海角大神

Kasem Pooksuwan heard a loud noise and looked up to see a plume of smoke. It must be an electrical fire, he thought. But he had little time to think, because a customer wearing a bright yellow shirt had arrived at his motorcycle taxi stand and needed a ride.聽

When Mr. Kasem returned he was told a bomb had detonated just down the road in Bangkok鈥檚 central shopping district, killing 20 people, many of them tourists, and injuring more than 100. But it wasn't until the next day that Kasem realized the passenger in the yellow shirt was a wanted man. Police suspected he had left聽explosives in a backpack at a popular Hindu site known as the Erawan shrine.

Thai police are still hunting the man in the yellow shirt, whose fuzzy visage on camera has been seen around the world. On Saturday, police聽detained a 28-year-old foreign man allegedly found with a trove of bomb-making materials in an apartment in the northern outskirts of Bangkok. He is one of five suspects subject to arrest warrants for the deadly blast, whose ultimate motive or purpose remains unclear.

As authorities seek out these suspects, they rely on people like Kasem. He is one of more than 100,000 motorcycle taxi drivers who cluster on Bangkok鈥檚 street corners, ready to provide swift rides through choked traffic or down narrow back-alleys, and who represent a network of eyes and ears.

These orange-vested speed demons are the city鈥檚 ultimate transportation equalizers, ferrying Thais of every type for the equivalent of little more than $10 a day. They are also inadvertent neighborhood lookouts, monitoring the city鈥檚 daily rhythms from their modest stands, which are often only a bench and a beach umbrella that provides refuge from the tropical sun.

I gave him a ride

In the Erawan bombing, the motorcycle taxi stands were the first stop for many police.聽That鈥檚 how Kasem, a middle-aged transplant from rural northeastern Thailand, realized he聽may have聽unwittingly served as the bomber鈥檚 getaway ride.

鈥淚 am still in shock and feel guilty about this event because I gave him a ride,鈥� says Kasem, who recognized the suspect from a photo showed to him by officers the following morning. 鈥淚 am having trouble sleeping, but I鈥檓 still continuing my job because I have to.鈥�

Kasem and聽other drivers who may have transported the suspect this year all describe him as a tall, light-skinned foreigner who did not speak fluent Thai. One Thai investigator says the information collected from motorcycle drivers 鈥� along with ordinary taxi drivers and those piloting three-wheeled tuk-tuks 鈥� has been 鈥渧ery helpful鈥� and 鈥渧ery consistent.鈥� Motorbike taxi drivers聽are a unique resource for police, he adds, though he was not authorized to talk about the Erawan case.

鈥淏angkok is very special because we have motorcycle taxi drivers and tuk-tuks, and other cities don鈥檛 have these,鈥� he said.聽鈥淲e have to talk to these people because they are in locations close to the crime scene. This is the first thing we have to do.鈥�

Bangkok police and drivers have a long history of cooperation, though relations are not always friendly. Soon after motorcycle taxis started sprouting up in Bangkok in the early 1980s, the drivers were forced to pay police to overlook various illegal practices, such as their unauthorized use of public land. This dependence led to a mafia-style system of control, with police and other local officials 鈥渙wning鈥� the taxi stands and renting out the limited number of orange driving vests 鈥� akin to New York City鈥檚 taxi medallions 鈥� to turn a profit.

Grassroots organizing among the drivers, combined with legal reforms in recent years, has helped motorcyclists gain autonomy from the state, and recognition for their unique role. Yet despite some efforts to recruit and train drivers as volunteer informants, most of the motorcyclists鈥櫬燾ooperation with police remains informal.

Chalerm聽Changthongmadan, the chairman of a聽motorcycle taxi drivers association, wants more collaboration between officials and drivers, whose familiarity with the city's neighborhoods is unmatched. But significant obstacles still block a genuine partnership.

鈥淥ur relationship with police is still troubled by issues of trust,鈥� he says. 鈥淒uring my 30 years of experience, I have seen that police and the military always work in league with drug businesses. And sometimes when we catch a criminal and call the police to come in, they will refuse to accept the case and admonish us for interrupting their work.鈥�

Thai police award themselves $84,000

The precise extent that police used information gleaned from motorcyclists in their latest arrest is unknown. But police have made clear who they think most deserves the credit:聽themselves.聽On Monday, Thailand's聽police chief announced that his officers would collect the $84,000 award offered to anyone who could provide tip-offs leading to an arrest.

For his part, Mr. Chalerm is set on changing the public image of motorbike drivers, often depicted here as unruly migrants from Thailand鈥檚 rural provinces. Many of the men hail from rice farming villages in the neglected northeast, Thailand鈥檚 poorest region and a world apart from Bangkok鈥檚 skyscrapers and luxury malls. The drivers' image suffered among Bangkokians in 2010 when many lent their support to anti-establishment 鈥渞edshirt鈥� protesters who backed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist leader reviled by the city's conservative elite.

鈥淲e really want to help society,鈥� said Chalerm. 鈥淎nd we really want people to see us as a better part of society.鈥�

Pichit聽Seerueangphan, a motorcycle taxi driver聽from western Thailand questioned by police about the recent bombing,聽said he often helps police solve petty crimes, but has never been part of the hunt for a terrorist. Normally, his collaboration with police is more spontaneous, such as聽last week, when he hopped off his bike at an intersection to help police trap a young bag-snatcher on the run.

But he said he鈥檚 willing to help out in any way he can, and will start paying a little more attention to who鈥檚 getting on the back of his bike.