Thai Cultural Musings

Because of the excesses of the Christian and Muslim fundamentalists, I have been musing on Thai politics, history, and Buddhism for a while.

Let’s start with Buddhism.

How has Buddhism influenced the Thai approach to life? Is it the same as it’s always been, or has it changed? What will happen to it in the future?

Before Thais took to Buddhism, they were animists worshipping nature spirits. This has not changed. You still see spirit houses everywhere today; trees with colorful lengths of cloth wrapped around them; belief in ghosts, ghouls, and other assorted spiritual nasties. Superstition is rife here, far more than in any other country I have ever traveled to.

Then the Indian traders came here starting around the 12th or 13th Century by our calendar. They brought Buddhism into the country. It didn’t take long for the Thais to embrace it wholeheartedly. They also brought Brahminism, but that is only practised by Royalty, so it has no direct bearing on the everyday life I am writing about.

One thing you can say about Buddhism is that it is a particularly attractive philosophy. In its pure form it is not a religion. Adherents don’t go out proselytizing, as the Christians do. It teaches people to follow the Middle Way, meaning that they should not go too far either side of the middle path in anything. They don’t go in for self-flagellation as the early Christians did, and the Muslims still do.

However, in Thailand Buddhism has taken on many of the trappings of a major religion. The Sangka, the ruling body of monks, issue edicts governing how monks and lay people must behave. This control filters down through society into every nook and cranny.

Monks have a very high status in Thai society. If possible, many Thai men will become monks to make merit for their family, giving them a lot of status.

However, as I recall from my reading of the Buddhist scriptures, becoming a monk was not supposed to endow the monk with status. Quite the opposite in fact. They are supposed to renounce all worldly possessions, including money. Nor are they supposed to smoke, drink, engage in business, and many of the other things we see so many monks doing these days. In other words, the philosophy has been subverted to human desires. This is definitely not Buddhism.

The Buddha told his disciples not to build monuments to him, with the exception of the stupa. To demonstrate this, he turned his rice bowl upside down and placed his staff on top.

But here in Thailand they have taken this to excess…a very un-Buddhist thing to do. Just look at the many temples dotted around the country today. Each temple has its complement of monks, all rigidly controlled by the Sangka.

As a result, Buddhism has become deeply entrenched in Thai society. Couple this with the deep reverence the Thais have been trained to show to the monarchy and we begin to see how both institutions have been used to control the people.

Before King Prajadhipok (Rama VII), the monarchy was as open to criticism as the British monarchy is today. There were no lese majeste laws back then. Newspaper cartoonists regularly lampooned royalty, top army brass, and even monks whenever they saw a reason to. I have read books with hundreds of newspaper and magazine cartoons from the 1920’s and 1930’s having a field day at some of the antics that went on in high places back then.

Today, the lese majeste laws are used as a very heavy-handed whip to cow people into toeing the official line. Yet, His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great (Rama IX) himself has said that people should be able to criticize him if they think he is wrong. Of course, it will never happen while this draconian law is on the books.

The military have recently shown that they are the real masters of the country. I have seen it quite a few times over the years. In fact, so far I have lived through five coups. General Prem, the alleged architect of this latest coup was himself a victim of the April Fool’s Day coup, as I call it because it began on April 1.

In April 1981, a clique of junior army officers popularly known as the "Young Turks" staged a coup, taking control of Bangkok. They were led by a General Sant. He appeared on TV and radio threatening to summarily execute criminals and those who opposed the coup makers.

What made the whole thing a farce became apparent as the coup progressed. Sant’s chosen background music was strident military marches.

Meanwhile, on the second day Prem came on the radio, heard faintly from Korat. He told everyone in Bangkok not to worry. The King and Queen were up there with him and the Royal Family was safe. He was coming back to save Bangkok.

His chosen music? The Magnificent Seven! Only in Thailand.

In any case, by the third day, the coup was over and the Young Turks fled with General Sant in three helicopters to Burma. April fools indeed.

Unfortunately, some of those Young Turks have rehabilitated themselves and become politicians where they continue to wield influence today.

Ordinary Thai people have never had a say when the decision is taken to have a coup. They just have to live with it. So where is the democracy?

The recent coup is another case in point. The Army moved in and took over, and then made up the rules as went go along. The results have been disastrous. This particular junta has had a very hard time getting anything right. First, CNN.com announced just after the latest coup,

Thailand coup leader vows new PM in weeks - Sep 20, 2006
Thailand's military coup leader has pledged to choose a new prime minister within two weeks and return power to the people as soon as possible.

Yes, well as we have seen, that hasn’t really happened has it? He chose a ‘prime minister’, but the people still don’t have any power. Despite assurances that elections will be held ‘at the end of the year’, no Thai I have spoken to has been able to say with any certainty that this will actually happen.

Then there were the witch-hunts that were directed at Thaksin and his family. Unfortunately, the military leaders didn’t think things through and ended up scaring international investors away with the draconian Foreign Business Act they proposed. Thankfully, that has been rejected, but only because some of its proponents wanted even more stringent conditions in it. If they had been successful, I suspect the Thai economy would have melted down even faster than it is now.

Thais talk about wanting democracy, but from my observations I have found that very few really understand what it means.

We in the West have had more than 300 years to hone our democratic traditions. The Thais have not even started yet. Before that can happen, they need a Constitution that takes into account their social needs and aspirations. They also need a Bill of Rights. Under the present government system, this is not likely to happen. The country’s rulers, the extremely rich we keep hearing about, are not going to buck the system to give the people any power. But as Thomas Jefferson said, “A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”

So, where does this leave ordinary Thais? Pretty much where you would expect. The education system is geared towards giving them just enough knowledge to make them useful drone workers. Only the rich manage to get a decent education, and in most cases they have to send the children overseas to get it. Of course, being Thai, they often get their diplomas the Thai way. Instead of doing the hard study, they pay for them instead. I have known some Thais with more degrees than a thermometer who didn’t have a clue about their chosen field of endeavor.

Ordinary Thais are deprived of their vote whenever a government does something to anger the military, resulting in yet another coup. Remember after Thaksin was voted in a second time how the Thais went around crowing that the era of military coups had ended? I guess they have learned never to count their chickens until they have hatched by now.

Thai politicians, unlike their brothers in the west who are supposed to serve the people, oppress their own people instead. If you look at the list of politicians over the last twenty years, you will see the same names all the time. Sure, they are in different political parties, but this is part of the game of musical chairs they play. Look at how all the old guard politicians flocked to Thai Rak Thai when they saw how successful Thaksin was.

Yet, when he was deposed, those same politicians joined a myriad other political parties, none of them with any coherent agenda for the people they want to represent. Nope. It’s just politics as usual folks….what’s in it for me?

Is it any wonder that the investment money remains outside Thailand? Who is going to invest in a country with such capricious rulers who change the rules to suit them? Thai politicians don’t understand that investors are in business to make money, not to line the extremely deep pockets of these political sharks.

Then look at the recent changes to the visa laws. With each change in the law, foreigners living in Thailand feel even more unwelcome. So unwelcome, in fact, that many have already fled to friendlier places. More are preparing to go. Yet, Thailand desperately needs a lot of these people. They have skills that can contribute so much to Thailand’s business and education sectors. But it seems the Thais either can’t see this, or they just don’t care. What will happen when they finally realize that they can no longer compete in the international market place?

Sure, Thailand has a strong agricultural sector. Commodities like rice, sugar, sago, and so on are always in demand. But these are not enough to fully sustain the economy these days.

What about manufacturing facilities?

Take one instance. Amata Industrial Estates, for example, has had to stop building more factories because manufacturers have stopped coming here. I know other industrial parks facing exactly the same problems.

International companies that were considering setting up in Thailand have put their plans on hold, at least until they see how the political winds blow.

Underlining all this is the uncertainty about the monarchy. His Majesty is getting old. Thais I have spoken to have grudgingly admitted that they fear what will happen when the fateful day comes. We all wish him a long, long life. But at his age who knows how long that will be? What will happen then? Will the succession be smooth? There are even questions about who will be his successor.

At one stage in the Rama dynasty they brought in an outsider to become king. Could this be a solution once again?

These questions worry everyone. And the uncertainty is making it hard for anyone to make long-term plans effectively. At least foreigners living in Thailand have the option to leave any time they like, but the Thais will be stuck with anything and everything that happens. They have no choice. And it’s a lack of choice they have brought on themselves.

Perhaps it’s time for them to heed yet another quote from Jefferson. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”