absolutelyBangkok archive · Being farang
Originally published Sept. 2, 2008
I cannot help but feel astonished at the fact that many foreigners in Thailand quietly side with the Samak government — not meaning that they like any of them -, whereas most Bangkokian Thais condemn the Samak government downright instinctively, naming “corruption” and “bad” as the main reasons without being able to list proper arguments and facts.
As if a constitutional state and the rule of law never ever existed in Thailand, the rampant current mob anarchy is considered by many Thais as non-mentionable if not legitimate, whereas an unarmed policeman trying to do his job is a brute. And corrupt they’re all anyway. Why is the farang so much less understanding. Are foreigners, representatives of the old world, reactionaries by nature?
What do expats not see what Thais see. Fed by different media outlets, are farangs just not truly aware how deep the divisions and hate in society really are? Or is it the Thais’ lack of the Westerner’s urge for logical reasoning that keeps Thai politics being an endless roller coaster ride between shivering and fever attacks.
And what does that so-called “silent majority” of Thais make of the Bangkok events. Their DAAD mob didn’t really advance the cause of the rural masses. And if you listen to the media, Thailand is on fire and all Thais are either hating the government or dead.
Who the hell knows. The longer you’re around here the less you understand.
Just in time the Bangkok Post has a commentary by Matthew Arnold, who has been a visiting scholar at Chulalongkorn.
Titled “The PAD has become Thailand’s international embarrassment” author Arnold says the PAD ironically helps Thaksin’s image abroad:
Needless to say, foreign readers can only but be left confused by Thailand’s politics. The crux of the confusion is why a country that has had a string of successful elections despite a history of military coups, including one just two years ago, is again seeing political upheaval provoked by a civilian group demanding the effective return to non-democratic government and the disenfranchisement of the rural majority.
One of the ironies for the PAD, however, is that they have done much to rejuvenate Mr. Thaksin’s image abroad, especially in Britain. When questions are raised with his application for political exile in the U.K., Mr. Thaksin’s image can only be helped when people here ponder: “If these protesters are his enemies, maybe he really isn’t so bad!” It had been easy for some of the U.K. press to label him as a corrupt billionaire with authoritarian tendencies. Yet, this has been harder to maintain when the PAD is blatantly trying to force another government from power and demanding the end to full democracy in Thailand. Mr. Thaksin’s reputation is inherently strengthened by the PAD’s current efforts because, after all, he too had suffered such attacks.
Even those who disdain Mr. Thaksin, and Mr. Samak as well, should be troubled by the PAD entrenching itself as the final judge of Thailand’s democratic political outcomes. Indeed, they should be embarrassed by the PAD. The real shame is that while Thailand had such a turbulent period in 2006 and 2007, its international reputation as a stable, democratising nation had greatly improved since the last elections. The more the PAD asserts itself, the more Thailand will be in international headlines and the more it will suffer for it.
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