Thais are notoriously hopeless when it comes to the songsarn factor. Translated to English, the word means to pity or feel sorry for -- a trait ingrained in Thais as much as to be sabai sabai and never on time.
In this country, I come across countless people using the songsarn factor in ways that exploit the goodwill and logic behind the word -- so much that it's become something like the water fish swim in.
The inescapable one that I have to sit through every day and would love to be rescued from, particularly, is Mike Mod Nee (Debt-Releasing Microphone) aired on Workpoint Channel. The basis of the show is quite simple: two contestants who are struggling to pay off their debts share their unfortunate stories and must sing in front of the three judges. The better singer gets to go to the next round in order to win prize money that will help them settle their debts, while the other simply has to go home.
A large population of the contestants have been poor farmers, but there are also lots of other people who have been embezzled, deserted, got sick and numerous other situations that deserve a helping hand. Still, the whole point of the show is one gets a shot at clearing their debt on the merit of how well they can sing, not how much more sadder or desperate their story is. It's insanely irritating that for a singing competition, the show broadcasts a depressing video of their life, a video of them talking about their life and even more talking on stage at the studio, all of which lasts five times longer than the actual singing bit itself. Even my father, a devout fan, yells at the television for it to get to the singing part already -- but that is precisely what the show banks its hook on: that we feel sorry for the different sob stories but hope the judges are still objective enough to choose the one who can actually carry a tune. Many times, there will be contestants who are much more in need of money, are definitely in more ruined situations, but sing so horribly that the climax of the show is usually to see who the judges will pick, even though the answer is clearly screeching right in front of you.
It didn't end at just that though, as I would bear witness to more incredulous songsarn elements during dinner last Wednesday. We switched to some other evening news programme, which was broadcasting coverage of the dismantling of a market in the Seri Villa Housing Estate. The footage shows that most vendors have moved out and the last few left around the area were gathering the last of their belongings before leaving. The anchor asks for a comment from a female vendor and she says: "Why do we have to move? Where will we go make our living, don't they songsarn us? This is why our children and children's children will have to resort to petty crime and being thieves."
The self-serving reasoning in the last sentence is so ghastly that I don't even know how it connects, but what disturbs me most is the fact that my fellow countrymen do not see what is right or wrong and use feelings to justify everything. It stunned me for a few seconds after she said that because after the market brouhaha that exploded in the last few months, how could she still ask for pity when she is well-aware of standing on illegal ground?
One smashed truck shook the whole nation back in February and blew up one of Bangkok's worst kept secrets -- namely, the one revolving around illegally-run markets around the city. When video clips of Boonsri Saengyoktrakan, better known as the "axe auntie", and her sister using an axe and metal pole to smash a truck parked in front of their front gate leaked, Thai society went ablaze.
Then it surfaces of course, that the car's handbrakes were on because its owner was shopping at the market next door -- a market that wasn't supposed to be there in the first place because the area is supposed to be a residential one. This nuisance of a blocked driveway is one of the many grievances houses in the area must live with, alongside noise, foul odours and pollution. It's a decade-long legal battle Boonsri has endured and if you look at the facts, it sounds like the sort of case that even any well-reared five-year-old would be able to give a fair verdict to.
It's been one of the most sensational and disconcerting sagas in Thai society and last week, the Central Administrative Court finally ruled that all the five markets in the Seri Village Housing Estate be dismantled, with compensation of 368,400 baht (with additional interest) paid to the plaintiffs. It's a rare breath of relief for the whole country that justice is not some unicorn we can only dream about.
Boonsri is grateful for the verdict, but what she said to the television reporters outside of the court is a level-headed reminder for all to see things for what they are, to not get your judgement clouded by feelings, pity or self-satisfaction. "Please don't call it a victory, but simply as justice. If it's about winning, it will never end."
Let's hope her case can be a lesson for officials to see that malfeasance is not something that they'll get away with.
Let it also be a lesson that there's a place and time to songsarn others, but that it is not applicable, as simple as black and white, if it is against the law or abuses other people's rights.
Parisa Pichitmarn is the editor of Muse for the Bangkok Post.