I’m a low-cost airline type of guy. I come from a poor family, have few assets and nothing much to lose.
I ran away from my first job as a foreign affairs coordinator at a factory. Everything was good there, but deep inside I was dying. I was lucky to find a job that developed me into a writer. I can’t think of any other profession that would suit me.
I love stories. I don’t know if my interviewees are always telling the truth, but in the end people love to hear stories. No one cares whether Harry Potter or the rabbit and the tortoise are real, but they care about the stories. They help people learn, get a grasp of reality and reach to the core of life. That’s their power.
Being curious about the truth and trying to tell all sides of a story drives me to the scene where the story began. Going out to the protest sites of both the yellow and red shirts made me realize that they are just the same. Each saw injustice and rose up to fight it. You need to be open-minded to listen to all stories without bias.
The death of my friend Kamol Duangpasuk [aka Mai Nueng Kor Kunthee, the red shirt poet], who was shot dead on May 23, really hit me hard. He was a friend of mine for 25 years. I don’t know how to get over this. All I know is that this is a messy time of conflict.
Thailand is like a derailed train now. It’s gone so far off track, all principles have been destroyed and those in power [before the coup d’etat] used their power excessively.
I don’t care whether people brand me a red or a yellow shirt. I believe in democracy, freedom of speech and that everyone is equal. I support an amendment to Article 112 [the lèse majesté law] and didn’t want a coup d’état. Put me in the basket for those who believe in all these.
Everyone should have a role that matches the era, including the royals. Committing lèse majesté is just like committing other crimes. You can’t stop people committing it, but you must have a law that is fair to transgressors.
I don’t want to commit lèse majesté but I can’t stand that our country has this unfair law. It shows that we’re uncivilized. Just look at the lèse majesté SMS case where an old man, Ampon Tangnoppakul, died in jail before the court ruled whether he was innocent or not. Murderers receive bail whereas he didn’t. It’s barbaric. Do we want to live in a barbaric society?
An unjust court of justice is worse than shooting a person. When people are convicted without justice, that’s real violence. Our justice system steps on the faces of millions of people. Just because there is no blood, doesn’t mean there is no violence.
Argument and conflict are normal, but not violence or killing. We aren’t a strong enough democracy; that’s why our politics are so full of drama.
Thailand doesn’t have a sense of history for the commoner. Strong countries have several narratives. We only have one, the royal history. It’s top-down. It shows that we don’t support equal rights. When it comes to education, juniors simply must obey their seniors without reason.
Political problems must be fixed by politicians, not by the army or by weapons or by blocking our freedom. I’m not superstitious, but I’m praying that this time will pass with no further loss of life. We don’t have much left to lose.
My life goal is to own nothing excessively. I get annoyed by people who love to collect things. The things you should collect in life are friends and experiences.
I don’t really use social media. I already work in front of the computer about six hours a day, so I feel I should save my health to do something else like drinking beer with friends.
I’m not afraid of missing things because I don’t use social media. If the issue is really that big, it will get to me in that end. There is nothing wrong with other people knowing things before you.
The online connections between friends are not deep enough for me. I love the way writers used to hang out at the printing house or in bars in the old days.
I will continue studying people, as I always do. After finishing working in editorial, I’d like to do something more improvisational. I might go back to Pattani as I really fell in love with the town after visiting it to write a book on the violence there eight years ago.
Life is short but full of potential. When Mai Nueng died, I went to sit under a giant tamarind tree at our university and saw a small tamarind tree growing under it. It was only an inch tall, but in the next hundred years it too will grow to be a giant tree. It’s just like a human. You can grow to be anything, from a bandit to Lord Buddha or Jesus Christ.
Life is destructive. It lasts less than 100 years, so celebrate it, exercise it, have arguments to make it valuable. When something goes wrong, learn and fix it. Use it to its full potential.
