Thailand's CSI -- The Tsunami Super-Doc

Woman Doctor Dazzles Thailand:
After the Tsunami, a Superhero is Born
By Frida Ghitis

(Takua Pa, Thailand) When the tragedy that befell Thailand moves into the history books and is absorbed by the country’s legends, one Buddhist temple will serve as the stage for much of the drama played out in the weeks following the Tsunami, and one woman will remain a central character in a story of heartbreak, science and politics.

The place is Wat Yanyao. The Buddhist Temple that became a morgue for thousands of Tsunamis victims. And the unforgettable -- un-ignorable -- central character will be Pornthip Rojanasunan, the deputy chief of Thailand’s Central Institute of Forensic Science, the country’s legendary forensic chief, who led the victim identification process, took on the establishment, and in the process became a cult hero in Thailand.

For forty days after the December 26 waves smashed ashore, the temple became the hectic epicenter of identification efforts. Some 500 volunteers from dozens of countries worked to identify decomposing bodies, take information from grieving relatives, and handle the complicated logistics of dealing with more than 5000 dead bodies.

Amid the hundreds of scientists, victims’ relatives, and other professionals milling busily on the temple grounds, one tiny figure, with spiky purple-red hair, stood out in the crowd. Pornthip, as everyone knows her, ran the massive and grim operation until February 3, when a turf battle with Thai police ended with the Temple mortuary closing down and Pornthip forced out of the operation. By the time the bodies were wheeled out, the villagers in Takua Pa had become passionate in their support and their gratitude towards Pornthip, and ever more suspicious of the police.

Pornthip no longer plays a central role in this operation, but few doubt that she will be highly visible in the country’s future.

According to Sombat Chnatornvong, a long-time observer of Thai politics, “Dr. Pornthip’s courage has made her a hero in the eyes of most Thais.”

The government has now transferred refrigerated trucks holding the
remains of Western tourists to a new facility set up in cooperation with the Interpol in the resort island of Phuket, about 80 miles away. The overall identification process is now in the hands of the Police Forensic Institute. Pornthip, in a characteristically blunt statement, declared that “the autocrats” had gotten their way.

Before the government officially decided to send the foreigners’ bodies away, a bitter turf war erupted between Pornthip and the Royal Thai Police. With Pornthip’s flamboyant looks splashed over the front pages and her utterly non-traditional image appearing on television every single night, the dispute became high drama on a national scale, and a source of anguish for victims’ families. The Thai police say she is publicity hungry, and accused her of mishandling the identification process. Many bodies had to be exhumed because in the chaos of the first days they were stacked on top of each other and their DNA got mixed together.

Police officials urged the government to assign the victim identification task to the police, which would operate alongside the Interpol at the new state-of-the art forensic identification center. Villagers begged the government to keep their loved ones nearby.

Pornthip, ranked by local polls as the second most popular figure in Thailand, reminded everyone that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- who ranked first in the same poll -- put her in charge of the operation. “My work will go on,” she said, “unless the prime minister says something else.”

Then she warned that villagers would mount protests if efforts to move their relatives’ remains went ahead.

The villagers promptly protested, setting roadblocks just as foreign dignitaries toured the destruction area, and demanding that identification work remain at the temple with Pornthip. The protests persuaded the government to delay the handover, and to move only the foreigners. But in the end, Pornthip lost the battle

Like hundreds of other Thais from nearby fishing villages, Plenphis Lumjamuang spent many days waiting outside the Temple, she said she wants to see her daughter’s body again and doesn’t trust the authorities to interfere with Pornthip’s work.

Verbal clashes between the irreverent, blunt-speaking Pornthip and the police are nothing new. She has long been a thorn in their holstered sides, accusing officials of incompetence and corruption and calling for forensic pathology to be taken out of the hands of police. When a botched government operation in the country’s restive South left scores dead, it was Dr. Pornthip who revealed scores of prisoners had suffocated after being detained. In Thailand she is known as one government official who can be trusted to tell the truth.

Her popular appeal has allowed her to openly criticize the government, because all political parties want her join to their ranks. In opinion surveys Thais say she is the most likely first female Prime Minister. Sombat Chantornvong says she is unlikely to turn to politics but, he adds, “If she wants to, she could have a bright political future.”

For now, she says she is not interested in politics; all she wants to do is help the people. And the people stand firmly on her side. “Pornthip is working hard,” said 53-year-old Suh Wath, who makes a living carrying passengers on his motorcycle taxi. “The police only want to take more money.” Like everyone else, he knows how much weight her diminutive body frame has lost: 5 pounds, from working tirelessly since the Tsunami struck.

In the early days, with her workers buckling under the emotional weight of their wrenching jobs, Pornthip explained, “I have to console them like their mother.” She allowed photographers to catch her, too, breaking down from sorrow. Her image continues to evolve, from chief pathologist to chief mourner, and chief speaker of the truth. On a makeshift memorial wall just inside Yanyao temple’s gates, visitors wrote words with their thoughts on the disaster. Several drew cartoons of the reed-thin, spiky-haired Pornthip. One showed her looking fierce, making a soldier cry. Another showed her wearing a cape and a big S on her chest, saying, “Leave no one behind.”

Much to her critics’ chagrin, Dr. Pornthip has become Thailand’s beloved superhero. And as superhero-watchers know, there is always another battle just over the horizon.