By now it must be obvious: "The Land of Smiles" is a myth. The biggest myth, wrapped in a legend hidden in hogwash. In Thailand, a smile won't get us anywhere, only an axe wielded in rage does. I bet in a few days a new bumper sticker will appear: "Watch Out, Axe Lady In Car".
I have gone past that house before, the one near Rama IX Park whose owner, Boonsri Sangyoktrakarn, became a national sensation and a symbol of pent-up anger. In the weekly spectacle that has flooded your newsfeed and that made you question the famed Thai hospitality, Ms Boonsri was captured in a video as she tore into a pickup truck that had blocked the entrance to her house with an axe.
Blow by blow, she smashed the vehicle with a vengeance, like a 1970s rock musician thrashing his guitar on stage in an orgasmic frenzy. Only Ms Boonsri's rage was fuelled by bottled-up frustration since the markets that had popped up around her house in the past 10 years -- without permission, it turns out -- had brought crowds of people and cars and even trucks that kept blocking her driveway, often making her unable to enter or exit her own property.
For years her complaints made through official channels yielded nothing. Eight years ago the house owner sued the Prawet district chief as well as the Bangkok governor for negligence as they continued to let these fresh markets operate without permits, and the Administrative Court actually ruled in her favour -- yet in practice nothing changed. The markets continued to thrive, people kept coming to shop and cars were still parked right in front of her gate, often with the handbrake on, as one did on that fateful Sunday.
Hence the axe. Hence the national attention. Hence the immediate inspection of the site by the Bangkok governor -- we have one, if you still remember, his name is Aswin Kwanmuang, if I remember correctly. Hence the instant order to shut down three illegal markets in the area. Hence the presence of traffic cops in the area. Hence the moves by the authorities that will, for a while or maybe forever, ensure that no car would dare go in front of that house again.
And hence a reflection on Bangkok's town planning, and on Bangkok's laws regarding residential and commercial zones. And maybe, also, a reflection of our smiles and our history of violence.
At first, Ms Boonsri's action was so brazen, so anarchic, so cinematic that she looked set to become the villain of the week (surpassing the Black Panther hunter, for instance). But no: It turns out that the people love her. She's the new idol, a heroine, a woman in a lawless land who decides to take justice in her own hands. To many, it turns out that she's kinda cool. Now it's the vehicle owner, the market operators, and principally City Hall and district officials, who ignored her complaints, who have become the bad guys.
Did Ms Boonsri overreact? By law, of course. But in a place where law sometimes means little, it's no wonder people rallied to support the "Axe Woman". Every Thai person knows that frustration (every Southeast Asian person, except Singaporeans maybe) and some may have also learned the advantage of acting up. When you have to deal with the bureaucracy -- not always, but you know it happens -- politeness can mean weakness. You speak softly and things won't get done, since the pencil pusher won't push the pencil. But if you raise your voice, things move faster. If you bark, you press fast-forward.
Ms Boonsri went even further: She resorted to violence. And look how fast things have moved at the City Hall. A decade of fighting through legal channels couldn't remotely match a few minutes of physical battering of a car. In that video, she declared the painful message that Thai people know in their hearts and would not say out loud: Sometimes to deal with lawbreakers, you have to break the law yourself. You have to become the law.
Like in a Western movie, where people fend for themselves in a lawless frontier land since the sheriff is busy drinking in the tavern. What happened between Ms Boonsri, the market operators and the district office has much to do with poor law enforcement, pathetic town planning and probably corruption. It's also about violence, physically, verbally, structurally. And as we're saluting the Axe Lady for her courage to take things in her own hands, we also accept the fact that from now on, we should all carry some kind of weapon in our car, or in our house, because that's the most efficient way to get the attention of the law. Sad, crazy and inevitable, that's our Thailand, smiling our crooked smile.
Kong Rithdee is Life Editor, Bangkok Post.