe in the government shelter, under the watchful eyes of the guards to ensure her safety. But why ensuring safety becomes a burden put on the victim and the witness is another question for the Thai police.

Initial examination of her injuries indicates that more than half of her skin surface has been damaged and some damage has reached the bone level. Many agencies have stepped in to offer help. She will be provided appropriate medical treatments which will likely also include cosmetic surgeries. She is also promised further protection and habilitation. She might get a back pay for the unpaid work she performed for the couple.

Still young and resilient, she will learn to smile again.

A Test for Thailand

As shocking as this case is, “Air” is not the first or only victim of cruel treatments of young foreign migrants in Thailand. In 2005, the International Labour Organization (ILO) urged the Thai government to take “urgent steps” to better protect documented and undocumented foreign migrant workers from abusive employers, especially domestic workers who tend to be overwhelmingly female and young.

The case highlighted in the May 2005 ILO press release is very similar to the present case – a 17-year-old Burmese-Karen girl suffering severe injuries including a fractured skull and a shattered ribcage at the hands of her Thai employer, a 32-year-old woman, who was arrested, charged and let out on bail.

There have been other cases of abuse with varying degrees of injuries and cruelties. Similar shocking cases of abuses of domestic workers have been reported in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern countries where there are many foreign domestic workers. Why domestic workers? Because they are often hidden behind walls and close doors. And foreign domestic workers are the most vulnerable to abuse due to their place at the bottom rung of society, as young, female, and sometimes illegal foreigners.

We ask why someone can be so heartless as to inflict such cruelty on another human being, let alone a young helpless child as in this case. Aren’t the poor victims also human? The victims’ low status, being from the poorest and powerless social groups in society is one explanation. Racism and xenophobia are also often underlying reasons for such cruelty. It’s as though they were fair game. Few will care about the poor foreigners’ wellbeing. At least not as much as they would their own kind. It is no accident that migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia and Laos, Thailand’s poorest neighbors, have been on the receiving end of many grave mistreatments at the hand of the Thai people. (The Irrawaddy has an article from a Burmese perspective, “Girl’s plight highlights abuses suffered by migrants.”)

This is not to say that Thais are cruel, but it can’t be denied that there is a general lack of sensitivity to the plight of many poor foreign migrants, and many Thais still don’t feel that they are entitled to the same human rights as nationals. This, I believe, is also the case in other societies where similar cases of abuse occur. Poor foreign migrants are often treated at best as second class, if not third class unwanted guests behind rich foreigners and poor locals.

The plight of poor migrants aren’t often known and usually only the most severe cases are publicized after much damage has already been done. In the case of domestic workers few neighbors want to interfere with what goes on in another household.

The Thai public’s compassion has been awakened, but to prevent more cases like this happening in the future, I hope more Thais will take proactive steps and lend their helping hand at an earlier stage of abuse.

After long excluding domestic workers from labor protection, the Thai government has finally (sort of) recognized domestic work as work and granted some basic rights to domestic workers in a ministerial regulation issued in November 2012. That’s the government’s way of saying housemaids are employees with human and workers’ rights like anyone else, and not slaves.

The nature of the crime in this latest case has sparked public outrage and sympathy for the girl is enormous. The public mood is for heavy punishment, but will justice be served? Will the Thai justice system show the world that at least in this poor child’s case the rule of power and influence won’t trump compassion and the rule of law?

Note: This article was originally published on Siam Voices blog on Asian Correspondent on February 13, 2013.

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Posted in Thai Society, Politics, etc.

Tagged Burmese migrants, children's right, human rights, justice, migrants, social class, Thai police

What’s hair got to do with child rights — in Thailand?

Posted on January 15, 2013 | 8 Comments

That’s the question I was pondering during the weekend of Thailand’s 2013 National Children’s Day (Saturday, January 12). From what I’ve seen, the answer depends on whom you ask. For instance, “a great deal” if you ask Thai school children,“not at all” if the Thai National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), “maybe a little” if the Thai education minister.

Here’s the hair in question.

Source: Bangkok Post

Hair on Thai school children’s heads has become a national policy issue. The student hair debate has been simmering and finally came to a boil after a schoolboy filed a complaint with the NHRC in December 2011. The complaint said that the school regulation prohibiting all hairstyles except the crew cut for boys and ear-lobe-length bob for girls is in violation of children’s human rights and that the schools allowing selected students such as those engaged in classical art performances to wear long hair is discrimination against other students subject to the hair rule.

The ‘hair revolution!!!’

Thai school children have wanted the strict hair regulation done away with for a long time. It is probably among the most hated rules among generations of Thais students, especially those in government schools where such rules tend to be zealously enforced. So much so that a call for “student hair revolution!!!” has been made.

A 10-point hair manifesto was posted on Dek-D.com, the web board popular among students, in July 2009. Here are some of the points:

(1) The hair regulation is contrary to the Thai constitution,

(2) The military-style rule for school children is unnecessary and instills in children harmful authoritarian values, …

(4) [It] makes youth not learn how to think … only follow orders, …

(7) [It] promotes abuse of power by teachers and teaches youth to absorb such irrational power abuse…,

[8] [It] gives rise to insults on human dignity [verbal abuse by teachers given as an example]…

The response was overwhelmingly supportive on that platform, judging by the top 5 comments with hundreds of likes each. A few months earlier in May 2009 the issue was also debated on the most popular web board Pantip where a great many perspectives were shared by young Thais.

Since the student’s complaint to the NHRC in 2011 made the news, academics, policy makers, government officials and leading thinkers have weighed in with both pros and cons. The larger public recently jumped into the fray following the NHRC ruling in November 2012 and the decision by the education ministry just before Children’s Day.

There is much in the hair

Different people see different things in the hair on the young heads. Some see human rights, dignity, liberty and freedom (cut short or shaved a little too close to the skin). Others see order and discipline necessary to carry on by the new generation, a fine and unique cultural tradition worthy of preserving on the young heads, or a shield against evils always lurking and ready to harm vulnerable youth. Still others see nothing reflected in the severe haircuts but the rules that have always been there and should still be there because they are rules.

Then there are people wondering out loud what the fuss is all about with Thai kids these days. Why would they want to change the rules now — which generations of Thais have lived with? If they themselves have endured the good old Thai hair tradition with dignified acceptance, why can’t the youth of today?

Perhaps these people are oblivious to the new reality that Thailand is in the midst of change — more young Thais are now getting a taste of questioning and blind obedience can no longer be taken for granted. Today’s Thai youth are rushing headlong into the 21st century, only to be pulled back by the hair — so to speak —b y arcane rules. However, at least some Thai grown-ups are beginning to appreciate the children’s frustration. But enough to set them free?

Official obsession with rules

The NHRC ruling on the complaint speaks volume of Thai officialdom’s mentality. In short, the NHRC ruled that the hair rule is not in violation of the students’ human rights and the schools’ differential treatment by exempting some students from the rule is not discrimination.

In its ruling the NHRC refers to long, elaborate opinions of high-level education administrators, the Constitution and the Child Protection Act, and includes comprehensive excerpts from the 1972 military junta order on students’ behavior and two ministerial regulations issued under the order, and one small point from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Other than the first 13-line paragraph giving the background of the complaint, the NHRC ruling refers to no opinions from any other school children, or their representatives (e.g. parents or child rights advocates). And of all the child rights stipulated under the CRC, the NHRC cites just this one:

Article 28:

…

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child’s human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention.

The NHRC apparently sees no contradiction between its ruling and the child rights under other articles in the Convention—especially the ones about respecting the child’s opinion and freedom of expression. As to “the best interest of the child” principle, I suspect, like most grown-ups the NHRC believes it knows best without having to ask the children, because they have “bathed in hot water” long before the child, as the Thai saying goes.

The NHRC’s own opinion on the matter is the regurgitation of the laws and rules it has cited with a conclusion that, no, the hair rule “does not” violate human rights. The NHRC blames the ministry of education for not having made the rules clearer and more instructive for the schools to enforce, hence the divergent applications of the rules by different schools. So it offers a recommendation that the education ministry should iron out any “inconsistencies” in the regulations by repealing the existing regulations and issue a new, unified and clearly instructive ministerial regulation governing students’ hair with no room for divergent application. This new regulation, it says, should also observe the child’s human dignity and best interest (Thank you very much!).

The ministry of education has taken to heart the NHRC recommendation. It set up a committee to mull over the ministerial regulations concerning students’ hair from 1972 and 1975. The 1972 regulation, which is the source of the (over)zealous control of students’ head, hair, face, dress and more, is all about prohibition. It’s not about what students can do or how they should behave but about what they cannot do. There are two main items of prohibition on dress and conduct for school pupils (at primary and secondary levels – Item 1), and students (at college and university levels – Item 2):

1972 Ministerial Regulation issued by Ministry of Education

Item 1: The following dress and conduct are considered inappropriate for school pupils…

(1) Male students wearing hair on the crown and front of the head longer than 5 centimeters and hair on the sides of the head not close to the skin, or wearing a mustache or a beard. Female students wearing hair longer than the neckline, [but] if with its own discretion the school or educational institution allows longer hair, the hair should be tied up neatly. Students wearing make-up or other products for cosmetic enhancement.

(2) Loitering in public or destroying property of the school or educational institution, or public property.

(3) Showing impolite manner, speech or conduct.

(4) Gathering and creating nuisance.

(5) Gambling as prohibited by law.

(6) Reveling at night between 22:00 hr to 04:00 hr of the next day, except when accompanied by parents or guardians or having been permitted by the school or educational institution.

(7) Smoking cigarettes [or] marijuana, or drinking alcohol, taking illegal drugs or other addictive substances.

(8) Entering a legal establishment or any other establishment resembling a pawn shop or gambling den while there are ongoing activities, unless it is the place in which the student resides or visits relatives.

(9) Entering an event or a party where there are dances or other performances unfit for students, unless the student accompanies parents or guardians or that event/party is organized by the student’s parents or guardians or school.

(10) Entering prostitution establishment, unless it is the place in which the student resides or visits relatives living therein.

(11) Associating with women engaged in prostitution, unless they are close relatives.

(12) Behaving in romantic/sexual manner.

(13) Having in possession explosive devices or personal or concealed weapons with the purpose to use in violence.

(14) Deliberately avoiding school attendance.

Item 2: The following dress and conduct are considered inappropriate for students…

(1) Male students with haircut or wearing hair on the sides and back of the head longer than the hairline, or wearing a mustache or a beard. Female students wearing skirts with the hems more than 5 centimeters above the knee, skirt waistline lower than the navel, loose belt below the skirt waistline, or inappropriate dress for Thai ladies. Students wearing make-up or other products for cosmetic enhancement.

(2) Smoking cigarettes [or] marijuana, or drinking alcohol, taking illegal drugs or other addictive substances.

(3) Conduct hostile to management authority of the school or educational institution, or forcing, emboldening or supporting students to have such a conduct, and

(4) Conduct as listed in Item 1 (2), (3), (4), (5), (8), (10), (11), (12), (13).

In 1975 ministerial regulation issued an amendment, replacing Item 1 (1) above with the following, which in effect repealed the crew cut requirement for school boys:

(1) Male students with haircut or wearing hair on the sides and back of the head longer than the hairline, or wearing a mustache or a beard. Female students with a haircut or wearing hair longer than the neckline, [but] if with its own discretion the school or educational institution allows longer hair, the hair should be tied up neatly. Students wearing make-up or other products for cosmetic enhancement.

Despite the 1975 amendment, most Thai schools still enforce the hairstyle requirement in the 1972 regulation, evident in ubiquitous crew cuts on the heads of most school boys. (In virtually all Thai public schools crew cut is mandatory for boys in primary up to lower secondary level, while boys in higher secondary school are allowed slightly longer hair unless they take the 3 years long army reserve training, although some schools may still require the crew cut regardless. Most private schools do not require the crew cut for boys and girls are allowed to wear long hair neatly tied up.)

One can only wonder why Thai schools still adhere to the hair requirement already abolished decades ago. In issuing its order to schools to stop requiring the crew cut for boys, the education ministry ensures the schools that it is not making any new rule but merely clarifying that the crew cut requirement in the 1972 regulation was already repealed and they should apply the 1975 amendment instead. To think it took the ministry almost 40 years to clarify that!

Four decades is a long time. Long enough for many generations of Thai children—perhaps more so Thai teachers and school administrators—to get used to and even like such severe hairstyles normally associated with punishment for convicts in most countries. Crew cuts are common enough for military men, but I can’t help thinking that the only other place where I have seen many women and girls with the same uniformly ear-lobe-short hairstyle is in the Tuol Sleng Museum in Cambodia, where women, men and children were brought as prisoners of the Khmer Rouge to a school converted into torture chambers. It’s a troubling thought.

Picture of female prisoners in Tuol-Sleng

Pictures of Khmer Rouge victims in the TuolSleng Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Source: Travelandescape.ca

As soon as the education ministry announced its decision, the director of Bangkok Education Office told the media that schools in Bangkok won’t change any hair rules because in Bangkok schools already have “very clear rules” and “no one has complained” about the children’s hair here.

The commander of Army Reserve Command was also quick to confirm that high school boys in the army reserve training (who will be exempt from the military draft) still have to wear the crew cut, which, he added, does not violate personal freedom or human rights.

Uniform culture

There is no question that Thais adore uniforms. Military and police are still the ‘coolest’ jobs for Thai kids according to a recent poll. We have uniforms for a great many professions and most of us have grown up with uniforms from an early age and have worn various uniforms throughout our school life. Thailand is one of the only four countries in the world that require uniforms for university students (along with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam).

Thais are by and large in favor of student uniforms. Besides equalizing uniformity, uniforms are often linked to order, discipline, and modesty. Whether these benefits are truly realized, a look at the way Thais generally board the BTS and MRT in Bangkok, keep cleanliness in public parks, drive on the roads and behave when caught with a traffic violation, may give one a pause. Considering the long unresolved school gang violence among male vocational school students, Thailand’s second world ranking in teenage pregnancy (first in Asia), and Thai university uniforms voted the “sexiest” in the world, may give one another pause. What can be said with some certainty, though, is that Thais are quite well dressed and like to dress alike.

But whether or not being well dressed or being dressed alike is a true reflection of order, discipline and modesty, Thai teachers are true believers in this and dedicate inordinate amount of attention to ensure that Thai children abide by the uniform and hair rules with such religiosity as though the future of the nation depended on correct dress and correct hair.

(Hair) crime and punishment

In the government school system children’s heads (and dress) are routinely inspected by teachers often with a pair of scissors in hand; rules violators are punished and the offending hairstyles corrected as students stand many rows deep in the school yard before the national flag. Many school girls have related a common story that if their hair is deemed a millimeter or two too long, it would meet the scissors at about the middle of the ear, to make sure the earlobes show. School boys whose sides of the head are covered with hair, skin not clearly visible, would be sent to the battalion pronto. Offenders sometimes have to pay a fine.

Some teachers can be more zealous than others and may find colorful hair clips or bows offensive (remember, no make-up or cosmetic enhancement, see (Item 1 (1)). Hair coloring is sacrilegious. And if some students have a misfortune to have incurred some teachers’ wrath, they may find themselves a particular target. Many stories have been told about overzealous homeroom teachers. In one, some girl whose hair was naturally very black was accused of dying it black, while another whose hair was naturally light brown was accused of lightening it.

Besides the humiliation of having one’s hair cut by teachers whose hairdressing skills and purpose of punishment combined often make one’s head uglier than it already is, punishment for hair and dress code violations is accumulative. After some violations and certain points deducted, students can expect a bad report card or a call for a teacher-parent meeting, and more violations would lead to a suspension. Sometimes cutting student’s hair is a punishment for offenses unrelated to hair. But too many questions or smart-mouth challenge to the teachers’ authority could land one in deeper trouble (see Item 2 (3) in the 1972 regulation). A heavier punishment or a worse grade can be expected.

It makes one wonder what the purpose of this hair rule really is, doesn’t it? What benefits are there in boys having hair shorter than 5 centimeters on top of their head and girls no longer than the earlobes and neckline? Many a Thai student have wondered the same. Here’s a video clip of interviews with many high school students in Bangkok on the hair issue from a satire show “Jow Khow Tuen: Doo Tuuk Sati Panya” (Shallow Investigative News: Insulting Intelligence). (Some comments are really quite amusing.)

(For more perspectives of students see many TV news and interviews on this thaitvnews page.)

Love of rules, head lice and Einstein

The hair rationale might actually be very simple. According to a noted historian Nithi Eiwsirwong, Thais originally got the school pupil hairstyles (along with school uniforms) from the Japanese during World War II when there was an epidemic of head lice. Given that Thai children’s heads have long been free of lice, it would appear that love for old rules is much harder to get rid of than the head lice.

And we wonder why Thai students are so impoverished in creativity and critical thinking and score so poorly in all important subjects in national as well as international tests. (I have written a 4-part series on the failure of Thai education here, here, here and here). If Thai teachers had spent less attention to the children’s hair and more on teaching them how to think, Thai children might have done much better. Rote learning combined with such a rigid, militaristic culture of control cannot be nurturing for creativity or critical thinking, or academic excellence. Young children going into the Thai education system with bright eyes, lively curiosity and creative spirit are at great risk of having their light quickly dimmed, and the future of Thai education is looking quite dim indeed.

A school girl in the video clip above said: “Thai kids have neatly short hair but are still stupid.” Harsh, but in the past several years Thailand finds itself at the bottom of one world ranking after another in students’ knowledge and scholastic abilities.

While many Thai teachers are still obsessed with the children’s hair, many Thai kids know there is little connection between what’s outside of their skull and what’s inside. A school boy helpfully pointed out: “Einstein had long hair.”

Of course, there are also many children (and many adults, the products of the same education system) who have absorbed the love of rules and learned to articulate the supposed advantages of (the appearance of) order and discipline. Here are a few comments on a conservative news website Manager:

When I was in school and had my hair shaved [by my teacher] I never felt any anger or hatred for the teacher. I’d like to thank the teacher for having taught me to be a good person in Thai society. (a 45-year-old man, Comment 151 with 97 likes)

Next it will be the uniform. Yeah, let’s have human rights. Abolish them all. Wear slippers to class. Wear jeans while we’re at it. Let’s follow the foreigners’ a**es. (Comment 4 with 31 likes)

Yet, even on this conservative online community such views are in the minority. The majority of the response is in favor of no more crew cuts. The top two comments with over 200 likes on that page want the hair rules abolished.

At present there is a group of students who call themselves The Thai Students Federation for Education Reform that has come out to oppose the existing hair rules, although their larger goal is education reform as the group name suggests.

Appearance-obsessed culture

The Thai attachment to uniforms and rules will be difficult to unravel. Uniform follows many Thais to their working life. Thailand is probably one of the few countries where physical appearance requirements for school admission and jobs are still the rule, instead of the exception. Job advertisements often have height and weight requirements, besides age, even when they are not relevant to the job. Resumes of Thais often include height and weight, as well as birth date and religion.

Applicants to nursing and medical schools must meet certain physical criteria in addition to academic and other qualifications: a narrow range of weight and height (not too short, not too skinny, not too fat), no facial marks, no crossed eyes, and no crooked teeth feature in a long list of physical qualifications and prohibited diseases.

How many disabled people are seen in the public life in Thailand? That is, apart from the blind selling lotto tickets or singing (begging) on the sidewalk? People with disabilities are still struggling to be integrated into mainstream Thai society. True, there are people with disabilities who have made it but against all odds and they have many more hurdles to climb over. For example, a lawyer with polio was not allowed to apply for a public prosecutor job because of his disability. He fought for years in court until he was finally allowed to sit in the exam but still didn’t get the job. Lawyers with disabilities are not found among judges in Thailand because judges have to look “credible” (i.e. without physical defects) to command “respect”.

These “respect” and “credibility” expectations have also made life difficult for people with diverse sexuality (gays, lesbians and transgenders). Many gays and lesbians voluntarily or are told to hide their sexual orientation at work, if they want to advance in the job because not being a “real” man or a “real” woman makes one “less credible”. (To whom is the question.) Transgenders who can’t hide their gender identity will have to comply with the rules or opt out of the system and find the few jobs allocated to them like cabaret performers, make-up artists, cosmetics sales agents, pretties, or go into sex work. For every successful (often good looking) transgender who is accepted into mainstream society, there are a dozen more who are not.

In recent years there have been more cases involving transgender people unhappy with the uniform they are made to wear. Among the most prominent cases that have gone to the NHRC are transgendered women (born male) in university or teacher’s training forced to wear male uniform despite their complete or almost complete transformation to the female sex. In some cases transgendered teacher’s trainees were even told to cut their hair short so that school children won’t be confused (although doing so usually confuses the kids even more, with their female breasts and all). The so-called toms (masculine lesbians) or transmen (born female but living as male) are likewise made to wear uniform according to their sex on the ID card. Complaints, requests, petitions made to related authorities more often than not get a negative answer and the same explanation: “Because there are rules.”

Many official rules governing the lives of many Thais are strict and fixed and allows for an extremely narrow range of self-expression, physically and in terms of gender identity. It leaves very little room for those who want to express themselves outside of what’s permitted, often by people who are long dead.

Conformity vs. rights of children

Interestingly enough, the national human rights body that sees no connection between the students’ hair and children’s rights sees a human right violation in transgender people being forced to wear uniforms inconsistent with their gender identity. Some questions arise. How does the Thai NHRC draw the line for violations of human rights for adults and for children? Can children be made to conform against their will to a higher degree than adults because they are children? What would then be the criteria to allow that (other than the existence of the rules)?

Certainly, a balance must be found between fulfilling the rights, freedom and liberty for children and protecting them from harm. In this case, though, does uniform short hair really protect young Thai children from harm? Will there be any harm if children are allowed to make their own decisions regarding their own hair?

A school administrator in Bangkok gives a scenario of a possible harm if Thai children are allowed to have longer hair.

Personally I disagree with [longer hair for school children] because the existing hair rules are already good and practical because we can distinguish between students and [adults]. [It] allows protection of children, for instance if girls are about to fall into the hands of bad people the perpetrators would stop to think about the punishment for rape of children and youth being more severe than [the punishment for rape of] adults.

I would have liked to ask this school administrator if he thinks the perpetrators in the many, many cases of sexual abuse of short-haired Thai school children ever stopped to think about the severe punishment before abusing the children anyway, so what good does short hair do in preventing children from rape? Does he think school children in most other countries who are allowed longer hair are being raped and sexually molested any more than Thai children because of their hair?

Silly rationalization is just that but it abounds in a culture where the education system discourages logical and critical reasoning but promotes conformity, control and obedience.

As Thailand goes through significant social changes and more young Thais demand more rights and freedom, Thai authorities will find themselves increasingly under pressure to justify the rules. It can only be hoped they will learn sooner rather than later that rigid conformity and control won’t always guarantee obedience, and acceptance will have to be earned.

Adults can help move the change process along by supporting and giving the children more opportunity to express themselves and participate in the decision making on matters that concern them. After all, it’s their future and learning about rights and responsibilities can never start too young.

Note: This article was first published for SiamVoices on Asian Correspondent on 13 January 2013.

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Posted in Sexuality-Gender in Thai Culture, Thai Education, Thai Society, Politics, etc.

Tagged children's right, human rights, Ministry of Education, NHRC, Thai culture, thai education, Thai National Human Rights Commission, Thai schools

Tourism minister’s, Krabi police’s damage control in Dutch tourist rape case backfires

Posted on November 13, 2012 | 5 Comments

The reactions of Thai officials in the rape case of a young Dutch tourist in Krabi are looking like a remedy worse than the illness.

What gave Thailand a black eye in the past few weeks is the YouTube video Evil Man from Krabi made by the rape victim’s father outraged that the suspect easily got bail. The father sings:

Evil man of Krabi, we’ve got to put him into jail. Evil man of Krabi, we don’t accept no bail. They let him free, so he can do it again and again. Don’t you feel the pain you put inside my child?

The video has gone viral and is causing damage to Thai tourism industry.

It wasn’t rape because she had dinner with him.

In response to the YouTube video, Thai tourism minister and deputy prime minister made a comment that has made Thailand now look worse. If Thailand has one black eye from the Evil Man from Krabi video, the minister has managed to punch the other one. We Thais are now sporting two black eyes instead of one.

Tourism and Sports Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Chumphol Silapa-acha

The backlash against the minister’s rape faux pas is not surprising. It’s hard to believe that he didn’t see it coming. His comment (which wasn’t direct) was reported in The Nationon November 10, 2012:

Tourism Minister Chumphol Silapa-archa had said earlier that the incident could not be considered rape. He quoted provincial tourism police chief, Pol Maj-General Loi Ingkhaphairoj as saying: ‘The woman had dinner with the Thai suspect and a foreign man. Later, she told the foreign man to return to the hotel before heading off with the suspect.’

The foreign man referred to in the quote above would prove to be the victim’s tired boyfriend and the suspect, a tour guide, would be reportedly beating her up before forcing himself on her by the roadside and leaving her there in the middle of the night. But apparently that didn’t amount to “rape” in Mr. Chumphol’s book – which makes one wonder what would in his mind.

According to news report, the victim told police that she was beaten so badly that she had to stop resisting in order to survive. She was treated for her injuries at a Krabi hospital before she filed a police report and returned to the Netherlands.

A statement by the victim’s boyfriend details what happened in the night of the alleged rape as reported on Andrew Drummond’s blog. The account is supported in this Phuket News report in September 2012 by the Krabi city police who confirmed that at the time the complaint was made (late July) the victim had suffered deep bruising to the right side of her face and a split lip.

She was rushed to Krabi Hospital by a team of rescue foundation workers. They said that she had been in a motorbike accident. However, she was later examined by a doctor who confirmed that there were signs of rape.

Since it was posted on October 23, Evil Man from Krabi has gone viral with over 450,000 views and 1,500 comments, and over 3,000 likes and 122 dislikes as of 9:00 p.m., Nov. 13.

President of Krabi Tourism Association Mr. Ithirit Kinglek said the video has “definitely hurt” Krabi tourism industry. Many tourists have cancelled their bookings after the video emerged on YouTube and European tourists have questioned their safety in Krabi.

Frog-in-a-coconut-shell damage control

That the Thai authorities rushed into damage control is understandable. With 19 million foreign visitors last year, tourism is Thailand’s major source of income and Krabi is one of Thailand’s top destinations. However, their approach shows a sad lack of understanding of today’s world.

The permanent secretary to the Tourism and Sports Ministry Mr. Suwat Sitthilor said he wanted to “rebuild the country’s image” by helping the father of the rape victim to “understand the situation.” He believed the victim’s father is “possibly furious” due to a “misunderstanding.”

The tourism permanent secretary toys with the idea of blocking Evil Man from Krabi video, but this hasn’t happened and there has been a lot of negative feedback to the idea.

The Krabi provincial police chief Pol Maj-Gen Nanthadet Yoanual also came out to discredit the video, saying it was “not entirely true.” He refuted the victim’s father’s claim that the police gave an “easy” bail to the accused, arguing it was the court that gave the bail “over objections of provincial police.” The Krabi police then followed up with posting a video on YouTube, in response to Evil Man from Krabi.

Since it was posted on November 9, the Krabi Police Comment video (featuring a Krabi policeman speaking in Thai with no English subtitles) has received over 7,000 views and 130 comments, and 12 likes and 207 dislikes as of 9:00 p.m., Nov. 13. In terms of popularity it’s no contest, and it’s easy to see why.

The Krabi Police Comment video is 8.26 minutes of rambling by a cop who does not introduce himself and appears listless. He tries to assure whoever is intended as audience that he and his superiors and subordinates in Krabi police force are conscientious enforcers of the law – Thai law, he emphasizes.

He assures that “every case” involving foreigners is important and receives “swift action” and “good service.” He explains–twice–that rape cases involving tourists all happen after 2-3 a.m. In lieu of directly addressing the Dutch girl case, he describes a common tourist rape case like this:

Someone doesn’t just rape [a tourist] out of the blue… The man and woman go together to have drinks at a bar until closing time, then they go off to do the thing that they do and in the morning a rape is reported to have taken place.

He goes on, “police have to follow the law… [We] use all legal procedures… Arresting the perpetrators is the first priority.” “It’s not that hard” to catch the bad guys who, he says, tend to be local gangsters preying on the tourists (despite the fact that it took them two months to get the alleged rapist who voluntarily turned himself in, confessed and later changed his mind, and got bail). On the issue of bail, the policeman emphatically confirms that his police force “never, never allow bail” for arrested suspects.

Towards the end of the video, the Krabi policeman stresses how “everyone” is ready and dedicated to work to make Krabi a nice place to live, a place full of friendly people. He himself thinks it’s “the best place” to visit with “few crimes” and not many undesirable bars (which police work hard to control). He appeals to Thais:

Don’t believe all the rumors. Don’t just hear but listen and think whether these rumors might damage our society. The news that goes out comes from people who benefit from tourism. It’s like inflicting a wound on yourself.

By this time his mobile phone begins to ring and he becomes more distracted. “That’s it. No more to tell… Police follow policy and the law… Thank you.” He takes out his mobile phone and looks at it. End of 8:26 minutes of Krabi Police’s self-wounding exercise.

Though the video screams PR nightmare, it is a perfect sociological material that shows the classic mentality of traditional Thai police. The policeman-talking-non-stop video is likely aimed at the Thai audience, given it’s all in Thai with no English subtitles, or it could be that the Krabi police just put out something to appear they have done something to counter the victim’s father’s video–without thinking how it would work (which is also probable). But if the intention was to appeal to Thais, the 90%+ dislikes of the video shows it has spectacularly failed.

On Nov. 10, Krabi Police posted (and later took down) another 4:31-minute video entitled The Truth from Krabi . The Thai title of the video was Krabi Police Clarify Evil Man from Krabi Video. This video showed many Krabi police officers in a conference room and on location, as well as many still pictures, including one showing the victim receiving flowers from a policeman. The clip explained the facts and the legal process in the case. The key message was that Thai laws are different from foreign laws and Thailand needs to do a better job of explaining Thai legal process to foreigners.

Again, this second video was all in Thai with no English subtitles. For some reason this video got many more views than the previous one. The number of views jumped from under 4,000 at mid-day Nov. 12 to over 50,000 by 9 p.m., Nov. 13, but with the same staggeringly high ratio of dislikes vs. likes: 355 vs. 24 (93%). (UPDATE: By morning of Nov. 14, the video was “taken down by user.” However, Terry Frederickson of the Bangkok Post made a transcript and English translation of this video here.)

A heavier blowback may be yet to come. The victim’s father who has thus far not talked to international press is said to be considering going on a major program in the Netherlands, and is seeking advice from his government.

“Cover up worse than the crime”

What the Krabi police and the Thai officials fail to grasp is the reality that Thailand ceased to be a small coconut shell long ago. A frog-in-a-coconut-shell damage control strategy no longer works because too many Thai frogs have hopped out of the coconut shells, so to speak. Many Thais no longer buy the same old, unsophisticated propaganda, as evidenced in overwhelmingly negative comments on both Krabi police videos. While a number of Thais disapprove of the Krabi police’s response, many apologize and express sympathy to the victim’s father under his video.

Save a handful of comments giving the benefit of the doubt to the Krabi police, the overwhelming majority slam the Krabi Police Comment video as nonsensical, pointless jabbering full of excuses. Many tell the police to better spend their time attending to the cases. Among the more polite and constructive comments for the video [translated from Thai]:

Nick Sookate: Apprehending the criminals will recover the image of Thai tourism more than forgetting about this case and making a clip giving excuses. Fix it where it needs to be fixed.

SpeedDeva: If this clip was made in response to Evil Man from Krabi, redo it because I want to know the development of the case. [Evil Man] being accurate or not, you should clarify. You say you have all the evidence then you should bare it all. 8:26 minutes, not helpful at all. Where’s the substance? Somebody tell me.

As for the The Truth from Krabi video, the night before it was taken down it had nearly 300 comments from both Thais and foreigners, a number of which were critical and abusive of Krabi police. Many Thais berated Krabi police and Thai police in general for incompetence, greed and corruption, and lack of professional care for victims, foreign or Thai. The same from foreigners. Many Thai as well as foreign viewers complained about the lack of English subtitles, while some Thais comment sarcastically that it was better not translated because that would be even more embarrassing for Thailand. One Thai commenter lashed out [in Thai] at the Krabi police:

ucoo83stardust: It’s not just foreigners who can’t understand. Thais can’t understand it either. All these long-winded explanations, just words but no substance. Then what? What’s the conclusion? The culprit walks free? He has been released. Wait till the story dies down and the case quietly works itself out? Everybody can see through this kind of method. Don’t think people are stupid. If he’s guilty, then make him pay for it!!! And foreigner visitors are guests of the country, we should take good care of them, so that we wouldn’t have this kind of shame. Now what? Our reputation suffers. And are you capable of paying for what you have done?

The Bangkok Post editorial also slammed the Krabi police on November 12:

Officials in Krabi are in the process of proving yet again that a cover-up is worse than the crime. They have been busy for almost a week in an attempt to cheapen a YouTube video on law enforcement in their province… It is difficult to decide whether the campaign is more tasteless or self-defeating. Either way, it must stop.

It also chastised Thai officials (none of whom has said a word of sympathy to the victim or her father) for making Thailand look “heartless.”

[The officials] have essentially tried the tired old trick of turning a rape allegation back on the victim.

Blaming the victim

Indeed, the comments by the Thai officials and the Krabi police highlight the persistent, chauvinistic attitude about sex and sexual violence. While the Krabi police video hints at what’s wrong in the Thai justice system, the policeman’s message that the foreign rape victim was “asking for it” was hard to miss.

What he didn’t spell out was that only “good girls” are really raped. Good girls don’t go out at night to have drinks with men. Girls who do and get sexually assaulted by a person known to them must have given an invitation to the alleged rapist. One of the top comments on the Krabi Police Comment video reads:

Johninthai: In Western society it is quite normal for a man and woman to have drinks together as friends and without the man thinking that he has the right to assault her because he thought ‘she liked him’!

Evidently this is not how the Krabi police see it.

Police attitudes about sexual violence, barrier to justice

Rape cases in Thailand have been on the rise in the past years, despite recent changes in rape law which expands definition of rape, from sexual intercourse between a man and a woman who is not his wife (against the latter’s will), to cover raping of people of all sexes and all types of sexual penetration. Marital rape has also been made illegal and penalties for rape and sexual abuses are severe (UN-Women & Thailand Law).

Legislative progress notwithstanding, the biggest barriers to realizing justice for victims of sexual violence in Thailand have been the police attitudes and their gender bias.

While foreign victims of sexual violence in Thailand potentially face Thai police’s arcane attitude about rape on top of stereotype of western sexual mores, Thai police’s lack of understanding about women’s rights and gender equality is a major obstacle to justice for local victims as well.

UN reports in 2007 and 2011 about domestic violence in Thailand mark police attitudes as the key obstacle. Many Thai police still see domestic violence as “family matters” and tend to discourage women from pressing charges and convince them that violence is a “normal thing” in relationships. Forget about rape of transgendered persons who are believed to “enjoy” sexual advances in all degrees from all men. As a result, many rape and domestic violence cases in Thailand are not reported because the victims don’t want to go through insensitive handling of the police.

Arcane attitude about sex and rape is not limited to Thai police but is widespread among men (often also women) in many traditional cultures, and ultra-conservatives in developed societies.

Two US politicians who made offensive remarks about rape both lost their bid in a Senate race in the recent US election. One said female bodies had a way to prevent pregnancy in the case of “legitimate rape” and the other made a remark that pregnancy resulting from rape was “something God intended.”

Thais can’t send our police and bureaucrats packing via the poll booth because they are not elected, but at least we can vent our displeasure and disapproval of their behaviors on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and tell them loud and clear that we are no longer in the coconut shell.

UPDATE: The rape victim gave an interview to the Bangkok Post on 25 November. See here. I also gave an interview discussing about attitudes on rape and sexual violence and the justice system in Thailand to TrustLaw on November 14 here, and another to a Swedish radio Studio ETT which appeared on a program “Sexövergrepp i Thailand” on 29 November 2012.

NOTE: An earlier version of this article first appeared in SiamVoices blog on Asian Correspondent on November 12, 2012. See more comments, including one from the victim’s family, on the article there.

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Posted in Sexuality-Gender in Thai Culture, Thai Men

Tagged gender values, Krabi, race, rape, sexual attitudes, sexual violence, Thai police

Thailand’s ‘Pretties’ and the Beauty to Die For

Posted on October 12, 2012 | 2 Comments

Athitiya Eiamyai, 33, a product presenter, was pronounced dead at 10:35 a.m. on October 2, 2012, in the intensive care unit at a Bangkok hospital.

Ms. Athitiya, nicknamed ‘Kratae’ (Rabbit), fell into a coma after a botched filler injection in the buttocks two weeks earlier. Sad and needless though her death was, Ms. Kratae was not the first and unlikely to be the last victim of beauty.

‘Kratae’, 33, fell into a coma and later died after receiving a filler injection by an unlicensed practitioner in Bangkok. Source: toonne.com

Kratae was a pretty woman. It was her job to be pretty. The title of her job was ‘pretty’. But she felt she could look prettier and lost her life in the process of shaping herself into the ‘pretty’ ideal. Kratae worked as a hired product presenter, locally known as ‘pretty’, for over a decade and was the breadwinner of her family.

Becoming ‘pretty’–quick, easy, and risky

In my previous article I wrote about the Thai craze for ‘white’ skin which has invaded women’s intimate parts. The kind of craze that has lead to vaginal bleaching may induce a laugh but as Kratae’s death has reminded us, it’s not always a laughing matter.

The cultural, social, and commercial pressures on many young Thai women to look fair, shapely and beautiful are real. The pressures are particularly strong for young women in this relatively new and lucrative profession of ‘pretty’. Two pretties, Yim (Smile) and Pla (Fish), told the Thai-language newspaper Matichon in a recent interview that “Nobody wants a dark-skinned pretty to show their products. They are not eye-catching. Some jobs give you a spec, such as ‘white, 170 cm. tall, 34+ inches bust.’”

Pla: Every [pretty] will do at least one thing. The nose. The rest is often Botox or filler [injection] in places where you want to look good.

Yim: Other than that we will take [supplements] orally or by injection, and apply Gluta [Glutathione, antioxidant supplement used with cancer patients] on the skin to create an aura, or have collagen injections. Rip-naa is shaping the face into a V-shape. Take vitamins and pills to make the arms small and slender. Breast augmentation.…

There’s a Thai expression “suay duay phaet” (“made beautiful by surgeons”), or a variation “suay duay meed” (“beautiful with the scalpel”). It may not be long before you hear “suay duay khem” (“beautiful by injection”). But this oft-used saying sums up the main reason why many women brave the knife and the needle: “suay lueak daay” (“beautiful with choices”). In other words, when you are beautiful, you have lots of choices in terms of partners, jobs, and opportunities.

Cosmetic surgery and injection have long been associated with pretties, Yim and Pla said. They are not that hard to get either, if you are not too afraid of the risks, that is.

Pla: Botox filler [injections] are easy to get in the pretty circle. If someone has had a nice job done then it’ll spread by words of mouth and we’ll follow suit.

Yim: Generally if a pretty has had lots of work done, she’ll likely be a Botox and filler dealer too. Many of us would buy the stuff and take it to a clinic for injections because it’ll be a lot cheaper than using one of the beauty clinics which can set you back tens of thousands of baht.

In another interview with Matichon, another ‘pretty’ with 9 years in the business concurred with Yim and Pla. The highly successful ‘Stop’, dubbed “the million baht pretty,” said cosmetic surgery and treatments are a “normal” part of life for celebrities, singers and actors, as well as ordinary people in society. She herself has had a nose job and Botox injections.

‘Stop’, 30, a highly successful pretty dubbed ‘the million baht pretty’, Source: Matichon

‘Stop’ explained how things have changed in the past decade during which staying beautiful in the ‘pretty’ business has become sort of a competitive sport:

Stop: In the early years of my career most pretties were naturally beautiful. At the most they would have a nose job. But with rapid medical advancement, the younger generation feels they can get prettier a lot quicker and a lot easier…

The basic jobs in the old days were the nose job, the eye job, and then it was the breasts which was then considered out of ordinary but is now rather common. These days there are breaking the cheekbones, trimming the lips… I’ve seen [girls] who had their lips trimmed and from the beautiful smiles they used to have now their lips are misshapen, which can’t be fixed. For injections, nearly everyone does it, including ‘meso’ which is fat burning injection, and Botox injection on the face to reduce the size of the jaw. Filler and collagen injections are for filling specific areas to address deeply-set eye sockets [and] to fill in the lines around the mouth. Oral pills are usually for weight loss.

Glutathione is very popular for whitening the skin. Although it can cause skin cancer, many use it because of the Thai value that pretties must be fair-skinned. Some have had so much of it that they have become so pale white, with lots of acne on the face and the back, which really doesn’t help. Some look rather better in honey-colored skin.

One factor that makes Thais accept and favor cosmetic surgery is the Korean fever in Thailand, which comes with the Korean surgery. We must admit that Korea is really No. 1 in this area.

It’s tough if you are not pretty in this business. Most do it because if you’ve been around for a long time then you don’t look fresh any more. You are afraid that you don’t look as good as the younger girls so you need to upgrade yourself.

But at what price? The harmful effects of skin whitening products, filler injections and other procedures may not be as swift and won’t materialize for many years. Will the benefits of the quick and easy beauty outweigh the risks?

Rolling the dice for beauty

Apparently many are taking their chances. And it’s not just the pretties who go for the risky procedures, often administered by the so-called “moh kra-pao” (“bag doctors”), who are unlicensed practitioners or beauticians without qualifications to do the job.

A Bangkok Post article entitled “The needle and the damage done” tells a story of ‘Looksorn’, a gay man who has used the services of a ‘bag doctor’ after having seen his friend suffering no ill effects from the procedure. “So I just threw the dice and took my chances,” he said.

The president of the Dermatological Society of Thailand Dr Krisada Duang-urai told the Bangkok Post that botched cosmetic jobs like the one that happened to Kratae are on the rise. He pointed to the growing number of people seeking treatment to repair the damage done to their faces.

Dr Jinda Rojanamatin, acting director of the Institute of Dermatology, said that there are several different types of filler used by certified dermatologists and surgeons and ‘bag doctors.’ The so-called bag doctors tend to use inferior and unsuitable materials and sub-standard procedures. The two combined can lead to complications and side-effects, which the bag doctors are not trained to handle.

More serious side-effects occur when a sustained allergic reaction is triggered.

If filler is accidentally injected into an artery, for instance, that artery can become blocked and the area of skin it supplies with oxygen could die. The problem can become more severe if the filler obstructing a blood vessel travels to another location in the body and causes an embolism. This can occur in the legs or sometimes in the brain or heart. Blockages in any of the body’s major organs can be fatal.

Allergic reactions might have been the case with Kratae who could not breathe and lost consciousness minutes after getting a filler injection in her buttocks by the ‘bag doctor.’ She fell into a coma and was on life support for two weeks before passing away. The doctors who treated her said her death “stemmed from brain damage due to swelling from the lack of oxygen or the death of brain cells resulting in the organ’s failure.” More will be known after an autopsy.

Others have died for the same reason before Kratae. Nearly everyone knows that it is safer to have cosmetic procedures done by certified practitioners, although such procedures are never risk-free even at the hands of professionals. Yet, many are willing to trade safety for lower costs.

According to the ‘million-baht pretty’ Stop, many pretties use bag doctors because they have seen good examples done by them. “Admittedly some bag doctors are really good and can make girls look truly much better. We don’t know what the future effects will be, though.”

But costs may be the real deciding factor. Kratae went with the bag doctor for her buttock filler injection because his price was just 40,000 baht instead of 70,000 baht at a regular beauty clinic. The savings with the bag doctors can be even three or four times lower.

30-something Looksorn said he paid only 2,000 baht for a filler treatment with a bag doctor which would have cost 8-10,000 baht with a certified dermatologist.

I’m satisfied with the results… If I could afford to pay for a legit doctor, I would of course go for the best and safest treatment every single time.

Paying the ultimate price

‘Dr. Pop’, 24, offered his apology to Kratae after the botched filler injection that put Kratae in a coma. Source: Daily News

It’s too late for Kratae to realize that the price she paid was too high. She lost her life and future, while her parents lost their daughter and the breadwinner of the family. Twenty-four-year-old Thanat Natveerakul, known in the pretty community as ‘Dr. Pop’, who has no medical training and administered the filler injection to Kratae is now facing a criminal charge of reckless endangerment causing death of another person, which is punishable by up to 10 years.

Bad luck?

Tragic and terrible Kratae’s death may be, she is unlikely to be the last victim. Surely you can say it was her decision and she was unlucky. But was her tragic death really just the matter of bad luck or ill-advised decision? Was it just narcissism that drove Kratae and many other young Thai women in her profession to reckless cosmetic enhancement procedures? Or is there something more lurking behind the narcissism, the need of these young women to put themselves at risk? What role do the values in our society play in recurring tragedies such as this?

I can’t help thinking about illegal doping in the athletic community. Is what Thai pretties are doing to themselves any different from the professional athletes doping, taking steroids and other performance-enhancing substances to give themselves an edge over the competitors?

Perhaps there are a few differences. The risk for professional athletes is getting caught and getting banned, while the risk for professional pretties is a damaged body, an injury or death. Professional athletes also generally know better not to mess with substandard drugs as they are particularly concerned about their health which strongly affects their performance. Those at a high level also have coaches, managers and doctors to advise them.

Professional pretties, on the other hand, tend to put their appearance over their health and performance. Some top-earning Thai pretties may be able to afford expensive beauty enhancement drugs and cosmetic procedures from expensive beauty clinics and surgeons, while most low- or mid-range pretties only have friends and the bag doctors to rely on–perhaps not unlike lower-end athletes. What both the athletes and the pretties have in common is the drive to succeed–sometimes at all costs.

It’s hard to say to what extent Kratae’s death will affect the way Thai pretties approach their beauty enhancement–or the cavalier attitude towards health and safety in the larger Thai society. And how this case will have any effect on the Thai government regulation of cosmetic procedures remains to be seen.

Note: This article was first published for SiamVoices on Asian Correpondent on October 3, 2012.

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Posted in Sexuality-Gender in Thai Culture, Thai Women

Tagged beauty, gender values, race, sexuality, skin color, thai women

Thai craze for ‘white’ skin, how far does it go and where will it end?

Posted on September 29, 2012 | 9 Comments

The skin whitening craze has reached women’s pubic areas in Thailand. Officially. This new development has been widely recorded by international press. Kate Hodal of The Guardian reported on 23 September 2012:

A new product said to make women’s intimate areas ‘fairer within four weeks’ has revived the beauty debate in colour-conscious Thailand, where fair skin is associated with opportunity, success and status, and caused critics to question when, if ever, the skin-whitening craze will end.

Products promising to lighten the face, body and armpits are already available across the country, with skin-whitening pills and diet supplements claiming to pick up where the cosmetics leave off. But this is the first time that a vaginal whitening wash has hit the Thai market.

White vaginas. Who would have thought? But there are always crafty people who think of unthinkable things that will make them rich on the wallets of the rest of us. Enough people – women in this case – can always be counted on to buy their idea no matter how nonsensical. We are slaves of consumerism. Buy, buy, buy whatever on the market that makes us feel good about ourselves. Vagina whitening products will be sold to Thai women and convince many of my fellow country women to ‘feel good’ about their vaginas, even if most of us likely have never felt bad about them before. That’s the power of marketing.

Like most women I care about personal cleanliness and beauty. But it has never occurred to me that the coloring of my ‘little sister’ might be an issue. Luckily (?) I’m fair, but then again it seems a woman can never be too fair these days, at least in this part of the world where finding non-whitening products can be like going on a treasure hunt (a rare treasure that few seem to want).

Every time I ask for a non-whitening version of some whitening thing, there’s that funny look. In a country where a beautiful woman thinks of herself as not attractive enough because her skin is not ‘white’, not wanting to look whiter–even if you are already fair–makes you an odd one out.

Why do Thai women want to be so ‘white’?

Many Thai women shun sunlight like vampires and cover themselves with sun-blocking, whitening products, so much so that doctors complain about young Thai women’s vitamin D deficiency. They go to great length to make their skin lighter. Whitening lotion, whitening deodorant, whitening pills, whitening injection, whitening laser–all promised to make a woman’s skin ‘white’, bright and glowing. Many cosmetic products contain mercury and other harmful ingredients but that rarely stops Thai women wanting to be fair and ‘beautiful’.

Is this craze for ‘white’ skin a relatively recent trend in Thai society, or has it long been around? I think it’s fair to say that there has long been a decided preference for fair complexion especially in women. By long I mean ever since I can remember and have read in Thai literature dating back decades and a few centuries.

One of the Thai literary classics Sangthong features a hero with dark skin and curly hair who was shunned by all but his mother, a sea ogress, and the heroine who loved him. The heroine loved him and chose him as her husband against the whole kingdom’s outcry (she was a princess) because she could ‘see’ his inner golden self, literally, you will see. The hero had two identities. The first was Ngaw Pah. In this personality (which was most of the time he appeared in the story) he was modeled after a man from a nomadic tribe called ‘Ngaw Pah Sa-gai’ in Thai (now known as ‘sea gypsies’, an Austronesian ethnic group living along the Andaman coast and islands in the South of Thailand – they call themselves Morgan). In the second identity he was Sangthong, a royal prince born in a conch shell, who later dipped himself in gold (‘golden boy’ was never truer), though he kept his golden identity a secret.

Ngaw Pah in the Thai classic Sangthong – Source: numsai.com

Thai classical literature is full of heroes and heroines who are beautiful and have ‘golden’ skin (though not always literally), and bad guys and gals who are ugly and ‘black’ (dark). Black skin and black heart vs. Golden skin and good heart. The good guys and gals have bright auras. Their skin ‘glows’, exuding beauty and goodness, so on and so forth. These days on Thai television, in film, or on stage, you are hard pressed to find any dark-skinned heroes and heroines. In fact, even the bad guys and gals are now fair-skinned. Heck, now that everyone has access to skin whitening products, we don’t get the color-coded cue in the story anymore!

It’s not that dark skin was never admired. There were days when dark or even black was beautiful in Thai culture. The heroines’ shining black teeth (from chewing betel nuts) were often admired in Thai literature. Dark skin was not always shunned either. Why, most Thai women historically, especially of the Siamese stock, were brown skinned. Not that long ago Thai expressions admiring dark-skinned women were used, such as dam-kham (attractively dark), and dam-tap-ped (literally “dark like a duck liver” – i.e., very dark). The latter was used with sexy, very dark-skinned women. Unfortunately, in the new skin-whitening world these compliments have lost their prestige and would no longer support a Thai woman’s self-esteem. In fact, the latter is now sometimes used as an insult.

The new ‘pretty’ ideal

In the past decade or two, it’s khaaw suay (“white-pretty”) that carries the day for most Thai women. Lest anyone thinks Thai women want to look ‘white’ like Caucasian women, a Thai female ideal type of late is: khaaw-suay-muay-X (“white-pretty-Chinese looking-seXy”). In the last few years this type has been modified somewhat with more preference for the Japanese and now Korean type–with big, ‘innocent’ eyes (often made possible by oversized colored contact lenses), small chin, rosebud lips, and porcelain white skin.

Korean-style ‘pretty’ that is all the rage in Thailand – Source: play.kapook.com

Search Google images for ‘pretty Asian girls’ or ‘pretty Asian women’, you’d likely find only one or two dark-skinned girls/women in the first five pages. And you’ll see that the Korean-style ‘pretty’ pictured above (‘pretties’ are young women working as promoters or MCs of products, often on a freelance basis) represents a typical look. Try also ‘pretty Thai girls’ (a few more brown-skinned women there).

Sometimes the emulation of the pretty ideal can be carried a bit far. There are times when you may wonder if the Thai woman in front of you is a real person, a doll, or a life-size avatar jumping out of a Japanese anime or comic book. Look at the picture below and more of her here:

Real or avatar? The anime version of the new ‘pretty’ East Asian style – Source: thaizoom.com

So how do naturally brown-skinned Southeast Asian women, like most Thai girls, manage to look like that? Let’s hear it from the horses’ mouths working as ‘pretties’. The following is an excerpt of an interview with a group of pretties by Matichon after the news broke about a pretty who went into a coma after a botched Botox filler injection.

Thai pretties – Source: Matichon

Yim (Smile): Why do pretties have to be white? Nobody wants a dark-skinned pretty to show their products. They are not eye-catching. Some jobs give you a spec, such as “white, 170 cm. tall, 34+ inches bust.” Some jobs ask for “cutie face, high nose.” This is why we have to do it. It’s because society draws a line for us to walk. Like pretties for motor shows have to have a small and slender face in the same mould.…

Pla (Fish): Every [pretty] will do at least one thing. The nose. The rest is often Botox or filler [injection] in places where you want to look good.

Yim: Other than that we will take [supplements] orally or by injection, and apply Gluta [Glutathione, antioxidant supplement used with cancer patients] on the skin to create an aura, or have collagen injections. Rip-naa is shaping the face into a V-shape. Take vitamins and pills to make the arms small and slender. Breast augmentation.…

Pla: My message to every girl is that before you think of doing anything, give it a good thought. Do just enough. Stop once you’re white. And once the face is small, that should be enough.

But how ‘white’, how ‘small’, how ‘slender’ is enough? When is ‘enough’ really enough? Hard to say when someone’s sense of enough may not necessarily the same as the next person’s. I cringe when seeing a girl’s face float because her make-up base is a few shades lighter than her natural skin tone. To me that’s not ‘pretty’. But who am I to judge? Just checked out a cosmetic stand at the local hole in the wall frequented by local office girls this afternoon and found that all the shades of facial powder available ranged from fair to extremely fair. How does a girl with even light brown skin deal with that?

Is it really just a fad?

Dr. Thawee Tangseree, deputy permanent secretary of the Mental Health Department said on 24 September 2012 that the craze for “white and shining skin” among young Thai women was “just a fad.” That young Thai women spend their precious Bahts on products that will make their skin ‘white’, bright and shining in order to make them appealing to men or to gain social status is a “normal” social phenomenon. Matichon quoted him saying:

This white skin business is just a fad that comes and goes. Soon it’ll be replaced by other fads. Now it’s not just women who pay attention to white, shining skin. The men are also starting to adopt the same value and want the Korean-style white skin as well…

The doctor would be right. If this advertisement of whitening deodorant for men is any indication, Thai men are also into bleaching their armpits. Like the advertisement of the vagina-whitening wash above, none of the characters in this armpit-whitening deodorant looks like an average Thai person you’ll see on the street. But that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s the business of selling beauty ideals. Ideals are to be aspired to and emulate, not what you can find walking on the street.

Is this craze for white skin just a Thai thing?

Certainly not. Skin Inc. reported in 2009 that the global skin whitening market was expected to reach $10 billion in this 2010 decade. In Asia-Pacific the market would grow to $2 billion by the end of 2012:

Japan dominates the global skin lighteners market with the lion’s share, as stated in the new market research report from Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA). The market for skin lighteners in Asia-Pacific is projected to cross the $2 billion mark by 2012, driven by the fast growing markets of China and India. Apart from Asia, Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom are emerging as potential markets for skin whitening products. The growing proportion of ethnic groups—Asians, Hispanics and African Americans—in these regions is a major contributor to the enhanced demand for skin lighteners.

If skin whitening is just a fad, it’s a fad that seems to be pervading all continents, growing increasingly extreme and intrusive, reaching into people’s private areas. A brand of whitening feminine wash was launched in India earlier this year and met with outrage. No such outrage in Thailand so far, though there was a small gentle cry in the Bangkok Post.

As far as commentaries go, Shakira Hussein from the National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne made a fair point in her interview with Radio Australia.

BAHFEN: And most people outside of India and Thailand have reacted a little bit incredulously to the notion of skin whitening being expanded to a particular part of the female anatomy, and that is intimate skin washes. What was your reaction?

HUSSEIN: Well I was also incredulous and really taking the skin lightening obsession to a truly bizarre link. On the other hand, I don’t find it any less bizarre, but of course the tanning aspirations in the West, seeking to extend your tan to any part of your body that’s going to ever be visible for anybody, that does seem to be a market for that so I suppose it’s logical that the skin lightening market have a similar level of thoroughness.

White people want to look tanned to signify beauty, status and prestige, distinguishing themselves from the rest in their pale-skinned society, while the brown-skinned people want to look ‘white’ to achieve the same things: prestige, status, beauty and desirability. What is more ridiculous? Whitened vagina and armpits on a bleached body of a previously brown-skinned person? Or a tanned vagina and armpits on a tanned body of a previously pale person?

Where will this skin whitening craze end?

From where I stand it certainly looks set to go quite a distance before finding its final destination. “The male market is yet to be fully tapped,” Louis-Sebastien Ohl of Publicis Thailand told The Guardian. Who knows, the male equivalent of whitening feminine wash may hit the market soon. Perhaps balls whitening wash, gel or cream, with anti-wrinkle properties?

As for the ladies, once nothing more in the ultimate feminine parts can be made any whiter, the next step could be “glow-in-the-dark.”* No more fumbling for that flashlight in a dark night when the lights are out.

I am no futurist, but in about 10 years we could be talking about “natural light-emitting, self-navigation chips-embedded” masculine and “eco-friendly, feminine bright” products that are powered by the sun. Or maybe not, if ‘white’ skin is still in fashion. They could be powered by dark energy then. Like I said, I’m no futurist and I flunked Physics.

NOTE*: Thanks to my Twitter friends Cat @WomenLearnThai and Leela @SheSimmers who nearly simultaneously mentioned the “glow in the dark” next step. I wasn’t fast enough to think of it myself.

This article was first published on Asian Correspondent on 27 September 2012.

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Posted in Sexuality-Gender in Thai Culture, Thai Women

Tagged beauty, gender values, race, sexuality, skin color, thai women

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