Shoot people, get respect | 8.04.05

A gangsta’s initiation rite? No, that’s actually the key to solving problems in Thailand’s Deep South, according to former PM Anand Panyarachun:

Anand: Give southerners due respect, more say

Rigid notions of what is ”Thai” and central imposition of an ”economic blueprint” that does not reflect the priorities of the Muslim population are some of the stumbling blocks to establishing mutual understanding in the restive South, National Reconciliation Commission chairman Anand Panyarachun said.

What rigid notions? If you’re talking about maltreatment of and insensitiveness toward ethnic minorities, northern hill tribespeople, many of whom are still denied Thai citizenship after all these years, suffer much more than southern Muslims do. Reflecting their lowly status, Karen (“กะเหรี่ยง”) has become a byword for underclass immigrants. (My father once jested that Rick Lazio lost the New York Senate race to Hillary Clinton because he was seen shaking hands with a Karen — my mother.) The Hmong (“แม้ว”, incidentally also PM Thaksin’s nickname) are the subject of a well known joke about their alleged inability to count. The joke may even contain a germ of truth. Whereas southern Muslims who have seen some of their own rise to such eminence as interior minister — the second most powerful cabinet position after the PM — and foreign minister, these tribespeople will be lucky to have received basic education.

Thailand’s 15-million-strong ethnic Lao (according to Wikipedia), while legal citizens, have yet to shake off their second-class stereotypes and, in many cases, realities. The word “Lao” (“ลาว”) itself is slang for (extremely) unfashionable, as is “siao” (“เสี่ยว”), which means friend in the Lao language. (See the latter slang in action in the Thai translation of Bart Simpson’s “this both sucks and blows”).

Yet, despite these injustices, you don’t see hill tribesmen and ethnic Lao going around wantonly killing people, do you? And because of that, no one is calling for “due respect, more say” to be given to them or that new economic policies be drawn up to accommodate their “priorities”. The terrorists’ tactics are clearly working, why should they stop now?

The former prime minister, who is to chair the first meeting of the commission today, said the problem in the South is not merely one of justice and rule of law, but also one of respect.

Indeed, killing Buddhist monks is disrespectful. Some would even say criminal.

One obstacle to mutual understanding is the Thai education system which has a narrow teaching of history.

Narrow? How about non-existent? Just grab a university student and ask her who Joseph Stalin is. Or Chiang Kai-shek. Or even Pol Pot. I can tell you that if I’d been put on the spot right after high school, I wouldn’t be able to answer (and I was a decent student in Thailand’s best high school). The one thing that I do remember from my social studies class (there’s no history class) is that Thailand’s two-facedness during WWII was clever and something to be proud of. It’s difficult for non-Thais to understand, but we view and are taught to view the Second World War not as a struggle against fascism, but rather a lucky dodge. That entrenched mindset of evasion and appeasement is regrettably expressing itself today in the Thai people’s reaction to domestic and international terrorism.

But what about Thaksin? Now he’s a curious creature, a bit of a throwback, a bit of a visionary, plus a bit of a “Texas is my second home” Ph.D. Still, when one calls his position on southern violence “hard-line”, one should give proper context by adding “by Thai standards”. Put all together, it’s like saying Bangkok in December is cold by Thai standards.

”Students throughout the kingdom need to learn there are many ‘versions’ of history,” Mr Anand said, ”so they can jettison rigid notions of what is ‘Thai’ and what isn’t.

Oh, please, cut the condescension. As a result of longtime overexposure to both humdrum state propaganda and anything-goes yellow journalism, the Thais (or at least so-called educated Thais) are already among the most relativistic (if not agnostic) people around. While that, unfortunately, doesn’t keep them from swallowing any crap that the media and self-proclaimed academics spoon-feed them, at least they will readily acknowledge the existence of “other versions” of truth or history out there. (Indeed, many are maddeningly deft at dismissing facts they don’t like as your facts.)

I’m all for letting people really study history (or if you prefer, histories) and draw their own conclusions. Through that process, I hope we’ll at least be able to agree that the history of Pattani is not any more fraught than that of Isan or Lannathai or any other region. So why the special treatment? Oh, I see. They kill people down there. They earned our respect.

He said southerners may have a greater interest in preserving their natural resources and rejecting some governmental development schemes.

Southerners should not be forced to accept an ”economic blueprint” that disregards their own priorities and ways of living.

Nor should they be lured, incited, browbeaten into following economic, social, ideological diktats of neo-imperialist NGOs that are sacrificing people’s interests (not to mention lives and limbs) for the perpetuation of their group therapy that has long outlast its usefulness.

”Not all of their problems can be solved up there, in Bangkok,” he said.

Where do you live, Khun Anand? Where does your commission convene? Where are the all-knowing NGOs (or “civic groups”, in the Bangkok Post’s parlance) based?

Since I never fell for Khun Anand’s cult of personality, there’s no great disillusionment here. (Every Thai PM has his own cult; Anand’s flaunts “We love Khun Anand” bumper stickers.) Still, it’s a poor performance for a Carlyle Group advisor. Conspiracy theorists, no doubt, will be disappointed.

But then Khun Anand has also been handpicked by Kofi Annan to head his High-Level Panel for something, something, something, where I’m sure he fits right in. Perhaps every now and then, he can help remind the UNeaucrats on my behalf that not all the world’s problems can be solved in New York (especially since a bunch of self-serving dubious characters are running the place).

On your behalf? Yes, you don’t want me to terrorize my way to respect and representation, do you?

18:27 ▪ politics

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1

Zato 9.04.05

So my own observations and conclusions regarding Thai attitudes and treatment of the hill tribes, natives of Isan and other ethnic minorities, as well as the general historical perspective or lack thereof demonstrated by the average citizen of the kingdom aren’t simply products of my racist Western prism? As far as Anand’s perspective and suggestions on the situation in the southern provinces they seem to be very much in-line with the prevailing leftist and UN-centric viewpoint. I do take some perverse comfort in the knowledge that people such as Anand and Annan would be amongst the first to lose their heads should the very murderers who they are currently enabling, whether in the Middle East, Kashmir, or Pattani, ever triumph.

2

Tom Vamvanij 10.04.05

Wow, what a mouthful of a (rhetorical) question! But yes, regrettably, I think you’re right. Not everybody (see first comment) will agree, though.

It’s funny, isn’t it? Whether you’re with us or with the terrorists or anywhere in between, we hate you. Americans being the embodiment of the West, and the West in turn being the embodiment of all evils, You Just Can’t Win.

Okay, you may not find that so funny. But then I don’t find your “perverse comfort” at all comforting, either. :-)

3

Zato 10.04.05

I read the comment by Nui you linked to and couldn’t decide if they were serious or simply being facetious (I tend to believe the latter). I quite agree with the “You Just Can’t Win” statement and that is probably why I’ve discarded any hope or notion that an American foreign policy based on attempting to persuade people to like us, as espoused by our own Democratic party and their recent presidential candidate, is at best naive and at worst a recipe for disaster. Sometimes in my darker moments I almost wish that America really was the fascist state that so many would have me believe it was if for no other reason than to round up all the leftists and send them to the gulag and pulverize our adversaries (especially the French!) into submission. ;-)

4

Tom Vamvanij 10.04.05

Facetious? I wonder what you think of the second comment on the same post.

5

Zato 11.04.05

Tom, KB’s comments strike me as quite serious. Although not necessarily from the side of the political spectrum I generally associate with such comments.