Interesting Wasan, and I would say I agree in great part with what you are saying here with the exception of 1. the recommendation of Okey and Baker etal. They are to me the flagship writers of the shallow and ethnocentric political science and economic perspectives on Thailand…
2. The urban rural divide you return to here would seem to be your own bug bear. I don’t think the division is being made out to be determinant on this blog, my own reference to it is simply that a lot of the political wheeling and dealing in Thailand necessarily goes on out side of BKK as the majority of the population is found there. I further insist that any understanding of Thai political culture be as grounded in this geographical area of political “practice” as elsewhere, say BKK etc. The migration patterns throughout Thailand you talk of may be so but must be understood in terms of class trajectories and the social mobility that the physical mobility allows…ie rural origin urban destination with a touch of social mobility is going to see a change in the person so yes the rural may be now a BKK urban middle-class person bu their alliegence is going to be middleclass lifestyle and values not rural farming etc.
My point on vote buying is that it is a normative practice like branch stacking is in Australia and so doesn’t warrant the attention and framing as an abberation that it receives and nor should it be dismissed as redundant, especially in the way it has been by political scientists.
3 The urban middle-class of Thailand and nuvo elite (socially mobile people who have left one class strata/fraction for another through education overseas or the like) are very much out of touch with other areas of Thai society, though they may claim otherwise and this should never be down played.
I am not sure anybody here have come across James Okey’s article in Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol 46, No. 2 August 2005. to me this the only source that is able to explaine what has been on in Thai politics, though retrospectively.
For the poor or populatio in BK there is no precise figure but there is a goof work like Pasuk Ponphichit and Chris Baker on A History of Thailand, or Thailand: Politics and Economy, which can give you a very close figure of the population in BK and the scenes in this metrol. It is rarely found in other scholar works.
Oh if you have not read James Okey’s work you should also have a look on McCargo’s papers puls C.Wright Mills’s Power Elite. To me, again and again, the Coup and current Thai politcs is a story that goes beyond the so-called urban-rural, vote buying, city middle-class and the rural poor, and so and so.
These are the Thai ways of operating democracy of course, and it needs not to be the same as Western, or other Third world counrties like, Americam Africa experiences, as many of you here also agree and talk about.
So if you really wanted to explain and really understand what is on. First you accept the specificit of Thai Democracy, then you may need to think beyond something that invisibly blinds you from its focal point. Conciously or not.
Chris, I certainly think Thai politics and coups are synonymous and will continue to be. Elections are rituals of legitimation of the state and so in a state as militant as Thailand is, a coup constitutes an election (legitimate state). This may shock or even offend the economist and political scientists out there, (but remember t’was they who in the nineties were proponents of “tiger economies Asian values and what conditions lead to a democracy?” type of research…all rubbish if you ask me, and they are now the source of the majority of the structure of the facile debate about the coup. They, like many of our time are swept off their feet by the ideological myth of democracy and completely overlook local political processes as they are, and frame these processes in terms of how they could, should or are supposed to be (which is always understood according to the theoretical model never any emperical reality). It is this kind of intellectual orientation cum cultural myopia that allows for people to say (think) that vote buying isn’t an issue anymore and so Thaksin’s huge popularity is legitimate (according to laws of democracy) and at the same time decry extrajudicial killings but never make the obvious link that extra judical killings were about a restructuring of the political landscape and it wasn’t the populrity of the war on drugs that got Thaksin in again but his very effective elimination of his party’s opponents, economic and political through a combination of elimination and intimidation.
Health care policies, international airports or whatever else is *promised* is public relations along with the 20 and 30 baht hand outs and door knocks in elections, behind all this is where the real politics is happening and always has and always will. Thailand’s political culture is to be found scattered throughout the kingdom not concentrated in the metropolis of BKK alone. Thai politics are mercenary and no amount of post modern lens shifting and gaze tuning is going to change that fact.
Anon is frustrated because he wanted to be a leader of his nation (wherever it is) but can’t seem to be able to become a leader because of his short-sighted vision (that is why he is posting his views here because he finds there are some people who can agree with his negative vision). Now, tell me what is the difference between “self-sufficient economy”, “self-sufficiency economy” and “sufficiency economy”? Don’t say they are the same because they are not. Give the definition correctly and then, Anon, you just might one day become a great intellectual donkey yourself one day (so you won’t have to hide behind that awful mask). I’ll wait for your answer then I will tell you the rest.
I agree with Andrew Walker that the people take money from all parties but vote for the person who they want. Kin, Houa kanan, village head person, Khamnan do not have as much influence as some people think and more often than not members of the same family votes for different persons. Furthermore, one person often votes for different parties for their party list and for their electorate MP.
I would like to draw the attention of this forum to a new kind of soul buying, which is actually not new but is emerging on a much greater scale (vote buying is not appropriate here because we don’t know if we will have an election or not and if we do, what its format will be) which the junta is trying to do at the moment. First, look at the new health care policy, as of today the “30 baht for all illness scheme” of Thai Rak Thai party which were condemned by middle and high class Thai will be replace by “Free health care service for all”. Then please also take a close look at flood solving effort. Finally, the new economic policy “self subsistence or self sufficiency” is, not well accepted, even by some of their own appointed minister. Is there anything different from the so called “populist propaganda” of the previous ELECTED government that they condemned?
Hmmm – I’m not too sure that we can dispense of the so-called problems with the rural masses so easily – particularly because this continues to be used as a prime justification of the coup.
I’m also a little concerned about this idea that coup d’état are normative behaviour in Thailand that should be either accepted uncritically, or worse still, as an integral part of ‘Thai’ democracy.
Also I am in no way dismissing notion of ‘vote buying’ as being ineffective – it is a crucial aspect of democratic practice. Its part of the process where candidates, and their supporters, get out there and gather enough support to get elected. My take on it is that you put forward credible policies and it is considered that you can deliver on your promises you effectively ‘buy’ the vote.
I’m not a ‘Thai’ specialist and the only experiences that I can talk about come from a small group of villages that I am familiar with. In the 2005 election one of candidates, the son of an incredibly well connected and extremely rich local rice miller/money lender, offered everything from doubling the price of rice, an international airport, and making it rain more often. The local folk took his money, drank his beer, enjoyed a huge morlum concert/ election rally and put his posters up absolutely everywhere and on everything. It was such a great party and everyone had such a good time. However, on election Day he received only a very small proportion of the vote (I think 8% from memory). Can you explain that?
Also, Wassan can you please point me your source of information on the demography of Bangkok. They are very interesting figures – I’d like to be able to use them in a project that I’m working on.
Re vote buying
It has been around for a long time and used by all parties.
TRT were just better at it, and understood how to develop networks at the moo bahn level where the ‘vote buying’ happens.
Re The monachy
I wish the academics would be a little more sensitive in this area, and appreciate the ‘Thai way’.
Without the King, Thailand would probably be more like Burma or Cambodia.
Re Sufficiency Economy
It’s principles can be applied to rural, urban, agricultural…all areas and sectors.
‘Enough to live on and enough to live for’
Yes Ant, we accepted and voted to place the king above criticism because to us the king is our father. If you are an Asian you would understand why Asians love, respect and never harm their fathers. All thais (with some exception of people like Thaksin) love the king as if he is our father. We are not happy when foreigners think they can slander our father. Some people may like people to criticise their fathers but we Thais (Asians included) dont like it.
You accepted and voted for the king to be above criticism after the other King (was it number 7?) so wisely decided to give the people democracy, right?
Absolutely! The rural urban divide is a farce, Thailand is divided along clear cut lines of class that happen to find a disproportionate number of elite in the urban centres and the poor classes in the bush.
Good to see some healthy questioning in this regard – I agree that in theory it is possible I didn’t go given that there is no first person used in the piece. However, if you look at the photos, you will see my name. I believe that the photos of the city hall and the brick factories have never been seen before in the media.
Without making it too easy for those people that would prefer I don’t visit Burma again, I can tell you that I arrived there by private vehicle and left by overnight train to Rangoon. I stayed in the capital one night at the Royal Kumudra Hotel, the only accomodation currently available to “tourists.” I visited all of the places described in the piece, the new City Hall, the brick factories, the hotel zone, the ministries area, etc.
Having not expected to be able to get inside the new city before I arrived, I was surprised at how relatively straightforward it actually was.
I wrote and carefully used ‘a white night’ because most Thai, if they had follwoed what had happened before the Coup, would also think that this is not a hero story. But unfortunately many Thai middle class thought that the so called Kor Por Kor, please read it in Thai you will get some kind of sexual sounds here, was it.
Let me think in another way, though it would sound like an absurd fiction, this is perhpas in fact understanable, since many Thai rurals have migrated to BK for a few decades and they are now counted 9 in 10 of the whole population of this metropol. So it is in fact this number that represent so called Thai middle class in BK. And many Bangkokians in fact recently mogved to the north.
Rural-Urban dichotomy may be already useless here!.
You claim to have read the thai constitutions. Well I doubt that you had because if you did you would have realised tha its illegal for anyone to criticse or harm the King. Thais and the international community knows about this clause and we accepted and voted for it to be part of our constitution. What you are saying is legally wrong.
On the other hand, it is perfectly legal to criticise the prime minister. He wanted power thats why he came into politics so we have the right to critcise or condemn him. But the King is different, the institution has always been there, therefore the King reserve the right not to be scrutinized like politicians.
Lastly, if you love your country, wouldn’t critiise your PM if he was corrupt, if he sold security assests like telecommunication away to foreign governments, if he committed extrajudicial killings and other abuse of rights, if he negotiated with foreign country about giving up territorial rights in exchange for non-territorial benefits? Wouldnt you criticise your PM? You may be afraid to do it, but we Thais are not.
Go do your research before you even decide to slander.
Back in the early 1990s their were KNU “pirates” extracting money from the largely Thai fishing boats in the waters the SLORC opened up for fishing concessions. Of course, that won’t be who Rambo is fighting, but hey, I don’t think Stallone is going to let good ethnography stand in the way of a good story, and pirates are always a good story. I just hope Mel Gibson is the co-star!
Wasan, I am sure Andrew has a lot of experience of rural Thai life and would be interested to hear more about it. The “plot” of Thai politics with its predictable scripts that you bemoan here is, I agree, tedious. I don’t think your “middle-class” is limited to Bangkok, however. Chiangmai, Phitsanulok, Khonkaen, Khorat, Songkhla to name a few, have significant mddle-class populations with similar trajectories, aspirations etc as Bangkok. Much of the rural myth that you, like me, find tedious, is perpetuated more by the narrow analyses of economists and political scientists, both local and foreign, and I think that Andrew’s take on vote buying and rural politics resonates closely with these. I certainly don’t see the coup leaders as white knights nor do I subscribe to ideas of vote buying as corrupt. I think both are normative processes in Thai politics and needn’t be valorised as anything more.
If you want to criticize SOAS please do so but don’t bring the royal family into this. Also, although you accuse SOAS of being one sided, your article which you implied as fair is clearly a one-sided attack of good people whom you dont even truly know – why dont you send your letter directly to the people you criticised to give them a chance to defend themselves?
Also you should know that, Thailand currently faces flood problem (because the Thaksin administration was severely behind in flood prevention preparation over the past 5 years). So while people are suffering from Thaksin’s failure not only does the king give advise, provide important information like satellite image, he also asked government’s official to direct the water to flood HIS OWN land so his people will suffer less. This is only one example of the King’s heartfelt concern for the people – perhaps you may now begin to understand why even the United Nations presented the King with the “Life Time Development Award”. To my understanding, Rama 9 is the first and only person to have received this award. A superficial researcher like you will never understand the love we have for our King.
We love the King on our own free will and we also -again from our own free will- hate when people criticize the king, even in the slightest way. Also most people who work closely for the king, like Gen prem, Gen Sonthi and Surayuth share similar personality with him. If you truly understood Thailand, if you had just a fraction of knowledge of Thaksin’s corruption, anti-human rights power consolidating tactics and money politics then you would not have written such a poorly researched narrow perspective letter.
If it wasnt for the coup there would have been bloodshed on the night of 20/9. Again, if you have done your research you would have known why the military had to act. You should also know that Thais support the coup not because we are undemocratic but because democracy was manipulated and undermined by Thaksin to the extent that it cannot be saved via the mechanisms made defunct by Thaksin.
When termites have eaten away virtually all the foundation of the house, some people attached too textbook idealism may think that the house can still be fixed and that the termites will run away by themselves, but people who care about having a strong shelter to live in and pass on to their children will be more pragmatic and realise that as much as we dont want to destroy the house, the house has already been damaged beyond repair – we need to clear away the termite infested house inorder to build a new one. We support the coup because we love democracy.
Dr Patrick, I suspect you are afraid of getting sued by your own government so you can only criticise your own government through articles other people write, but you should know that your country will only get worse unless you rid yourself of your fear and criticise your government. I think as a citizen of your own country, you will understand the situation in your country better and be able to write more valid criticisms- it will bode better for your academic career (unless of cos you are sued or arrested by your own government). In any case, you do know not enough about Thailand to even qualify for an attack on our King. As a Buddhist nation, we forgive your naivity and understand why you are indirectly forced to agree with your government stance and have to write this letter even though it is not even your country or your business. I understand that your government stand to lose alot with the removal of Thaksin. I know why you and your country have to criticise.. I pity you. You have alot to learn from us Thais.
More coverage from the conference from a Singaporean blog… a quote:
“Beside the irony of the military delivering liberals from Thaksin’s new authoritarianism, we seem to have liberals arguing that rewriting constitutions and having elections should not be the focus of building a really-existing democracy.”
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What about some political education for the elite?
Interesting Wasan, and I would say I agree in great part with what you are saying here with the exception of 1. the recommendation of Okey and Baker etal. They are to me the flagship writers of the shallow and ethnocentric political science and economic perspectives on Thailand…
2. The urban rural divide you return to here would seem to be your own bug bear. I don’t think the division is being made out to be determinant on this blog, my own reference to it is simply that a lot of the political wheeling and dealing in Thailand necessarily goes on out side of BKK as the majority of the population is found there. I further insist that any understanding of Thai political culture be as grounded in this geographical area of political “practice” as elsewhere, say BKK etc. The migration patterns throughout Thailand you talk of may be so but must be understood in terms of class trajectories and the social mobility that the physical mobility allows…ie rural origin urban destination with a touch of social mobility is going to see a change in the person so yes the rural may be now a BKK urban middle-class person bu their alliegence is going to be middleclass lifestyle and values not rural farming etc.
My point on vote buying is that it is a normative practice like branch stacking is in Australia and so doesn’t warrant the attention and framing as an abberation that it receives and nor should it be dismissed as redundant, especially in the way it has been by political scientists.
3 The urban middle-class of Thailand and nuvo elite (socially mobile people who have left one class strata/fraction for another through education overseas or the like) are very much out of touch with other areas of Thai society, though they may claim otherwise and this should never be down played.
What about some political education for the elite?
I am not sure anybody here have come across James Okey’s article in Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol 46, No. 2 August 2005. to me this the only source that is able to explaine what has been on in Thai politics, though retrospectively.
For the poor or populatio in BK there is no precise figure but there is a goof work like Pasuk Ponphichit and Chris Baker on A History of Thailand, or Thailand: Politics and Economy, which can give you a very close figure of the population in BK and the scenes in this metrol. It is rarely found in other scholar works.
Oh if you have not read James Okey’s work you should also have a look on McCargo’s papers puls C.Wright Mills’s Power Elite. To me, again and again, the Coup and current Thai politcs is a story that goes beyond the so-called urban-rural, vote buying, city middle-class and the rural poor, and so and so.
These are the Thai ways of operating democracy of course, and it needs not to be the same as Western, or other Third world counrties like, Americam Africa experiences, as many of you here also agree and talk about.
So if you really wanted to explain and really understand what is on. First you accept the specificit of Thai Democracy, then you may need to think beyond something that invisibly blinds you from its focal point. Conciously or not.
What about some political education for the elite?
Chris, I certainly think Thai politics and coups are synonymous and will continue to be. Elections are rituals of legitimation of the state and so in a state as militant as Thailand is, a coup constitutes an election (legitimate state). This may shock or even offend the economist and political scientists out there, (but remember t’was they who in the nineties were proponents of “tiger economies Asian values and what conditions lead to a democracy?” type of research…all rubbish if you ask me, and they are now the source of the majority of the structure of the facile debate about the coup. They, like many of our time are swept off their feet by the ideological myth of democracy and completely overlook local political processes as they are, and frame these processes in terms of how they could, should or are supposed to be (which is always understood according to the theoretical model never any emperical reality). It is this kind of intellectual orientation cum cultural myopia that allows for people to say (think) that vote buying isn’t an issue anymore and so Thaksin’s huge popularity is legitimate (according to laws of democracy) and at the same time decry extrajudicial killings but never make the obvious link that extra judical killings were about a restructuring of the political landscape and it wasn’t the populrity of the war on drugs that got Thaksin in again but his very effective elimination of his party’s opponents, economic and political through a combination of elimination and intimidation.
Health care policies, international airports or whatever else is *promised* is public relations along with the 20 and 30 baht hand outs and door knocks in elections, behind all this is where the real politics is happening and always has and always will. Thailand’s political culture is to be found scattered throughout the kingdom not concentrated in the metropolis of BKK alone. Thai politics are mercenary and no amount of post modern lens shifting and gaze tuning is going to change that fact.
Sufficiency democracy
Anon is frustrated because he wanted to be a leader of his nation (wherever it is) but can’t seem to be able to become a leader because of his short-sighted vision (that is why he is posting his views here because he finds there are some people who can agree with his negative vision). Now, tell me what is the difference between “self-sufficient economy”, “self-sufficiency economy” and “sufficiency economy”? Don’t say they are the same because they are not. Give the definition correctly and then, Anon, you just might one day become a great intellectual donkey yourself one day (so you won’t have to hide behind that awful mask). I’ll wait for your answer then I will tell you the rest.
What about some political education for the elite?
Hopefully one difference will be in the extent to which they line their own pockets…….time will tell.
What about some political education for the elite?
I agree with Andrew Walker that the people take money from all parties but vote for the person who they want. Kin, Houa kanan, village head person, Khamnan do not have as much influence as some people think and more often than not members of the same family votes for different persons. Furthermore, one person often votes for different parties for their party list and for their electorate MP.
I would like to draw the attention of this forum to a new kind of soul buying, which is actually not new but is emerging on a much greater scale (vote buying is not appropriate here because we don’t know if we will have an election or not and if we do, what its format will be) which the junta is trying to do at the moment. First, look at the new health care policy, as of today the “30 baht for all illness scheme” of Thai Rak Thai party which were condemned by middle and high class Thai will be replace by “Free health care service for all”. Then please also take a close look at flood solving effort. Finally, the new economic policy “self subsistence or self sufficiency” is, not well accepted, even by some of their own appointed minister. Is there anything different from the so called “populist propaganda” of the previous ELECTED government that they condemned?
What about some political education for the elite?
Hmmm – I’m not too sure that we can dispense of the so-called problems with the rural masses so easily – particularly because this continues to be used as a prime justification of the coup.
I’m also a little concerned about this idea that coup d’état are normative behaviour in Thailand that should be either accepted uncritically, or worse still, as an integral part of ‘Thai’ democracy.
Also I am in no way dismissing notion of ‘vote buying’ as being ineffective – it is a crucial aspect of democratic practice. Its part of the process where candidates, and their supporters, get out there and gather enough support to get elected. My take on it is that you put forward credible policies and it is considered that you can deliver on your promises you effectively ‘buy’ the vote.
I’m not a ‘Thai’ specialist and the only experiences that I can talk about come from a small group of villages that I am familiar with. In the 2005 election one of candidates, the son of an incredibly well connected and extremely rich local rice miller/money lender, offered everything from doubling the price of rice, an international airport, and making it rain more often. The local folk took his money, drank his beer, enjoyed a huge morlum concert/ election rally and put his posters up absolutely everywhere and on everything. It was such a great party and everyone had such a good time. However, on election Day he received only a very small proportion of the vote (I think 8% from memory). Can you explain that?
Also, Wassan can you please point me your source of information on the demography of Bangkok. They are very interesting figures – I’d like to be able to use them in a project that I’m working on.
Diversity economy
Re vote buying
It has been around for a long time and used by all parties.
TRT were just better at it, and understood how to develop networks at the moo bahn level where the ‘vote buying’ happens.
Re The monachy
I wish the academics would be a little more sensitive in this area, and appreciate the ‘Thai way’.
Without the King, Thailand would probably be more like Burma or Cambodia.
Re Sufficiency Economy
It’s principles can be applied to rural, urban, agricultural…all areas and sectors.
‘Enough to live on and enough to live for’
Naypyidaw reports from The Irrawaddy team
Thanks Clive,
Great clarification. With what we can all read in your article (and see in its remarkable pictures) this all makes a lot of sense.
Keep in touch.
NSF
SOAS and the coup
Yes Ant, we accepted and voted to place the king above criticism because to us the king is our father. If you are an Asian you would understand why Asians love, respect and never harm their fathers. All thais (with some exception of people like Thaksin) love the king as if he is our father. We are not happy when foreigners think they can slander our father. Some people may like people to criticise their fathers but we Thais (Asians included) dont like it.
SOAS and the coup
You accepted and voted for the king to be above criticism after the other King (was it number 7?) so wisely decided to give the people democracy, right?
What about some political education for the elite?
Absolutely! The rural urban divide is a farce, Thailand is divided along clear cut lines of class that happen to find a disproportionate number of elite in the urban centres and the poor classes in the bush.
Naypyidaw reports from The Irrawaddy team
Good to see some healthy questioning in this regard – I agree that in theory it is possible I didn’t go given that there is no first person used in the piece. However, if you look at the photos, you will see my name. I believe that the photos of the city hall and the brick factories have never been seen before in the media.
Without making it too easy for those people that would prefer I don’t visit Burma again, I can tell you that I arrived there by private vehicle and left by overnight train to Rangoon. I stayed in the capital one night at the Royal Kumudra Hotel, the only accomodation currently available to “tourists.” I visited all of the places described in the piece, the new City Hall, the brick factories, the hotel zone, the ministries area, etc.
Having not expected to be able to get inside the new city before I arrived, I was surprised at how relatively straightforward it actually was.
Clive
What about some political education for the elite?
I wrote and carefully used ‘a white night’ because most Thai, if they had follwoed what had happened before the Coup, would also think that this is not a hero story. But unfortunately many Thai middle class thought that the so called Kor Por Kor, please read it in Thai you will get some kind of sexual sounds here, was it.
Let me think in another way, though it would sound like an absurd fiction, this is perhpas in fact understanable, since many Thai rurals have migrated to BK for a few decades and they are now counted 9 in 10 of the whole population of this metropol. So it is in fact this number that represent so called Thai middle class in BK. And many Bangkokians in fact recently mogved to the north.
Rural-Urban dichotomy may be already useless here!.
SOAS and the coup
You claim to have read the thai constitutions. Well I doubt that you had because if you did you would have realised tha its illegal for anyone to criticse or harm the King. Thais and the international community knows about this clause and we accepted and voted for it to be part of our constitution. What you are saying is legally wrong.
On the other hand, it is perfectly legal to criticise the prime minister. He wanted power thats why he came into politics so we have the right to critcise or condemn him. But the King is different, the institution has always been there, therefore the King reserve the right not to be scrutinized like politicians.
Lastly, if you love your country, wouldn’t critiise your PM if he was corrupt, if he sold security assests like telecommunication away to foreign governments, if he committed extrajudicial killings and other abuse of rights, if he negotiated with foreign country about giving up territorial rights in exchange for non-territorial benefits? Wouldnt you criticise your PM? You may be afraid to do it, but we Thais are not.
Go do your research before you even decide to slander.
SOAS and the coup
How dare you question the genius of the King of Thailand!
He is in the Gueness Book of world records for having the most honorary PhDs in the world. How many PhDs do *you* have, Mr. Jory?
New Rambo and Free Burma
Back in the early 1990s their were KNU “pirates” extracting money from the largely Thai fishing boats in the waters the SLORC opened up for fishing concessions. Of course, that won’t be who Rambo is fighting, but hey, I don’t think Stallone is going to let good ethnography stand in the way of a good story, and pirates are always a good story. I just hope Mel Gibson is the co-star!
What about some political education for the elite?
Wasan, I am sure Andrew has a lot of experience of rural Thai life and would be interested to hear more about it. The “plot” of Thai politics with its predictable scripts that you bemoan here is, I agree, tedious. I don’t think your “middle-class” is limited to Bangkok, however. Chiangmai, Phitsanulok, Khonkaen, Khorat, Songkhla to name a few, have significant mddle-class populations with similar trajectories, aspirations etc as Bangkok. Much of the rural myth that you, like me, find tedious, is perpetuated more by the narrow analyses of economists and political scientists, both local and foreign, and I think that Andrew’s take on vote buying and rural politics resonates closely with these. I certainly don’t see the coup leaders as white knights nor do I subscribe to ideas of vote buying as corrupt. I think both are normative processes in Thai politics and needn’t be valorised as anything more.
SOAS and the coup
If you want to criticize SOAS please do so but don’t bring the royal family into this. Also, although you accuse SOAS of being one sided, your article which you implied as fair is clearly a one-sided attack of good people whom you dont even truly know – why dont you send your letter directly to the people you criticised to give them a chance to defend themselves?
Also you should know that, Thailand currently faces flood problem (because the Thaksin administration was severely behind in flood prevention preparation over the past 5 years). So while people are suffering from Thaksin’s failure not only does the king give advise, provide important information like satellite image, he also asked government’s official to direct the water to flood HIS OWN land so his people will suffer less. This is only one example of the King’s heartfelt concern for the people – perhaps you may now begin to understand why even the United Nations presented the King with the “Life Time Development Award”. To my understanding, Rama 9 is the first and only person to have received this award. A superficial researcher like you will never understand the love we have for our King.
We love the King on our own free will and we also -again from our own free will- hate when people criticize the king, even in the slightest way. Also most people who work closely for the king, like Gen prem, Gen Sonthi and Surayuth share similar personality with him. If you truly understood Thailand, if you had just a fraction of knowledge of Thaksin’s corruption, anti-human rights power consolidating tactics and money politics then you would not have written such a poorly researched narrow perspective letter.
If it wasnt for the coup there would have been bloodshed on the night of 20/9. Again, if you have done your research you would have known why the military had to act. You should also know that Thais support the coup not because we are undemocratic but because democracy was manipulated and undermined by Thaksin to the extent that it cannot be saved via the mechanisms made defunct by Thaksin.
When termites have eaten away virtually all the foundation of the house, some people attached too textbook idealism may think that the house can still be fixed and that the termites will run away by themselves, but people who care about having a strong shelter to live in and pass on to their children will be more pragmatic and realise that as much as we dont want to destroy the house, the house has already been damaged beyond repair – we need to clear away the termite infested house inorder to build a new one. We support the coup because we love democracy.
Dr Patrick, I suspect you are afraid of getting sued by your own government so you can only criticise your own government through articles other people write, but you should know that your country will only get worse unless you rid yourself of your fear and criticise your government. I think as a citizen of your own country, you will understand the situation in your country better and be able to write more valid criticisms- it will bode better for your academic career (unless of cos you are sued or arrested by your own government). In any case, you do know not enough about Thailand to even qualify for an attack on our King. As a Buddhist nation, we forgive your naivity and understand why you are indirectly forced to agree with your government stance and have to write this letter even though it is not even your country or your business. I understand that your government stand to lose alot with the removal of Thaksin. I know why you and your country have to criticise.. I pity you. You have alot to learn from us Thais.
Sondhi at the SOAS event…
More coverage from the conference from a Singaporean blog… a quote:
“Beside the irony of the military delivering liberals from Thaksin’s new authoritarianism, we seem to have liberals arguing that rewriting constitutions and having elections should not be the focus of building a really-existing democracy.”