The True Story of a Welsh Godfather 3
Episode 3. The Godfather didn’t need a coup, but he lobbied ruthlessly to succeed.
Contacts, Money culture, but not Merit.
Thais understand that many of their compatriots get their positions through whom they know and not always through merit. Moving to a fuller meritocracy is slow.
This explains why men of respect and mafias are tolerated. It explains why, because of the strict acceptance of status and hierarchy, mafias will always be with us.
Political instability has been a common feature in Thailand from the early days of this fledgling democracy. I don’t imagine Thais like the concept of coups d’état any more than any other nation, but coups aren’t quite the same here. It’s business as usual and part of the culture. The foreign media do not appreciate that. Democracy in Thailand is about respecting a higher authority, not selecting MPs through elections.
J.O. did not need a coup to get his way in the businesses he ran. He achieved his ambitions and wealth by doing things the “mafia” way. He made his own decisions in a totalitarian way. He had total power over those who worked for him. J.O.’s ruthlessness allowed him, as will see later, to outsmart the UK and Newfoundland governments both of which supported him morally and financially.
Reform and a more open education system is needed for democracy to become effective and to allow ballot boxes to determine governments that act for the benefit of all Thailand’s citizens. Provided, of course, that the electoral candidates have the welfare of the total population in mind. A benevolent elected government or a benevolent totalitarian government (akin to a mafia) may be the best solution for Thailand’s future.
In the West, we do not have military coups but do the big banks, oil companies, and powerful lobbyists influence the running of elected governments? Are they behaving as if they are coup leaders bent on thwarting the views of the majority electorate? Are they mafias in all but name?
Democracy or Totalitarian Rule
Churchill made a number of quotes about Democracy, the most famous being, “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.” (A-Z quotes).
A benevolent but authoritarian dictatorship can often work better as it provides permanence and decisiveness other than short term fixes. Mafias, like dictatorships, don’t rely on elections. Their systems work precisely because the “electorate” has trust that the family will look after their better interests provided that there is mutual respect. The downside of course is that the system discourages thinking about or questioning the mafia’s rulings and actions.
Hierarchy in Thailand
In Thailand it is customary to invite your superior to speak at your son’s wedding, to ask him to be the guest of honour at the opening of a new building, or to sit with the family in the front row at a funeral. A great opportunity to mingle amongst the great and the good, and re-affirm your status in the community.
There is an example in my book, A Thailand Diary. Khun Sompanya, desperate to re-gain some popularity, tried inviting a senior government official to open an extension to the main office building. More specifically, to open the new toilet block. He politely declined. It reminded me of the story of the French mayor in Gabriel Chevalier’s Clochemerle when he planned to construct a urinal in the town square of his village in Beaujolais.
The ceremony of the loo would have attracted a lot of formal white uniforms being worn and the taking of many photographs. The younger generation, and indeed even middle-aged Thais, are beginning to shy away from such functions requiring this show of uniforms. At a recent event, it was noticeable that some key people were absent. Many people were not wearing their full insignia. This tradition of showing your position in public is not now always observed.
But national events, especially those associated with royalty and Buddhism, continue to attract high numbers of participants.
Sometimes your judgment can become suspect if you try too hard to impress or show off. The Thai love of ceremonial and dressing up can, if repeated too often, become a little overbearing and boring. Showing one’s rank and status in society is a Thai characteristic that the élite particularly do not always get right. It can backfire on them. Khun Sompanya is going to have to think of another way to be noticed in the district.
The toilet is in use but nobody was privy (sic) to any opening ceremony.
Let’s look at some world mafias.
Italy.
The most powerful Mafia syndicate in the 21st century Italy is not the Sicilian “Cosa Nostra” of TV and movie fame, but the Calabrian Ndrangheta - whose rise inadvertently effected the state’s war on the Sicilian mafia. In the 1990s, a spate of assassinations across Sicily targeting anti-Mafia judges, police chiefs and politicians prompted a public backlash against the Mafia. The huge government crackdown did indeed curb the power of the Sicilian syndicate.
While the Italian authorities and media attention were focused on the Sicilians, the Calabrians were able to slowly but steadily expand into Italy’s wealthy north. Al Jazeera reports that the crackdown, which was accompanied by a flood of grass-roots anti-Mafia campaigns, led to major changes in the crime syndicate’s culture.
The prosecutor Piero Grasso argued in his 2001 book The Invisible Mafia that the days of the celebrity mob boss flaunting flashy cars and expensive cigars have long gone. Today’s Mafiosi keep a low profile. By disappearing from public view - no more dead policemen or kidnapped journalists.
The Mafia has lulled opponents into complacency. Grasso wrote that “the myth of the Mafia as a defanged beast could not be further from the truth, especially in the south of Italy, where organised crime “occupies the entire territory”. According to anti-Mafia prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho, legitimate businesses across Calabria, particularly those involved in construction and public works, are frequently controlled by gangs.
Italy’s Rai News reported that in some hotbeds of Mafia activity, the line between organised crime and the state is far from clear-cut. A few years ago, police arrested 169 people in Germany and Italy over suspected connections to Mafia organisations, more than a dozen of whom were local Calabrian government officials, including three mayors and a deputy mayor.
The Daily Telegraph wrote that, despite a stream of arrests and prosecutions, the mafia has proven very adaptable to new scenarios, preying on weakness and looking for economic crises as sources of opportunities.
The EU and beyond.
During the twenty-first century, the Mafia has extended its operations across Europe and beyond. Thanks mostly to the global drugs trade, Italian crime families now operate “from Armenia to Australia”, as The Sydney Morning Herald puts it. Common rackets include extortion, prostitution, counterfeiting and arms sales But drug trafficking is by far the most lucrative.
A 2014 profile of the Ndrangheta by the Demoskopika research institute found that the organisation had raked in a total of €53bn (£47bn) over the previous year - “more than Deutsche Bank and McDonald’s put together”, says The Guardian, and equivalent to 3.5% of Italy’s GDP.
Even in the heavily regulated EU, mafias are able to infiltrate legitimate businesses. A 2015 report funded by the European Commission found evidence of Mafia investment in “a large number of European countries... in particular, in real estate, construction companies, bars, restaurants and the wholesale and retail of food products”. The Ndrangheta can now call upon up to 60,000 foot soldiers scattered across 30 countries, says Quartz.
The U.S.
In 2011 a raid dubbed the “largest Mob round-up in FBI history” brought in 127 suspected Mafiosi on charges of racketeering, extortion, drug trafficking and murder. Despite this, the head of New York’s FBI office acknowledged that the best efforts of the justice system had not “eradicated the problem”, telling The New York Times that the idea of the mob as a thing of the past was “a myth”.
In 2016, Selwyn Raab, an authority on the US Mafia, wrote that the 9/11 attacks had proved an unexpected gift to the syndicate, as the majority of the FBI’s organised crime agents were reassigned to the war on terror. This reduced scrutiny has allowed US crime families to regroup and revive in recent years. “They are shipping more blood over from Sicily and Southern Italy,” Raab told Rolling Stone magazine.
However, one sign that the US Mafia remains far from regaining its heyday is the group’s current lack of political clout, says Raab. Until well into the 20th century, “they were so influential in politics and the court system, and with that influence they could fix elections”, he says. “That was the scariest aspect.”
