I went to the Bangkok Criminal Court today. But don't worry, I went as a specator, not as a plantiff or defendant.
My friend Francois from San Francisco is in town this week, and this time he brought along his two aunts and one of their friends. Francois, one of his aunts, and the friend all work in the legal field in the Bay Area. We all went to dinner at Anna's Cafe on Sala Daeng a few nights ago, and the friend (who is actually a judge) was grilling Piyawat about his new job at the law firm and about the Thai legal system.
Piyawat was nice enough to call one of his law school friends who works at the Criminal Court, and he recommended that we come see a trial that he was working on which involved a farang defendant. So today, the three of us (Piyawat, the judge, and myself) arrived at the court to see how it all works.
Unfortunately, the farang defendant was a no-show, but we watched the trial for a little while anyway. Of course it was all in Thai, and even Piyawat had trouble figuring out what was going on from our seats in the back of the courtroom. But basically the case was brought by a Thai girl who was suing a farang guy because she bailed him out of jail and he never paid her the bond money back. He said that the court hadn't returned the money yet, but she knew that they had.
Anyway, it was an interesting experience, even though we didn't have any idea what was going on. One really strange thing about the Thai courts was that there were two judges, and one of them had a microphone for recording herself. Bascially she recorded a play-by-play of the lawyer's questions and the witnesses' answers. Every now and then, she would play the recording back for herself. We all had no idea why they don't just record everyone's speech, but that's the way they do it here.
And let's just say that hopefully I won't be going back to Court any time soon!
Hey Stuart.
Coincidentally I almost found myself in a Thai court here on Koh Samui yesterday. Again, as a spectator, not as a participant. A guy I met a few days ago was telling me the story of how his house accidentally burned down because of some incense or something (he's not totally sure) and the owner of the land was suing him for endangering the lives of Thais (no one was home though). He spent a couple days in jail (said it was the worst two days of his life) but got out. He wasn't hopeful about his chance in courts either as it's a given that your guilty until proven innnocent.
So I was going to go and check out the legal system in all its glory but the night before (Sunday night?) I talked to a couple friends who, very seriously, forbade me from going to court, no matter what the situation was. They said that as a farang I'd instantly be associated with him and could find myself in jail as a suspect at the whim of the prosecutor just for being there.
Needless to say I didn't go. I found out today that the guy was found innocent. In case of a guilty verdict he already had plans to smuggle himself out of the country however.
Makes me take the Thai police a little more seriously, no matter how easy going they seem sometimes.
Response to Tyland in Koh Samui:
Many Westerners read books written by farang convicts all telling how innocent they are and how absurd and irrational the Thai judicial system is. These ex-prisoners, never admitting they were guilty, successfully convince their readers that Thai courts are kind of kangaroo - a belief that is totally wrong.
Contrary to what you said, in our system you are assumed not guilty until otherwise proven.
The detention of the suspect while the case is in the court can be done only in accordance to the law, not at the whim of the police. Besides, he/she always maintains the rights to seek bail while in detention. I think the practice is universal. Don't American or British keep suspects in jail for a period of time allowed by the law before or during trial unless bailed out?
Believe me, you have all the rights to visit any court in Thailand. All hearings must be and are 110% open to the public. No one can accuse you of being associated with the defendant and put you in jail just because you appear in the courtroom. What you have heard is either a shameless lie or misunderstanding due to total ignorance.
There is no crime like "a farang endangering the lives of Thais" in our criminal code. I presume that your friend who had a house accidentally burnt down was charged of "Pramart tham hai poo eun dai rub kwam sia hai", literally means negligence causing damage to others.
To stuart: You may seek Piyawat's advices on facts about our justice system. The system is not perfect or free from corruption, I confirm. But it is not a really bad one at all.
To Tyland in Koh Samui:
May I add that if your friend was charged of causing harm to others without anyone getting injured, then he should have expected to be found not guilty. To know what has actually happened, one needs to see details of the case as well as the court's verdict.
Good points. These friends of mine who urged me not to go are highly cynical. One of them has been here 8 months, the other 3.5 years. Both of them complain of "never being able to trust a Thai person." They're always talking about the corruption (which everyone talks about really), how you can buy your way out of anything and into anything. Then everyone complains about the Thai pride... sounds contradictory to me but if you look at it from the buddhist perspective I can start to see why.
Anyway, thanks for the insight Krasin! I regret not going now!
It is impossible for those farangs to enjoy living here but cannot trust even a Thai person. They either live in a wrong country or surround themselves with wrong types of people. I find almost all of my security guards, office cleaners, housemaids, factory workers, repairmen - all from the lower echelons of the society - extremely honest. Moving up a few social levels, most of my office staff, managers, suppliers and customers are also highly trustworthy.
Until recently, I was a stockist of some well-known British furniture makers and potteries. My job and hobbies require me to deal with hundreds of people in America, Canada and Britain. Surely most of them are reliable but more than a few are just unbelievable. I have seen all dealing with them; rudeness, lies, wrong descriptions of goods, arbitrary charges for expenses and prices, delayed shipping, delivery of a whole lot of flawed products (they were world-famous and thought poor Thais did not know grade-A porcelain), etc. They are no big difference from us Thais at all.
On government corruption, Thailand certainly is not doing well (ranking 63th cleanest of the 163 countries surveyed by Transparency International). Needless to say, Thai people are frustrated with corruption problem. Anyway, it will be wrong to easily conclude that Thailand is corrupted and the UK or US is not. Countries in the world are just more or less corrupted. UK is doing better than Thailand but worse than Finland. Thailand is doing worse than USA but better than Argentina. Furthermore, even Finland, the cleanest country on the list, is not totally free from corruption.
What I want to say is that people or countries are not either black or white. In fact, they possess different shades of gray. Even among the corrupted Thai police force, I have found honest and kind officers and am yet to see the really bad ones myself.