Thailand 19: July 18, 2002

I recently accompanied a five-person Congressional staff delegation to southern Thailand. Unlike visits by Members, visits by Staff typically are much easier and less formal. Staff members, usually in their 20s or 30s, are more independent and require less hand-holding. This was an interesting and diverse group, with no special focus, so we had a varied itinerary.

We flew down to Hat Yai, the commercial capital of southern Thailand. Hat Yai is not a beautiful city, but it is a magnet for Malaysians who come up to shop. We didn't spend much time there, and went to our hotel in Songkhla. Songkhla is the provincial capital city, located on the Gulf of Thailand. The U.S. used to have a consulate there, but closed it during the 90s to save money. My understanding is that the PRC promptly purchased the building and set up shop. Our hotel was located on the beach, a long and broad expanse of white sand that runs the length of the city. The rainy season monsoon winds sweep in from the Andaman sea, so while the surf is rough and windy in Phuket, the sea was glassy in Songkhla, on the opposite side of the Isthmus of Kra. It was the offseason, so our room rates were about $20 per night. The hotel did not have CNN, but did have a French Canadian channel. Despite the pretty and well-maintained beach, Songkhla does not get many tourists, probably because urban beaches do not appeal to visitors the way the beaches on the islands of Phuket or Samui do. Songkhla has a lot of rubber, fruit, and is the location of Unocal's southern Thai headquarters. Lake Songkhla, Thailand's largest lake, borders the city and we had an excellent dinner of local fish at a restaurant over the lake (I am happy to report that I have gone nearly 6 months since my last food poisoning incident).

One day, we drove down to Yala the southernmost Thai province, which borders Malaysia. Yala is a majority Muslim province and it differs quite a bit from Songkhla, which also has a substantial Muslim population. 3/4 of local residents are Muslim and most women wear headscarves. We drove by several schools, with girls in long-sleeved gym clothes and scarves playing volleyball and soccer. Many of the men wore skullcaps. The province has no industry to speak of, but locals earn money through trade with Malaysia, farming, and small rubber plantations. The lack of factories makes it clean (Yala city has won the award as the cleanest city in Thailand 3 years running), unpolluted, and slow. There are scores of mosques, along with a few Buddhist and Chinese temples. We visited a Buddhist temple dating back 700 years that featured a 100 foot reclining Buddha located in a cave.

We spent the afternoon of July 4th meeting with local Muslim leaders at the main mosque in Yala. Many of the local Muslims do not speak Thai well, but instead converse in Malayu, the local dialect that is very similar to Malaysian. They greeted us nicely and proceeded to ask many questions about U.S. policy (Why do we treat Palestinians so poorly, why do we oppress Iraqi children, how are Muslims treated in the U.S., why were we visiting Yala -- was it to keep an eye on them?). We did our best to answer their questions, highlighting U.S. peacekeeping efforts in the mideast, stressing Saddam's responsibility for the plight of Iraq, and explaining how Muslims are a vital part of the American community. I noted that we visited Southern Thailand not to keep an eye on local Muslims but to continue a dialogue with them and to detail how the U.S. and the Muslim world had many goals in common. At the end of the meeting, one of the leaders asked why so few American tourists visited Yala. He wanted to build that industry in the area. I said we would try to get the word out, but I'm not sure what conservative, Muslim Yala would make of fat topless Germans and bar-hopping Brits. They look longingly at the tourist dollars that flow into Phuket and Pattaya, but I'm not sure they realize the entire scope of the tourist industry.

We also had the opportunity to visit a local tuna cannery. They put on quite an impressive tour. We visited the cold rooms, with thousands of huge tuna stacked in crates, and the cleaning rooms, where rows of Thai women (they work harder than the men) stood peeling off the skins and boning the fish for about $3 per day (plus bonuses depending on the number of fish cleaned). We also saw packaging areas for canned tuna, pouched tuna, and flavored tuna products. At the end of the tour, the factory (which had a huge sign out front welcoming our delegation) held a small reception, complete with tuna pizza, tuna burgers, tuna puffs, and other tuna products. Thai tuna canners are very concerned about the impact of certain trade legislation currently before Congress and they gave us the hard sell. I'm not sure if it worked, but I think the staff came away quite impressed with the facility's operations.

Our trip made the front pages in several Thai newspapers, though they got a few details wrong. According to the Thai press, Senator McCain met with the Governor of Naritiwat province to discuss security issues. Of course, it was a McCain STAFFER, not the Senator himself, who visited Yala, not Naritiwat, and we did not discuss security issues with any governor, certainly not the Governor of a province that we did not visit. The papers never checked with the Embassy or the Thai Foreign Ministry, but just printed some rumours they had heard about the visit. If they screwed up a simple factual piece this badly, you can imagine their level of accuracy in their editorials, particularly those touching upon U.S. policies.

Additional note: An article in one Thai-language newspaper printed on July 15 described the dis-satisfaction of many of our Thai Muslim interlocutors in our meeting on July 4th. Some were quoted as feeling angry that we insulted Saddam Hussein, while we did not answer why we invade so many countries. Of course, they never asked that question. Another local leader stated that Senator McCain met in secret with a local governor to plot mayhem to disrupt Thai-Burmese relations. Of course, Senator McCain didn't visit and members of the local Muslim communities were present in all our meetings with local authorities. I think some people will believe what they want to believe, no matter what the facts may be.