Following protocol

Posted by admin on August 15th, 2007 filed in Bangkok, Culture & customs, Living here, People, Understanding Thais

Thais are sticklers for protocol, particularly regarding the monarchy, and will put up with no end of inconvenience to avoid upsetting the powers that be. Foreigners here are often exasperated by some of the procedures and ‘forbidden’ actions that must be observed in day to day life.

There are whole books on Thai etiquette, and though farangs are generally excused for the occasional faux pax of manners, protocol is often very important here. Mostly it centres around showing respect and discipline with their hierarchal system of status, but more and more these habits are at odds with our modern world and cause great inconveniece and seem to have little meaningful justification to us foreigners. In our societies, some of the more unreasonable protocol would be dispensed of as ‘old fashioned’ and unneccessary, but Thais would never think of such as thing if it is associated with their dearest.

Some of the most strictly observed ‘rules’ are associated with the monarchy. It’s quite obvious here how much respect all people of Thailand give to their Royals, and in this era they are particularly serious about their beloved King who has spent the last 60 years earning an astonishing level of respect. If you take the time to learn about his exploits you’ll soon understand why, he is quite a remarkable achiever who had unceasingly and humbly served his subject, but you can’t help thinking that it becomes a little OTT at times.

Protocol often also involves respect for the Buddha, where similar situations arise. You cannot speakly badly, or misplace Buddhas. The same is said of elders, images of ancestors, high ranking officials and so on. People bow down to them, no matter how dodgy you know them to be. Not showing respect invites doom from colleagues, henchmen, officials, including loss of face and sometimes catastrophic and fatal repercussions.

The truth is, freedom of speech is not a right here. The press has legal freedoms but are bound by protocol. People don’t criticise, they accept. The turn a blind eye to indescetion and few people will actually have the courage to stand up to something which they believe to be BS, and risk breaking with protocol to assert their right to opinion. Their right is not respected here if it means lack of respect to certain individuals or institutions.

Foreigners find this hard to accept. Some of my friends regularly find themselves in arguments with their bewildered wives who can’t understand why they refuse to accept these things and insist on being critical. They fear bullying repercussions and are too afraid to confont them.

The editor of this website was approached by a concerned partner suggesting they remove the critical warnings on the page about the immigration department, suggesting it might jeopardise future visa applications. Perhaps it will, and local protocol dictates you keep quiet about a corrupt and unfair department, but he’s a principled foreign who felt that the readers had a right to know about the difficulties many others have received by this group of people. Protocol wasn’t going to silence him, but it left his Thai partner fraught with worry about loss of face.

To be a good Thai you follow protocol to maintain harmony no matter how unacceptable the situation is. Foreigners follow protocol in different ways, usually for the sake of maintaining efficiency, discipline or good manners. But they are quick to ignore it if they feel it is OTT and perverts transparency.
 
Careful what you say about the King

In this, the 60th anniversary year of the coronotion of King Rama IX, there is particular pride, love, joy and outpouring of respect for the world’s longest reigning monarch and with all the praise he receives for his greatness one can only wonder in puzzlement why he is still largely unknown outside of Thailand. But if you were subjected to Thai media only you would be left believing he is ‘Man of the Century’. Indeed he could well be a candidate, but unfortunately the lack of any truly objective reporting on his life undermines the whole legitimacy of his achievements.

Here in Thailand you are not permitted to utter or even suggest anything remotely associated with negative points about the King. Even in writing this I am choosing my words carefully, for this entire site could quite easily be shut down even on the premise of some over-zealous official’s mis-interpretation of this blog. The law itself isn’t that unreasonable, but the common application of it by most Thais is quite hysterical. For the record I genuinely believe the King to be a remarkable man of altruism and wisdom who has worked hard for the poor of this country and regardless of nationality I would respect any person who has achieved so much to uplift people’s lives.

But I also believe he is a human, who perhaps is humbled by all the praise and would admit himself that hearing feedback, even if it is negative, is a wise thing indeed. But here in Thailand protocol doesn’t permit that. There is a serious charge called Lese Majeste, which can be brought against anyone found to be ‘saying bad’ about the King and most Thais’ quiver at the mere thought of suggesting the King has his faults. We all do and I’m certain he has the least of all of us. There’s no need to discuss this, but it is rather annoying to see how zealously this ruling is applied and followed. Recently there has been a spate of leste majeste charges against people speaking out for and against the current political impasses, both trying to occupy the moral high-ground by quoting the King to back their cause, and it’s backfired because someone has mis-intepreted it and brought a leste majeste charge against them.

So starts a witch hunt where the accused is usually considered guilty before charged. It’s all rather pathetic and the result is, the moment you even begin to discuss the king in anything less than glowing terms your Thai audience cringe in fear that you’re going to say something almost inappropriate and make them guilty by association.

In short, you have to tread carefully to avoid upset. There are loads of ways to get it wrong, for example accidentlly leaving something on top of a book cover bearing his image, or placing some other person’s head higher than his on a magazine page (one company I know had to tear out all such pages before distribution because an ad wishing the King well had appeared with his face, at the bottom of the page where adverts normally go!).

Anyhow, leaving the King alone for now, the issue here is everyone will unceasingly follow protocol (especially at this level) without ever questioning if it’s really practical, necessary or fair. That’s Thailand for you. Everyone is taught to obey and follow your seniors without question. It avoids confrontation and but also results in some ridiculous situations. In the previous century a King’s consort even drowned because everyone was too afraid to rescue her, fearing a breach of protocol in approaching royals.