After the country had held its collective breath for several weeks the
exhalation of air on Friday was felt palpably by all people both in
the country and around the world who follow the affairs of Thailand.

Former PM Yingluck’s apparent flight from what passes for justice in
the kingdom completely dominated the news this week. One felt that
road ragers, ladyboy necklace snatchers, abusive teachers, potential
murderers and biting soi-dogs – you name it – all stayed home glued to
TV and the internet.

Yingluck had become – in one comedic or tragic Shakespearean fell
swoop depending on your point of view – the biggest soap story of the
year giving those who revel in political drama Thai style enough to
speculate on for many a moon.

Some people asked, clearly in the naivety of the newb, how the most
watched woman in Thailand could slip away. There are two simple but
varying answers to this.

Connivance or cunning. Though Rooster is perfectly prepared to believe
it is a combination of both.

Connivance in the sense that His Generalness may, just may, have been
delighted to see the back of her despite his amateur dramatic
rhetoric.

However, it would be idiotic to say that not too much was done to stop
her or the relevant immigration officers were told to go to Don Meuang
because of staff shortages.

Yingluck does not need to pass through immigration and have her
picture snapped at the booth.

The news that she may have been aided and abetted in flying out via
helicopter in Trat seems plausible and adds weight to the connivance
and cunning theory.

Cunning in the sense that the Shinawatr family have a network of
security personnel to rival, or even surpass that of the government.
And it would surprise no one that those employed by the family are
highly likely to be smarter and even better connected.

To wit, I would like to mention a rather telling little anecdote.

Years ago in a previous life Rooster was in charge of a school trip to
Kanchanaburi attended by Yingluck’s son. As the teacher in charge of a
residential visit for around 100 children I had asked the family
through a mediator to be informed of security arrangements for the son
that might impact on the other children.

This was promised then, surpris surpris, as the French say, nothing
whatsoever was forthcoming from the Shins.

During the school trip we became aware of a very shady and filthy
tramp like figure crouching beggar-like on a station platform
uncomfortably close to our Year 5 children who were about to board a
train at Nam Tok to the River Kwae bridge. Concerned, one of the
teachers approached the tramp but before he got very close he noticed
something interesting.

The tramp had a wire leading from his ear and was undoubtedly fitted
with a throat mike. This grubby specimen was clearly one of several
people monitoring our every move in case of a kidnap attempt.

Yingluck’s son, a charming and well-mannered young man was as
oblivious as we teachers were to what was going on around us. Sounds a
bit like me and Thailand, at times.

Yes, you would hardly expect anything else from one of the richest,
and for some, most hated families in Asia. I personally know Yingluck
only as a good mother having taught that son so I am not here to
comment on her character, guilt or otherwise.

Just to say that her family are masterful manipulators and decamping
abroad, and biding their time until, shall we say, more favorable
judges are in place, must be their best strategy.

For as Her Yingluckiness was enjoying freedom of sorts her former
commerce minister Boonsong and a veritable host of others were
beginning what at this stage looks like many decades in jail. And with
every mouth of “joke” they may contemplate the innocent white
substance that has helped to put them there.

It is vaguely Shadenfreudian to muse that in years gone by that white
substance that has led to so much trouble may well have been heroin –
now it is just plain old rice.

The whole affair had us shaking our heads in wonder as I don’t
subscribe to the view that it was obvious she would flee. At least not
so soon.

But I did enjoy the almost tongue in cheek excuse given by the lawyers
that Ms Y was suffering from vertigo.

Surely they really knew that she had far to go.

Meanwhile in more court news things at BBC Thailand came to a head –
to be precise Jonathan Head. The journalist was facing a defamation
charge brought by a Phuket lawyer who seems to be the kind of person
that would give the standard disreputable brief a good name.

Mr Head went back to Bangkok a free man after the charges over a
property purchase story were dropped. But I must commend him for one
of my favorite quips of the week after our man at the Beeb said he
“Always had faith in the Thai justice system”.

As another Bangkok journo legend Bernard Trink used to say, any
comment would be superfluous.

Rooster is vaguely fortunate to have only been in Thai court once
though I have lived in Thailand since the early 80s. I was giving
evidence on behalf of an American tour operator who had been gazumped
by an unscrupulous hotel in Ao Nang causing the loss of a considerable
amount of money.

My friend had booked dozens of rooms for a party of 100 plus school
children only to be told on the day of arrival that the teenagers were
to be moved to what I deemed as unacceptable and unsafe accommodation
nearby.

Once it was ascertained that my Thai was up to the job, the presiding
judge in the Krabi court asked my religion. Worrying that saying
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club might constitute contempt and, being a
devout atheist, I plumped for “none”.

This was a mistake as I should have said Buddhist and could have then
have read the oath on the card without more ado. As it was they never
seemed to have had an atheist in court before so it was decided to
come up with a new oath just for me which I repeated word for word in
Thai after the clerk of the court.

Should I lie, I vowed, may my wife and two children be forever boiled
in a vat of bubbling oil in the depths of hell.

Gulp!

Wisely I kept a straight face though I was glad I was telling the
absolute truth, just in case.

My friend the tour operator eventually won the case though, as if to
prove Jonathan Head may have had sarcasm aforethought in his comments
about the Thai justice system, he still lost all the money anyway in
unrecoverable legal costs.

Frankly, those who complain that the police in Thailand act as judge
and jury should try the courts!

All manner of legal reform needs to be one of the top priorities if
and when Thailand gets an elected government that is actually able to
function. If my grandchildren live to see it I shall go to my grave a
happier man.

Happy, at least at the start of the week was the jovial jefe Prayuth
who was pictured in Yingluck country with a bewildered Isaan grannie
telling a fairy tale dream to a frog, as you do.

Big Too is a dear chap though at times it stretches even my own
personal knowledge of Thai culture to take him as seriously as he
would like. After a wisecrack about “side-chicks” he complained to the
press that when he is ‘avin’ a laff they take him seriously and when
he is serious they think he is being funny.

A pertinent reminder that tricky concepts like ‘democracy’ and
‘accountability’ are not in vocabulary enrichment classes at the
country’s prestigious military academies.

And so to this week’s Rooster awards. My “Pub(l)ic Service Award” goes
to the barber in Betong featured in the news for offering free condoms
with his shaves. Having grown up tittering to the classic Blighty
euphemism of “Anything for the weekend, sir?” my fellow Brits will
know where I am coming from.

While my “Word of the Week” award goes to a charming young man called
Abdullah Abbasi who was one of my notable opponents at this week’s
World Scrabble Championships that were conducted in Nottingham,
England.

Abdullah, from Pakistan, managed to steal some of my promised thunder
and play the word ‘JUNTA’ for 28 points.

A reminder that it is not just Thailand that has enjoyed military rule…..

Rooster