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The second episode in the “р╕Кр╕▓р╕Хр╕┤ р╕ир╕▓р╕кр╕Щр╕▓ р╕Юр╕гр╕░р╕бр╕лр╕▓р╕Бр╕йр╕▒р╕Хр╕гр╕┤р╕вр╣М: Nation, Religion, King” vodcast series is now available from YouTube and as a podcast. This episode is about “Religion”. To focus the discussion we deal, in the main, with the long-running conflict in southern Thailand. Subtitles for this episode are also being produced.
The first episode, “Nation”, now with its Thai language captions, is available here.
The final episode in the series will be “King” which will be released on Tuesday, 11 October 2011.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The first one sounded optimistic. This one is instead pessimistic.
I cannot wait to see the last one. I guess it must be really controversial.
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Not a word about the cooperation between Royal Thai Army and the Royal Thai Sangha in the South.
It is never explicitly reported but after years of following the violence in the South it eventually becomes apparent that the Royal Thai Army operates out of many of the Royal Thai Sangha’s wats in the South. Malay Muslims have been tortured to death in the Royal Thai Sangha’s wats in the South. Leaving aside the absurd contradiction between the Royal Thai Sangha’s acquiescence to the stationing of soldiers in its wats and the violence that subsequently routinely takes place within its wats and its professions of Buddhism devotion and belief, this is stupidly unconscious from the political point of view on the part of what is, in fact, a profoundy political ‘religious’ organization.
I’m sure the Malay Muslims of the South of Thailand are intensely aware of the intimate ties between these two arms of the Royal Thai Government arrayed against them.
I cannot imagine any ‘solution’ to the ‘troubles’ in the South, other than perhaps ethnic cleansing or genocide a la Israel/Palestine, unless and until power is decentralized in all of Thailand and therefore in the South as well, the Royal Thai Army and Royal Thai Sangha are relieved of control, and the people who live in the region are allowed to solve their own problems.
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р╕Фр╕г.р╕ир╕гр╕╡р╕кр╕бр╕ар╕Ю р╕Ир╕┤р╕Хр╕гр╣Мр╕ар╕┤р╕гр╕бр╕вр╣Мр╕ир╕гр╕╡ was referred to by two of the panelist.
Here is his recent radio interview on Thai politics. (in Thai)
http://soundcloud.com/senthang67/54-1
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Interesting that a panel discussion on religion in Thailand should focus exclusively on an issue in which ( in my view anyway) religion plays only secondary role. Nevertheless, it is obviously a topic worthy of sustained focus. I have to say that Professor Ball’s final comments almost rescued the conversation from the tendency to assume that all or even most of the parties involved want the conflict to end. The conflict takes on an altogether different meaning when the material interests of various parties in sustained violence and instability is taken into account.
Many thanks for producing this series. I look forward to the final installment.
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Doug olthof, I also noticed how focus on the southern provinces conflict quickly led the discussion away from actually covering religious issues in Thailand. Religion in Thailand is of course too broad a topic to cover in general, so I think choosing a focus like the southern conflict wasn’t a bad idea. I would have liked to hear more discussion of religious issues pertinent to the topic though. Expanding on Ms. Daungyewa’s comment about religious education in the schools would have been interesting, and I also would have liked to hear about topics such as the relationships between resident army units and Buddhist wats in the the south.
I do of course very much appreciate Dr. Farrelly et al for producing the discussion and making it available to us online, and I’m looking forward to the next installment.
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Must agree with what many others have noticed: Other than an initial discussion of religion, the topic soon turned to politics, insurgency, and security. This panel wasn’t really about religion in the context of the violence in the Deep South. As others have noted, there are various topics that could have been discussed regarding these three issues while retaining a focus on religion: the increasingly intimate collusion of Buddhist temples and Army encampments (ala Jerryson’s new book); the increasing polarization between the Thai Buddhist and Malay Muslims communities in general or religious authorities in particular; the declining population of Thai Buddhists in the Deep South due to outward migration; the continuing but challenged salience of religious tourism by Chinese Malay Buddhists to pilgrimage locations in the Deep South; the role of Southern Thai Buddhist monastics and elites in championing a more nationalistic Thai Buddhist persona (ala their support for the effort to make Buddhism the state religion in the more recent past); the relation of Malay Muslims in the Deep South to other ethnic and regional Muslim communities in Thailand and the official, centralized Muslim religious hierarchy; the divisions and fragmentation within and among Muslim communities and networks in the Deep South.
In other words, there were a lot of relevant topics regarding the place and salience of religion in the insurgency, violence and political turmoil of the Deep South that could have been explored. Why these issues weren’t discussed in a panel on “religion” focused on the Deep South is a mystery to me.
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The first one, nation, digressed into economic issues.
The second episode, religion, turned out to be southern violence discussion.
The last one, King, has yet to be broadcasted.
I speculate that…
A. If it is to be on-topic, Nick will have the panel focused on succession.
B. Otherwise, there are two possibilities that it may digress into:
1. Freedom of speech
2. Constitution
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Thanks The Insider,
That’s some handy speculation. All will be revealed on Tuesday.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
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I think the the discussions are not subject driven, but panel driven. Whoever is in town on the day of the panel discussion determines the turns taken in the ensuing discussion.
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Empirical data make matters more complicated. This is probably the reason why a lot of discussions on the south tend to be led by “armchair” academics with a rather limited knowledge of what happens. There are a few exceptions like Marc Askey or Sascha Helbardt (see his report in new madala: http://www.newmandala.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Anatomy-of-Southern-Thailand%E2%80%99s-Insurgency.pdf).
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As someone who lives and works in Pattani, I see that discussing mainly only about religion cannot change the world. PSU academics are not “armchair” academics. We work with local villagers, politicians, alleged BRN-C, religious leaders, military, police officers, you named it. I was once threatened by one of the insurgency that I can be beheaded because I ignore to wear “hijab”. I can talk about how polarise it is in the region for hours but I decided not to since it would lead to no where and it would be more of a conflictual debate. My purpose of this discussion is to send the message to the government on what they should focus on which are; 1. Governing structural reform, 2. Dialogue with the Insurgency, 3. Problem of continuing the usage of Martial Law and Emergency Decree. It is the most concerning problem but it is the least subject that any Thai government want to touch upon. If any government is brave enough to tackle these 3 main issues, it could possibly solve the problem of religion, ethnicity, and grievances. Then, to say the word “optimistic” would look promising.
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So to speak, I wish not to only just talk and talk but I wish to see some outcome from this discussion, a practical one. I wish to see a powerful result that can urge those authorities who are in charge of governing the three southernmost provinces of Thailand (especially the government, local bureaucrats, and the military) to do something!!
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New Mandala readers following our “Nation, Religion, King” series will want to check out Prachatai‘s article on episode 2. It is available here. Thai language subtitles for that episode are also available. Just click on the red “CC” button and then make sure “Thai” is selected.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
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