Alastair
Connon had the idea that he might come to live in Chiang Mai
‘one day’, but accelerated the relocation when he had to
face the fact that he was not immortal. “You could be dead
tomorrow,” said Alastair, after recounting how one of his
sisters had died early from cancer.
He is a man who arrived here with no job, but
did have a rosewood table and chairs waiting for him, and who
wanted to keep a low profile, but has ended up being the Foreign
Advisor to the Federation of Police Monitoring Committee (known
as the KTTR) and can be seen most days assisting at the Chiang
Mai Immigration offices.
Alastair is Scottish, being born in Forres in
the north of Scotland, but while he was still young, the family
(his parents, two sisters and one brother) moved to Corby in
Northamptonshire. However, this region of England was known as
“Little Scotland” where the majority of people worked in the
steel works.
School was not Alastair’s favourite way to
spend his youth, recounting how his report cards were always of
the “Has the ability, but can do better” variety! By the
time he was fifteen he knew that he wanted to be in this new
field called ‘electronics’ and by fifteen and a half had
left to join the Royal Navy as an apprentice Radio-TV engineer,
the closest he could get to his goal.
He was not in the RN long after he graduated,
as he married and the wage was not all that great. The best
money was in the steel works, so he spent the next two years
there.
Getting out of the dirty environment, he
moved into the electronics industry in an electronic controls
group, but he admitted that he very quickly “got bored”.
Looking for some excitement, he joined the entertainment and
gaming industry as a service engineer for the slot machines, a
new business that was starting to take off in the UK.
It did not take Alastair long to see that
this was an industry with a future and he bought into an
amusement centre, and then expanded to get two more. “In the
early days it was a very good business,” said Alastair, “but
the tax went up (over the years) from 100 pounds Sterling to
more than 500 pounds for each machine. That’s a lot of money
for a piece of A4 paper!”
He was to spend 25 years with his amusement
centres, and became very much involved in the community,
assuming positions in local government including being a
councillor, and being part of service organizations over that
time. Another of his public offices was as chairman of Crime
Prevention for the Northamptonshire police. “I always had a
close liaison with the police, but I failed the height test,”
said Alastair jokingly, who is still not the tallest farang in
Chiang Mai. One of the concepts that he instituted as chairman
has been taken up by police forces all over the UK. “I
introduced closed circuit TV as a cost saving measure that could
assist with video evidence.”
Another example of his community involvement
came after the Bosnian conflict in 1996. Alastair heard of the
plight of the war refugees and went over to Europe and brought
300 refugees back to the UK. He organized host families all over
the country and worked with the British Immigration Department
to facilitate their entry into the country.
Alastair comes across as one of the quiet
achievers, with a strong community spirit and a well developed
sense of what is fair and equitable. It was partly this innate
sense of what was fair and equitable that had him looking at
leaving the UK. As the price of his A4 licenses for his machines
went through the roof, the taxation also increased. “It became
ludicrous. I was working for the tax man.”
He had come to SE Asia many times for
holidays and liked Chiang Mai. In fact, he had on the previous
trip ordered a rosewood table and chairs, but while waiting for
them to be shipped, his elder sister died. His own mortality
made him re-evaluate his position. He sold his leisure centres,
and made the decision that was to bring him to Thailand. “I
told them not to ship the furniture, and we came over here to
Chiang Mai instead.”
So he and his wife arrived. They had some
money after selling his company in the UK, but no certain job.
“I was too young to retire, so we set up an export company for
wooden products.” (I did not ask if the first items he sent
overseas were the rosewood table and chairs!)
He had not been here very long when he met
some high ranking movers and shakers in the Thai police and
government. The Thaksin administration had put forward the
concept of the KTTR and knowing of Alastair’s background in
crime prevention asked him to be a foreign advisor to this new
body for the accountability of the police to the public. “The
idea was for me to spend some time with Immigration when I was
needed.” There was certainly a need as Alastair said, “Now
I’m there most days. The problems are generally just
communication between the farangs and the officers.”
His ambit with the KTTR now includes
translating laws, finding answers, education and communication,
but he finds the lack of respect shown by some farangs to the
Immigration officers quite depressing.
The Thais are a very respectful people with
Alastair saying, “I like the respect and the challenges in the
lifestyle here. I used to make a list of eight things to do each
day - it was only later that I realized you can only do one
thing!”
Our man in the KTTR here is content. “I’ll never be rich,
but I’m quite happy.” And that is a wonderful way to be. I
believe Alastair Connon has truly found his niche in life.
