Thailand’s renaissance man par excellence, Army Commander Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, who has an opinion on everything, whether this is accompanied by actual knowledge or not, has weighed in against the International Criminal Court.

 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is mulling over whether to refer to the ICC the cases of deaths and injuries in the clashes of April-May 2010 between the red shirts and the authorities, primarily the military.  Gen Prayuth, while readily admitted he doesn’t know much about the implications, is reported as saying this would be unwise.

 

‘Don’t seek the intervention of outside powers,’ the press reports him as saying.  ‘What is happening is messy.’

 

‘Messiness’ is of course a well-known legal principle that razor-sharp minds such as the General’s immediately see as relevant, even crucial, in deciding such issues.

 

It is in fact an important feature of Thai life.  Messiness is simply not Thai.  Foreigners who want to cultivate a proper modus vivendi in Thai society are well-advised to investigate closely the concept of ‘riaproi’ and try to integrate it into theirbehaviour.

 

 

It is one of the behavioural pillars around which Thai social relations are constructed.  Others include ‘krengjai’, which is the reason why you can never ask anyone in a superior social position for help and must rely on the inferiors who you can bully about; and ‘khikiat’, which is the reason why your inferiors won’t help you either.  

 

And with all quintessentially Thai concepts, ‘riaproi’ is difficult to translate accurately.  The dictionaries offer ‘well-mannered’, ‘neat’, ‘in good order’, ‘complete’; which are well-aimed shots that do not quite hit the bulls-eye.

 

My own introduction to the concept came when I was obliged to teach in someclassrooms which were air-conditioned to normal Thai specifications (technically known in the trade as ‘Arctic’) and some which were not air-conditioned.  

 

My feeble attempts to adapt to successive sessions of shivering and sweating included the wearing of long sleeve shirts.  I left the sleeves unrolled in the freezers and rolled them up in the saunas.  

 

I was quickly informed that it was definitely not ‘riaproi’ to wear long sleeves rolled up. (And since short sleeves were‘riaproi’, it clearly had nothing to do with the extent, or hairiness, of the bared flesh).

 

 

In fact you don’t even have to be a long-term resident to run foul of this concept.  The tourists to Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace and other tourist sites with a royal connection must conform to a dress code based on the idea of ‘riaproi’.

 

So miniskirts of dimensions a few centimetres below see-level are allowed, since only the wearing of skirts is deemed ‘riaproi’ for women.  And only for women.  Trousersare ‘riaproi’ on either women or men, but not shorts.  And the definition of shortsseems to be anything that has divided legs and exposes more than the ankles.  

 

So a visiting relative wearing what I had thought to be a pleated and voluminous knee-length skirt was barred from entry when an official established that she was in fact wearing culottes, i.e. shorts, i.e. not ‘riaproi’ clothing.  This was established by an official groping between my relative’s legs.  

 

Groping by officials is therefore also ‘riaproi’.  My relative was forced to cover her offensive garments by hiring a slightly smelly pre-used sarong, which is also ‘riaproi’.  And pay for the privilege, which is definitely ‘riaproi’.

 

Clearly the dictionary definitions of ‘riaproi’ seem to be lacking significant elementsof the meaning.  There is no hint in them of obscurantism, for example, or evenhypocrisy.

 

Perhaps we can arrive at a better understanding by looking at what Gen Prayuth did NOT mean when he said that a referral to the ICC would be ‘messy’.

 

First, violent deaths and injuries on the streets of Bangkok at the hands of the militaryare not messy.  

 

Clearing away protestors by sending in troops armed with nothing less lethal then live ammunition is not messy.  

 

 

Claiming through the spokesperson of the CRES that the military, despite using thousands of rounds of ammunition, did not in fact kill or injure anyone is not messy.  

 

Refusing to provide witnesses or evidence to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is not messy.  

 

A series of inquest verdicts that repeatedly find that civilians were in fact killed by the military is not messy.  

 

The lack of any prosecutions for the army’s assault on Krue Se mosque in 2004 and the killing of all inside is not messy.

 

The lack of any prosecutions for the deaths of 78 men in military custody after the Tak Bai incident in 2004 is not messy.

 

The torture and killing of Imam Yapa Kaseng in 2008, which an inquest found was carried out by the military, but which could not lead to any prosecutions because the military record-keeping of who was in charge that night was just too messy is, er, not messy.  

 

What?