Verdict in garbage collector's case was way too harsh

If Thailand were as rich as Norway and the government provided its people with adequate goods and services, perhaps sympathy for Surat Maneenopparatsuda wouldn’t have been so high.

But Thailand is not Norway and many of the country’s people are living hand-to-mouth on a day-by-day basis trying to make ends meet. 

And so when a garbage collector was convicted for copyright infringement for selling pirated movies and compact discs from scrap he had collected, it was natural that sympathy would pour in from all sorts of directions. 

On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the guilty verdict and ordered Surat to pay a Bt133,400 fine for the crimes committed. 

Surat didn’t have the money and therefore, was told he had to do time. A day in prison is counted as Bt200 in fines. But a good Samaritan who wishes to remain anonymous has paid the Bt133,400 for Surat, who would otherwise have had to spend 667 days in jail.

No one doubts Surat broke the law. The law he broke was made by legislators with the aim of protecting intellectual property and the entertainment industry, which relies on effective law enforcement all over the world to prevent their businesses being hijacked by pirates. 

Surat committed the crime out of ignorance. He was just trying hard to make ends meet. He was selling the CDs and DVDs for Bt20. Obviously, these CDs and DVDs didn’t mean much to the people who threw them out.

But for a 28-year-old garbage collector, it was an opportunity to earn a little money so he could get through the day. He is looking after his daughter and two parents. His wife is carrying their second child.

“So I scoured the house for something I could sell,” Surat recounted on Friday, pointing to used clothes and bags as other items he was selling at his stall. 

It was reported that at Saphan Sung District Office, Surat is a well-loved and hard-working garbage collector. According to Surat’s lawyer, his daughter has health problems.

Surat thanked the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for not firing him. Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paripatra said the BMA was not permitted to use its financial resources to help with its employee’s legal cases. So a fund is being set up independent of the BMA to do just that. 

People were surprised that Surat was targeted when fake CDs and DVDs, not to mention many other fake brand-name items, are sold at shops and stalls all over the country. 

One has to wonder why our law enforcement decided to pick on this garbage collector. Was it because he didn’t have the money to pay off somebody or was it because our finest were just doing their job? If so, what about other stalls and shops that sell fake and pirated goods?

Our lawmakers are in Parlia-ment to make laws and our law enforcement officers are paid to enforce these laws. The law is supposed to be blind. 

But our legislators and law enforcement officers are made up of men and women with heart and soul. We hope that their heart and soul comes with compassion and sensibility. 

If we put ourselves in Surat’s place, it’s not hard to see that there is a fine line between criminal and victim. The first thing that comes to mind is probably mercy and the realisation that our state and society shouldn’t be just about law and order. Because at the end of the day, it is the quality of that mercy and its sense of fair play that says who we are as a people and as a nation.