Discrimination or democratically selective? Being white English and brought up in a reasonably quiet suburban area, I have not had to endure much if any discrimination in my 30 years on this planet. My parents are both from what used to be referred to as working class families; my mother did however pride herself on teaching her two sons to make proper use of the so called Queen’s English. Ironically, this is probably the only thing for which I was discriminated against at my local state comprehensive school, but after a few ‘silver spoon’ jokes, I soon adopted an alter ego that was more ‘street’ than my two point four children suburban surroundings and avoided further teasing. What I have been witness to is numerous incidents of bullying due to racial heritage or physical appearance, mostly at school, but also in a handful of public places.

As we approach 2009, the Civil Rights and Suffragette movements are the furthest things from our mind.  America is about to inaugurate its first black president and women fight alongside men in our armed forces. However, there are pockets of the world where prejudice still rears its ugly head.  Homosexuals are persecuted in Iran, HIV-positive people are not allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia, women are still oppressed in Afghanistan and voters of the opposition are savagely beaten and starved of privileges in Zimbabwe.

My experience of Thailand is one of a very accepting country. Thailand is a Buddhist country that also incorporates relatively small numbers of Muslim and Christian peoples. Race and gender appear to be accepted without prejudice and Thailand is well known for its trans gender persons and refers to its abundance of ‘Ladyboys’ as ‘the third sex’. There are a number of people working in Thailand from neighboring Asian countries such as Laos, Burma and Malaysia and with the odd exception, foreigners are welcome to live and work alongside Thais in the Kingdom.

Much like Britain, Thailand prides itself on being a democratic country. One can point the finger over recent events that highlighted the rampant corruption among Thai politicians, but it was not so long ago that Britain’s very own democratically elected prime minister lied to and led a whole nation into an illegal war. Every country belonging to the free world at one time or another faces adversity and threats to its democratic values, and as we have seen, the Thai people have certainly stood up and shown the world that they will not tolerate such misgivings in their Kingdom.

With all this in mind, I was recently deeply shocked when I was asked to be the bearer of some discriminatory news. I was busy typing away in my friend’s Internet shop when a honeymooning couple from Israel came in to enquire about hotels in Bangkok. They were on a reasonably tight budget and did not want to spend more than 2,000 Baht per night, but at the same time wanted somewhere that would be fitting for newlyweds.

I happened to know a great hotel in Bangkok and had an agent based there that could get me a good discount. Excited by the pictures on the internet, the couple asked me if I could call the agent and reserve a room for them. I explained that would be no problem and I proceeded to phone through. I put the husband on the phone to the agent to pass on his necessary details, yet after a minute or so I was passed back the phone with an apparent problem.  Jenny, the agent, cautiously asked me what passports the couple were holding. I explained that both were Israeli nationals. Jenny then explained that the hotel did not accept those with Israeli or in fact any Middle Eastern passports and they should seek alternative accommodation. Jenny apologised profusely and asked if I could inform the couple as she was scared that they may be angered by such news.

Well, I could not lie and say the hotel was full because Jenny had already told the husband that rooms were still available, so I was left to explain with no logical basis that the country they came from was the reason they could not book a room. Understandably, they were baffled and upset. I immediately sensed they felt disheartened that the country they had chosen to spend their honeymoon in had now made them feel unwanted. I apologised and explained that I had never come across this in Thailand before.

The couple hurriedly left the shop and I stood open-mouthed and bewildered and decided to call Jenny back for a further explanation.  Jenny explained to me that this was the case in some hotels across Thailand and it was quite simply a hotel’s choice of policy.  She added that the hotel can choose its clients based on the image it wishes to publically project to its target market. I instantly recalled that the last time I enquired into room availability for a hotel in Bangkok I was asked if I minded sharing a hotel with guests of Arabian origin. I had assumed there was perhaps an Arabian wedding party at the hotel. I now know that particular hotel must have been a hotel that did not have any discriminatory guest policy unlike the hotel referred to above. I then spun into a trail of thought, could I ring up a hotel and openly ask whether black people, gay people, Christian people or any other type of person were allowed to in stay in a particular hotel?  Probably not.

When I questioned Jenny about the Government’s position on this, she simply stated that it was nothing to do with the Government and was at the hotel’s discretion. I was left wondering how such policy could be allowed in a democratic society. Perhaps the hotel owner had strong feelings regarding the Israel and Palestine conflict, the war in Iraq, or the hard line Saudi legal system?  Even so, this could not be a justifiable reason to discriminate against all citizens of those countries.

This situation got me thinking seriously about the word ‘democracy’. This was almost democratic prejudice. Perhaps the country thinks it is democratic to allow hotels to choose their choice of guest based on target market or personal opinion of race, gender or religion. After all, democracy is a word that has been used to excuse the most undemocratic of rulings in the most self proclaiming of democratic countries. The word democracy has been abused so much by so many different influential people that perhaps its definition has become so broad it has somewhat lost its meaning. Maybe it is felt undemocratic not to let hotels choose their guests on the basis of their country of origin.

Apparently this practice is not common place in Thailand and is limited to a relatively small number of hotels. One must remember that democracy is still relatively young here; there have been a dozen military coups and numerous times of political unrest since Thailand started down the long road to a completely democratic society. Democracy should be defined by the formal equality of rights and privileges, something to which the hotel’s policy clearly does not adhere. Needless to say, I will be altering my choice of hotel next time I stay in the capital.

Words: Peter Litchfield