Thitinan, Chaturon & Alii: Thais Question Thais

What a delicious barrage of outstanding quotes. In case you missed the recent panel at the FCCT on Chaturon Chaisang’s new book “Thai Democracy in Crisis: 27 Truths,” there’s a solid write-up over at Bangkok Pundit. And here is mine:

It doesn’t happen too often around here that such bright and sadly lonely light of intellectual honesty is shed upon the core issues of Thailand’s political problems. The evening made yet again clear that some of Thailand’s brightest minds are divided, struggling, yet not completely out of hope.

Any foreigner who’s just repeating the mantra “If you don’t like it here, go” avoiding constructive engagement can not be taken serious as such a guest obviously doesn’t have a clue about the real struggles fought right here and right now. Here’s a key quote ahead:

“Foreigners love Thailand, there must be something good about Thailand. They all want to live here. This is intangible, but it gives some hope.” Said by whom? And who’s Kim Il Sondhi?

Panel members Thitinan Pongsudhirak (Director ISIS, Chulalongkorn Univerisity), Alec Bamford (I call him a half-Thai) and Supavud Saicheua (Phatra Securities) were no paid salesmen for the book. On the contrary, Chaturon had to take quite some stick. He did it with the elegance of a former deputy prime minister, and here is what he heard.

Mr. No Fuss Thitinan had been asked by Chaturon to write a blurp for the book, but in these times of color-coated politics that’s why he did not. Thitinan didn’t want to be labelled or smeared. “Save yourself for the future,” Chaturon had told him, and that’s what he did as he thinks “this crisis will be long and hard.”

Thitinan sees Thailand in the midst of a “self-fulfilling situation.” People speaking loudly are labelled red. There’s a growing monopoly and exclusion of views with no middle ground. People are driven into opposite poles. But “now’s the time to no longer be fearful,” says Thitinan.

The way they do it today is like a “Blitzkrieg.” Anyone who comes out against will be smeared. People got scared and people are not coming out, says Thitinan who’s “no big fan of any color.” Again, he says, this is not the time to be afraid.

Thitinan likes the “well flowing” book that “reads well.” Some essays he calls “provocative”, all the titles of the chapters are about the “nuts and bolts of Thai politics.”

Thitinan points out chapters 15 to 19 of the book as especially good, dwelling on the question why Thailand is so polarized. “Why is it that people who ought to be left are right, why are the media so conservative,” he asks.

Thitinan mentions the year 2032. It’s the year of the 100th anniversary of the 1932 end of the absolute monarchy. “I always felt that the crisis we have is a 100-year crisis,” he says.

Before 1932, explains Thitinan, years of rebellions by disgruntled bureaucrats and the army were put down. But there was no change. Tensions kept building. A countercoup in 1933 by royalists failed. From 1932 to the 50s under the constitutional monarchy the Thai monarchy was at the lowest point. Many royals had to flee.

After the 1950s the monarchy has been rebuilt. Yes, the cold war played a role, but there was a long period of stability for Thai economy to grow. Still, there was repression as well. “We’re happy that we did not become communist. Look at nearby countries and how much they suffered from and under communism.”

The monarchy-military symbiotic relationship kept away communism and allowed a long and conducive period for sustained economic development. But we paid the price in the long period of military-authoritarian rule and political repression.

So no communism and substantial economic development were good; military-authoritarianism and repression were bad. Two sides of coin that should be viewed in tandem.

There had a price to be paid for not becoming communist. The price Thailand pays today? “The law in Thailand is about power, not about justice. This is why we have no institutions to count on in times of need. This is why we have to move back to the center.”

Despite an “overwhelming pessimism” he sees two sources of optimism: “Foreigners love Thailand, there must be something good about Thailand. They all want to live here. This is intangible, but it gives some hope.”

Secondly, not less sarcastically: “Thais are very poor in prevention. The are not good in preventing problems, but very good in solving problems. Nothing really works from the beginning, then they fix it somehow and it works.”

But add the systematic destruction of democratic institutions, and here’s where Thitinan is questioning Chaturon’s book. He eluded the corruption side.

The main attack of his and Thaksin’s opponents is the corruption. Generals always complain to him about corrupt politicians, says Thitinan. Politicians complain about corrupt bureaucrats. There can be corrupt bureaucrats without politicians, but no corrupt politicians without bureaucrats …

Thitinan calls this the “underbelly, the hedge” of Chaturon & Co. And the generals he tells yes, the politicians are corrupt, but it is not your job to take away their job.

While Thai media keep the people dumb and the education is mainly about “systematic indoctrination.

Concludes Thitinan, who in 2006 before the coup himself joined the yellow protests together with his wife: “Kicking out Thaksin was not right in hindsight, but what was the alternative?”

Khun Supavud, the high-profile analyst of Phatra Securities, raised a few clever thoughts, such as Thailand as the land of “useful2 if not “user-friendly coups.” 2006 was a very well executed coup, he says. Only a few tanks were on the streets and no blodshed. “But it didn’t work, even a well-refined coup doesn’t work,” says Supavud.

An important thought was furthermore that over the past decades Thai businesses expanded and developed, but not politics. Every politician remains related to someone who has construction contracts with the government or has concessions. Conflicts of interest? “It’s designed to be that way.”

Supavud sees many justifications for a new coup down the road and feels Thaksin made populism look too good. “There has to be a burden,” he says.

Now the surprise guest of the event certainly was Alec Bamford who showed no mercy. In a most witty discourse he disassembled Chaturon’s book, mainly criticizing the complete lack of a chapter on human rights, which is the more surprising to Bamford because Chaturon himself is a victim of the abuse of human rights, isn’t he. Chaturon has to be interested in a chapter 28, but hey, you can’t write about everything.

Bamford goes back to the Thaksin years and the Krue Se massacre with a “volatile guy” like Pallop Pinmanee in control and as a so-called democratic government you cannot declare, as Thaksin did, that the guys in the Tak Bai incident were Muslims fasting during Ramadan and that Thaksin told Khun Angkana that her husband will come back, he just ran away for a few nights with his missis …

“That is not democracy,” Bamford says. TRT had a strong political program, everyone’s jaw just dropped. Banharn’s policy so far had been “Vote for me & Suphan will be OK.”

Then why all those shortcomings and failures.

Today the “rebranded, renamed and recolored” PAD is the only party with policy meetings – and what meetings! The recent “very bureaucratic election of the new leader takes the whole day and there is only one name on the ballot and Kim Il Sondhi (!) gets elected.”

Freedom of expression today is under even more pressure than under Thaksin, says Bamford. Things got even worse and the lèse majesté “is going bananas.”

Sums up Thitinan: “Under Thaksin farmers wanted to drink wine and play golf. That had to be stopped.”




Sphere: Related Content

Related posts on absolutelyBangkok.com:

  1. Thitinan & The Symbolism Of Ratchaprasong
  2. Thitinan’s Rakesh Saxena Encyclopedia
  3. Thitinan On Continuity & Change
  4. Pasuk, Baker & Thaksin
  5. Dr. Weng Talks: No Thaksin Protector?
  6. Thailand Perfects Hold On Power
  7. Making Good Use Of The Poor

October 29, 2009 | Filed Under Politics, Society 

Comments

3 Responses to “Thitinan, Chaturon & Alii: Thais Question Thais”

  1. martin on October 29th, 2009 4:17 pm

    Alec Bamford link not OK, otherwise interesting read, thanks …

    (BD: Thanks, corrected.)

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  2. New: Red shirt organizing and commentary « Political Prisoners in Thailand on November 3rd, 2009 4:30 am

    [...] on red shirts, this post at Absolutely Bangkok is also of interest. Chaturon Chaisaeng’s new book Thai Democracy in Crisis: 27 Truths has [...]

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  3. Thitinan & The Symbolism Of Ratchaprasong on May 4th, 2010 6:22 pm

    [...] house at the FCCT once again when a kind of The Last of the Mohicans among local academics, Ajarn Thitinan Pongsudhirak, took the floor only hours before the red Ratchaprasong rally culminated in a conditional [...]

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