The Thai armed forces’ plans to purchase 222 more GT200 remote sensing units for national security purposes are raising concerns. At a price of 900,000 baht per unit, there are the usual unsubstantiated rumours of kick-backs and corruption, but such stories swirl round every military purchase of any size.
What is unusual in this case is that junior officers and non-coms are also expressing negative opinions. These are the people who have been using these devices on the front line and they are not impressed with what they have seen.
‘It’s alright wandering round ASEAN Heads of State meeting sites with these gizmos,’ said one officer who refused to reveal his identity since he is not cleared to speak to the press. ‘Nobody seriously expects to find anything at these events. But in the streets and villages of the south, it’s a life and death issue.’
Despite repeated assurances by high-ranking officers that the devices are effective in locating explosives, there is a growing list of cases where ‘false positives’ have led to innocent citizens becoming suspects and then, under the provisions of the Emergency Decree, detainees.
This hasn’t upset the military as much as the ‘false negatives’, where the GT200s have indicated no danger and then something has blown up.
The GT200 is not used by any First World army. The lab that tests equipment for the US military says devices like this operate at no better than chance. The US Department of Justice has warned police departments off buying them.
So who, apart from the Thai top brass, thinks these things work? Well the Iraqi security forces do and we all know what a sterling job they have done in preventing explosions in Baghdad.
Still, the Q&A session at the last meeting between the Thai military and the local GT200 distributor was rather more tense than such meetings normally are. Prachatai has again obtained a totally unauthenticated transcript of part of the meeting.
‘… so if I rub the balloon against my hair like this, you see it sticks to the wall. [Sound of gasps of amazement] That’s how the GT200 works, by Electro Magnetic Attraction. Any questions?’
‘So you use this thing for finding balloons?’
‘[sigh] No, you see, everything has a magnetic charge and the static, like in the balloon, makes the GT200 attracted to it. It’s science.’
‘But there was this internet page that said it failed in double-blind tests. What does that mean?’
‘Well, that’s just bad science by people who don’t want you to buy our instrument, who want you to get blown up, who want the terrorists to win. Just think about it, what could ‘double-blind’ mean?’
‘Er, blind in both eyes?’
‘Correct. But if you are blind in only one eye, are you really blind?’
‘No.’
‘Exactly. So if being blind in one eye means you are not blind then to be double-blind means you’d need 4 eyes …’
‘… and be blind in all of them …’
‘…and how many people do you know with 4 blind eyes?’
‘You mean, apart from football referees?’ [General laughter]
‘But what about that thing in the paper about it only being as good as chance?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, I think it said it was right only 50% of the time.’
‘OK, so just think about that. Would you rather have no GT200, and be right zero percent of the time, or would you like to be right 50%? If you take an exam and get 50% correct, you pass, right?’ [Murmurs of approval]
‘Now you are interested in finding explosives and bombs and weapons and such and the GT200 offers excellent results, but it is in fact far more flexible than that. It all depends on which bar-code card we put into the device. You can make it detect all sorts of things – people who are hiding, golf balls, drugs, smuggled ivory tusks. Just about anything.’
‘Now that could be useful. Can it find rumours?’
‘Pardon?’
‘You know, rumours. That make the stock exchange collapse. See, the government want us in the police to find out where these rumours came from and we keep arresting people for sticking things on the internet but it turns out the rumours were there first.’
‘Well, rumours aren’t really a thing like a gun or a bomb, are they?’
‘But you said it can find people. Could it find people who start rumours?’
‘Well, er, I’ll have to check with the technical boys, but I’m sure we can tweak something for you.’
‘If you can make this thing find certain people, I guarantee the government will buy every set you can produce.’
‘Really? That’s very interesting. What kind of people would you want the GT200 to look for?’
‘Not people. Just one person, in fact. He used to be Prime Minister and …’
About author: Bangkokians with long memories may remember his irreverent column in The Nation in the 1980's. During his period of enforced silence since then, he was variously reported as participating in a 999-day meditation retreat in a hill-top monastery in Mae Hong Son (he gave up after 998 days), as the Special Rapporteur for Satire of the UN High Commission for Human Rights, and as understudy for the male lead in the long-running ‘Pussies -not the Musical' at the Neasden International Palladium (formerly Park Lane Empire).
