absolutelyBangkok archive · Being farang
Originally published July 15, 2009
And you thought writing a blog is a sure ticket to lots of new friends — not to mention all the Google AdSense income. If that’s what you think… True, a blog can develop a life of its own and nothing beats edifying comments and hints of inspiration. But had a little discussion the other day with a reader who had made good use of the comment function so far.
A reader who enjoyed to rant about freely, such as that Bangkok’s airports were not seized, but abandoned. Well, the other day I had to delete some comments and took the pain of sending the poster an email explaining why. Whereon a litany of swearing was the answer. Being married to a lovely Thai wife I’m accustomed to swallow a thing or two.
When someone, out of the blue, calls you a “fucking fascist” though — oops, the same thing I called the PAD -, a fascist with no respect for “little brown people,” you may think you’re in the completely wrong movie. Or you better engage in a debate? You could just as well be pissing in the wind.
More and more, the divisions within Thai society are reflected profoundly within the local expat community. Some have become more Catholic than the Pope. In trying to become Thai (whatever that means) they not only denounce their own past. But even worse they’re doing their host country a disservice.
A commentary by the Bangkok Post’s Voranai Vanijaka gives an idea of what I’m aiming at. Writes he:
Dear readers, are we only finding out for the first time in the history of Thailand that we, the Thai people, don’t mind corruption? This is news to whom?
There’s a reason why Thailand is like it is today. It’s because, though not all of us, but too many of us, from top to bottom, are corrupt, which makes us a corrupt society as a whole.
We Thais need to stop being hypocritical.
Can we change? When will we change? Take Alcoholics Anonymous. The first step to recovery from alcoholism is to stand up in front of a crowded room and announce: “My name is… and I am an alcoholic.” The psychology is simple. You can’t cure a disease without first acknowledging that you have a disease.
Written by a Thai. So you wannabe-Thais promoting pseudo-Thai-ism, why not accuse Khun Voranai of being un-Thai.
Accepting anything Thai just because it is Thai and because you’re a guest here is fatalism at its most dangerous.
Or let’s take poster child example Kasit, the embattled foreign minister: He has been positively identified as some speaker of the PAD. Charging him with terrorism may be a difficult accusation to prove. Whereas the law would be clear as daylight, as the Post tells us:
The fact is that there exists a penal code (sections 135/1 and 132/2 amended in 2003) which classifies the seizure of airports as an act of terrorism, a crime subject to a fine of between 60,000 and 1 million baht, as well as the death penalty.
Kasit now… it it a simple case of gone along? Was he proactively involved?
As comments in Thai newspapers and blogs suggest there is a clear-cut answer: You’re either with him or against him.
If you’re against him — and for the law? — you most be for his nemesis. For Thaksin that is.
In today’s divided Thailand with her new climate of fear the one who questions anything official has become a synonym for an anti-establishment sympathizer. And you’re already considered to be a follower of Square Face.
You yourself may have been accused of the exact same deduction. And you yourself know nothing could be further away from the truth. You may have cheered when Thaksin was suffering humiliating street protests back in 2006 and was finally chased away.
The coup was the easiest thing. The longer you’re here the more you may question this and that.
And you’re accused of being anti-Thai.
What the heck. Back home, smilingly and joyfully, we’d be an even bigger pain in the arse.
But there they think it’s constructive and part of the process.
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