'On the internet, you can be anything you want. It's strange that so many people choose to be stupid."
Navin Yavapolkul, the boyfriend of actress Chermarn "Ploy" Boonyasak, posted this quote after the latter's online clash with an event organiser led to the revelation that she might have been tax dodging by using another person's ID to register her taxable income.
Mr Navin did not elaborate on why he posted the quote. But it is pretty relevant to the situation he and his girlfriend found themselves in. On another level, it can be read more liberally and applied to any other problem of communications, online or otherwise.
What is interesting in the case of Chermarn is not whether she is a tax cheat or not. The point is moot after she confessed it was all an accounting mistake.
She also said during a tearful press conference last week following an online hammering, including threats of boycotts of all the products she has been hired to represent, that she has since set the tax record straight.
What is interesting in this case is how a popular actress who can earn as much as 150,000 baht for working a few hours chose to communicate with the public when faced with this situation.
If one monitors online comments on this topic _ and plenty of them were splashed all over entertainment chatrooms last week _ many people seemed not to mind that the actress might have been tax dodging as much as what she said after the incident, which was seen as blatantly flouting the system.
In other words, these people believed what Chermarn allegedly did _ setting up a tax shelter to reduce the amount of tax due to the Revenue Department _ is common practice among top entertainers or businesses. They did not believe the actress should be singled out and punished when other wrongdoers who cheat on a much larger scale than her are allowed to roam free.
But what most online commentators did agree on, however, is that Chermarn did not help her own situation one little bit when she basically told the public she could get away with it all because she was above the system.
Comments like "I have had a close and cosy relationship with the Revenue Department," or posting her photo with the son of a former finance permanent secretary, apparently to show that she has connections in high places, ended up hurting her reputation more than the actual tax fraud allegation did in the first place.
For me, the question is shouldn't a public figure like Chermarn have known she would get burned by coming out with comments like those? Or perhaps she did know but she didn't think she had to worry about it?
The Chermarn situation reminds me of the infamous "white lie" remark by Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong. I've got to admit that while I have tried to look at the issue from all possible angles, I can't yet find a plausible reason for why Mr Kittiratt made such a politically suicidal comment when he could have said just about anything else.
Did he not realise this? Considering his lengthy experience both in business and politics, I tend to believe that he did. But probably like Chermarn, he didn't believe he had to worry.
In the case of Chermarn, it's highly possible that the construction of her showbiz persona as a feisty, I-am-not-a-nun character had something to do with her making such aggressive comments. Superstar-dom could also have elevated to such a state of mind that she felt the rules no longer applied to her.
Is it the same situation with Mr Kittiratt? While his public persona is almost the opposite to that of Chermarn _ the deputy prime minister and finance minister is generally known as a polite, highly polished and well-spoken man _ Mr Kittiratt may have fallen into the same trap as the embattled actress in forgetting for a while that his special status in society does not mean he can get away with committing such glaring misdeeds. The case of Mr Kittiratt is particularly fascinating because he used the word "allowed," as in he was allowed to tell some lies because he serves as the head of the government's economic team.
The sense of entitlement was obvious in his statement. Righteousness was there too. The problem of course is that members of the public will never sanction people taking advantage of the system (and other people). It's not about their perceived entitlement or the righteousness of their cause.
The actress has realised the truth and apologised for her behaviour. That leaves the deputy prime minister, who said he will only defend himself in parliament.
Atiya Achakulwisut is Deputy Editor, Bangkok Post.