We're hooked on every detail and development, like a prime-time series that teases with clues and cliffhangers. I mean the Chiang Mai pub brawl case, which is really getting on my nerves.
A general's son got beaten up badly in a bar by some mean thugs and the nation is in thrall. How many hours of Facebooking have we wasted following the story? It's been a week since it happened, and hey, can't we all move on to something else more useful?
Apparently not. Or not now.
I'm as guilty as you are because this true crime has all the elements of a national drama or a soap series. Poor Thailand 4.0. We have one such drama every week even when the world is on fire, even when the Rohingya are being killed and displaced, even when the new constitution augurs doom, as if in an absence of real stories and in a time when national matters don't actually matter because our fate is not in our hands, we've nurtured a lust for every saucy misdemeanour of men to confirm that our lives, however troubled, however upsetting, are at least not that boring.
And this pub saga is especially salacious because the characters are solid: A soldier's son got beaten up badly by a gang of hooligans hired by a Chiang Mai big shot connected to shady businesses, who's also the boyfriend of a busty soap star/model/actress, or something along that career ambition.
The kick is that the victim's dad is a high-ranking military officer in the northern region.
In other words, if it had been the son of some anonymous father, he'd have already been forgotten. A drama is more dramatic when it has powerful people in it -- that's the playbook of the Greeks and their feuding gods. If you're a nobody and you get lynched by henchmen of an influential hotshot in Chiang Mai, just pray the police would even try to snoop out the bad guys for you.
Anyway, our case is a tangled web of punch-drunk details, and onlookers with nothing else to do have spent hours piecing together leads and chronicled the incident as if it was the JFK assassination. To recap, Issarajnuwat Wankawisan, son of Maj Gen Witthaya Wankawisan, was at the Malin Sky pub in Chiang Mai on Nov 25 when he was barred from using a restroom by tough guys claimed to be bodyguards of celebrities who were on the premises.
Issarajnuwat complained, was assaulted and seriously injured, face swollen and all. The man who ran the pub -- "ran" because it was closed soon afterwards, again supposedly because the victim is who he is -- was Kritsana "Ball" Amitsoon, who at first disappeared but later emerged to deny the charges.
He was briefly locked up before he was bailed out on Thursday (from the start, this guy appeared to have connections and influence as well, which is why his illegal pub had been operating with no problem).
Now the only thing missing is -- guess what? -- a video clip!
Can you believe it? Not a single person in the entire watering hole shot a video of the assault! This is amazing because we're supposed to have a clip of everything, every incident, every scandal and car accident and petty scuffle and catfight, because the drama of the world -- or the drama of Thailand 4.0 -- is fuelled by clips.
The only other major incident that we have no video proof for, and that I can recall, is when Vorayudh "Boss" Yoovidhaya, sport car enthusiast and Red Bull heir, allegedly ran over a traffic policeman with his Ferrari on Sukhumvit. It's been what, three, four, five, 100 years? Imagine what would have happened had the victim been the son of some generals; it would have been a match made in heaven.
It's the rule of the land: Like a good audience we watch in awe as the plot is played out by the people in high places -- generals, hotshots, mafia, barons, politicians, celebrities, rich idlers -- and hope we don't end up at the wrong end of the drama. If you somehow happen to do so, make sure you either have the right connection or a video clip (the former is better), because at least that's how justice may recognise you and your suffering.
Otherwise, we just watch, we savour, we pore over the details of the Chiang Mai case, we curse the villains and wish the men loyal to the general may pursue their own retribution (as some have gleefully suggested). Then, in a few days, or maybe a week, we'll forget it and move on to a new story.
We enjoy watching influential people tussle because it helps us realise, with helpless bliss, that we're just bystanders in most of the things taking place around here.
Kong Rithdee is Life editor, Bangkok Post.