‘R’ IS FOR ‘RACISM’

We rarely acknowledge or speak to any of the prison guards here and when we do it is usually by way of a subtle reminder for them to do their jobs properly. Generally though they really aren’t worth the bother. It is a rare occasion that we get a straight answer to a question out of any of them and rarer still that answer will be given willingly or without some outward display of distaste towards us. We keep away from them and they reciprocate.

There are. However, always exceptions to the rule and in our case there is one particular guard whom foreign inmates respect as a man who will speak openly with them without fear of ‘Losing Face’ lowering himself; or whatever it is the other guards seem to be hung up on. He speaks excellent English and is quite at home discussing any number of topics with a foreign prisoner. He seems to have a lot more understanding about how it is to be a foreigner in a Thai prison; and so he should. Over the months and years just about all of us have talked to him and have likely expressed many of our hopes, fears, doubts and wishes in some form or another. He is a likeable bloke, approachable and friendly and a useful source of information compared to other guards who usually only answer with a cold stare and dismissive wave of the hand.

A few weeks ago this particular guard was doing a spot of overtime and was assigned to our building for a Saturday afternoon shift. I was having a conversation with him, talking about Bangkwang in general when the subject swung around to violence and beatings of prisoners at the hands of the guards. And in particular this prison’s poor track record vis-à-vis this topic. The guard went on the defensive insisting that the department of corrections had implemented measures recently to curb unnecessary violence toward prisoners by prison officers, though we have seen little to convince us that this is indeed the case having witnessed beatings both here and in Bombut remand. The guard went on to say that he himself had only ever witnessed two beatings in all the years he had been here. I found that a bit hard to swallow. I thought to myself ‘either he takes a lot of time off work or has been walking round with his eyes shut!’ But I didn’t want to argue this observation with him just as he was opening up so I asked him what those beatings had been for? “Well the first time” he said, “was a guy who had been stealing food from his fellow inmates”…..”He had been caught many times before and this time the guards beat him to show him his mistake”

Nobody likes a thief but I couldn’t help thinking there must have been a better way to teach him a lesson. Besides it was likely that the thief in question was forced into ‘helping himself’ having been left to survive within the prison environment without any family or source of income to support him. A hungry man can do desperate things. Neither did it escape my sense of irony that this thief had copped a beating at the hands of those who have made it a profession to steal from prisoners, the guards themselves, but once again I bit my lip not wanting to piss the guard off. I wanted to hear what the second beating had been for? “the second guy was different. I mean the circumstances were different and I think they were wrong to beat him”. Now I was all ears. “This guy had been caught teaching prisoners from Thailand’s minority hill tribes how to read and write (Thai). He was Thai himself, not one of them which made matters worse. The guards were absolutely furious”.

He had been trying to give the most basic instructions to people whom the guards considered to be, at best, a nuisance and at worst, a threat to Thai society. To most Thai’s the people of the indigenous hill tribes are considered sub-human and so prisoners of hill tribe extraction are treated with down right hatred and contempt by Thai guards and inmates alike.

Racism is nothing new in Thailand and everyone who has been here has experienced it in some form or another. Being charged extra for something simply because you are a ‘Farrang’ (Foreigner) is a clear example of their ‘US AND THEM’ attitude towards non-Thais. In prison these prejudices are even more pronounced but even so this example of an assault on one of their fellow Thai’s, and in such a brutal manner, exemplifies their depth of feeling albeit negative, toward anyone or anything that is foreign to them. It is this same ‘depth of feeling’ against which we must struggle every day and which represents a facet of the true Thai character that is usually kept hidden behind those famously attractive smiles.