Tap, tap, tapping into history

Sirinya Wattanasukchai

The Nation

I've never looked forward to opening a telegram; they bring the kind of bad news that will cause you to faint," says Udom Sae Mok, between writing a few telegrams for family members and friends at Thailand's General Post Office (GPO). But he wasn't sending news of anything so dramatic through the wires.

Like thousands nationwide, Udom was sending well-wishes to family and friends via the old service, before it ends in Thailand on Wednesday.

A farewell celebration for the telegraph is being held at the GPO in Bang Rak until Wednesday, featuring exhibitions, souvenirs and a last opportunity to use it. But because of the surge of telegram senders, don't expect your telegram to travel at the usual speed - normally, messages take just a few hours to reach a recipient within the same town, and two or three days for remote villages.

In bygone days the costly service delivered mostly bad news or urgent commands. Telegraphs in Thailand aren't all bad news though. The system was also used to bear important good news and greetings to distant loved-ones.

To compete with other communications, Thailand Post brightened the image of the telegram by adding the special "Maitree-jit" envelopes in 1992. The speedy envelope began to change from a bad-news messenger to a bringer of well-wishes for special occasions like New Years, birthdays and anniversaries. Some used telegrams simply to exchange a few words of love.

"This is my last chance to wish my daughter a happy birthday by telegram," says Nalinrat Chaimetheewat, who doesn't remember the last time she used the telegraph service at the post office. She guesses it was about 20 years ago. The 59-year-old plans to revive the long-gone memory by sending a few telegrams for herself and her daughters, which they will keep as mementoes.

Invented by Samuel Morse in 1835, the telegraph came to Siam in 1875 but only became available for public use in 1883.

Udon recalls the days when phones were scarce and the telephone service erratic. The 24/7 telegraph service was the only choice if you had an urgent message to convey. "Getting a telephone was like winning the lottery back then," he adds.

The telegraph reached its peak in 1985, with some 8.32 million telegrams sent that year. And as recently as March 1995, 987,984 telegrams were delivered.

But the number of telegrams has dwindled to little more than 100 telegrams a day now. The average volume of 3,650 telegrams a month this year earns the post office just Bt130,000 - far from covering the annual Bt25 million in expenses.

Though fewer and fewer people are sending messages by this antiquated form of communication, businesses like debt collectors still use it for the official record it provides, which they can use in a court of law if necessary, says a worker at Rong Muang Post Office. There are about 10 telegrams sent out from the office every day to debtors nationwide.

"The telegram is still the only guaranteed way to access every inch of the country, for instance the remote areas that an e-mail won't reach," says Udom.

EMSs have also played a part in the downfall of the telegram.

But Udom says that nothing can replace the feeling a telegram brings when it arrives. "A telegram gives the sense of something really important that can't be missed, unlike other types of envelopes."

But the last chance to give a message this kind of gravitas is being grabbed by the younger generation too. Ake, 19, is sending telegrams for the first time in his life. He's heard and read about telegrams for years but never thought of actually sending one to somebody until he was told the service's days were numbered.

Udom is sad to see it go. Although it is decades since telegrams have played any part in his life, he still reckons the system has its merits. "If there were a war and all mobile-phone connections and land lines were cut off, the telegraph could be very efficient. Who knows?"