The elite invited him to speak,whoops!!

[nkstan]

A meeting to discuss recociliation,what to do to change the disparity in Thai society

Amart and Prai (Aristocrat and ordinary people)(Chinese Thai and non-Chinese Thai)
Published: 18/07/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

The prime minister, the panelists and the organisers sat in the VIP reception room, chatting. The staff walked into the area, gave a bow and went to their knees. They crawled to the VIPs and served.
It was rather an uncomfortable experience, looking down at a man older than I was, as he - on his knees - served me a cup of coffee.

After the prime minister had given his opening address, in front of some 300 executives and diplomats, the panelists gave their speeches on the income inequality and social disparity in Thailand.

When it was my turn, I thanked the organisers for allowing a young voice to be a part of this forum. I was also honest in telling the room that they may regret it later, but short of hauling me off the stage, it's too late now.

The following was my speech, with some add-ons.

The topic was ''full participation''. The problem is the lack of full participation. The cause of the problem is inequality and disparity. But where is the inequality, the disparity? What is the cause? Politically, economically and socially.

In politics, if we count all the prime ministers since 1988, the end of military rule, we have had a mixed-bag of leaders. Some were provincials. A couple were downright country bumpkins. A couple were Bangkokians. A few were military elites. And one genuine, bona fide Bangkok elite.

It's a mixture of representation, but all of them had one thing in common - they all have Chinese in them.

If you watch the no-confidence debate, you'll notice all sorts of accents from all regions of the Kingdom. The country is well represented. After all, we are a representative democracy - safe for a few disenfranchised tribes that don't have citizenship, of course.

There isn't really much political inequality. The most influential politicians are, in fact, very provincial.

Economically, the Chinese theme continues. For example, let's say 50 years ago, first generation Chinese climbed off the boat with nothing but the clothes on their back and met with all sorts of prejudices. They were segregated and looked down upon, branded communists.

Today, they are Bangkok high society. Dark-skinned little ethnic Thai boys and girls paint their bodies with skin whitening cream so they can be pale and beautiful like the Thai Chinese.

The richest in Thailand are those who came to this country with nothing. Many of them still speak Thai with Chinese accents.

Even the most prejudiced, segregated and downtrodden can economically, and consequently socially and politically, make it to the top. Thailand is the land of opportunities.

What about socially? I hailed a taxi in London, and the driver dared to talk to me as if he was my equal. I gasped. I was shocked. Didn't he know I'm Bangkok elite? Well, actually I'm middle class. But let's keep that between us - don't tell anyone.

When I hail a taxi in Bangkok, the driver - more often than not - talks to me humbly, as an inferior to a superior. He knows his place in society.

If you were to observe a conversation between a manager and a factory worker - both sides are nice and polite to each other - but the words and the body language will tell that - whether they realise it or not - this is not a conversation between employer and employee, but a conversation between master and servant, between the superior and the inferior.
(Then I described the experience in the VIP reception.)

You see, when a man crawls to serve another man - what does that do to his spirit? But it's tradition, and society has been so conditioned to it for so long. We see nothing wrong with it. We don't even realise or recognise it. It's just the way things are.

But what lies underneath is an amputated spirit, and unlike a lost arm or a lost leg, there's no prosthetic for it. Imagine a society, where the majority has an amputated spirit.

Look around the room - the only ethnic Thais in here are me and the cameramen.

The income gap that we are so focused on is merely a symptom. The cause of inequality and disparity is the state of mind, the condition of the spirit, the cultural psyche and attitude. The red shirts made a good point, even though they made it badly: It's the amart (aristocrat) versus prai (ordinary people) dilemma.

We may talk about tax reforms. The land tax and inheritance tax that give the rich hissy fits, but will bring more revenue for the government to develop the country - universal healthcare, social welfare and public works that may eradicate the disparity.

But how would that matter, if out of every 100 baht in tax revenue, the politicians keep 20, the bureaucrats keep 20, then the middlemen, the fixers, the contractors, the sub-contractors, the tea money, etc. At the end of the day there's maybe five baht left to build a bridge - which is then built badly, incompetently.

Raise the minimum wage and the poor will be comfortably poor, temporarily. But will it be any different from the one million baht village fund? Gambling, drinking and a new motorbike - there's no such a thing as investing in the future.

Not that those things should not be done. But it's a vicious and ridiculous cycle that won't cure the cultural disease. We can talk about education. But education reform starts with the teachers. It will take 20 years to train a new species of teachers, and you can't do that under the present system. It will never happen in a society that deems ideas are dangerous and knowledge is threatening.

The Ministry of Culture's existence is to censor thoughts and expressions. The ICT Ministry's primary purpose isn't to develop communication or technology, but to ban websites. Education reform? Try cultural reform first.

We need to create a middle class - a class that has to be the majority, not the minority - a class with a sense of entitlement and enlightenment.

But this isn't something you can hand over, give away. Like the Chinese immigrants, the people have to want it and to work for it. But before that, they have to believe they are entitled to it, that they deserve it. But how will a prai believe this if he is conditioned to crawl to serve the amart? The amputated spirit needs to be addressed. It's an intangible thing - not one that you can just pass a law to fix.

In the past or in the present, the masses, the populace, just doesn't know any better and doesn't want to know any better. Whenever they protest, it's never to demand a better education. It's never to demand healthcare. It's never to demand civil rights and liberty. But for subsidies and fixed prices - things that can only help them to be comfortably poor, temporarily.

Or, they become a mob for hire to make a quick baht and to inject some fun and drama into a tedious life.

They know their place in society - and though they whine and cry about many things - they would never dream, they would never imagine that all of this can be changed. They are good Thais, they are good Buddhists - and this is Thailand, it's just the way it is.

It's the cultural mentality, and that has to be changed - by bringing hope, inspiration and a sense of worthiness.

Thailand is the land of opportunities - the people just need to recognise it and believe they deserve it. Enlighten the minds. Enrich the souls.

But this cannot be done if the rest of us, the ''privileged ones'', don't help to show them the way. If we don't open our arms and let them join us.

And once we have the spirit of entitlement and enlightenment, the disparity and inequality will pretty much take care of itself - and all those other reforms can be done. Start at the starting point. We are humans - before we can succeed in anything, we must first have hope, we must first believe.

[jackspratt]

=D> Link please stan.

[Aardvark]

Well Written =D>

[TJ]

Just another elitist advocating big government with big government taxes and spending. Another elitist who believes the people are too dumb to know what is good for them so the government must fill their minds and empty their pockets.

The problem isn't disparity or the Chinese. The problem is that the Thai people don't keep 99 baht out of every 100 baht they earn. The problem is a corrupt and predatory state. IMO

[stoneman]

=D> Link please stan.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... t-and-prai

The author is the editor of the Bangkok Post..

Stoneman

[jackspratt]

Thanks sm. =D>

[nkstan]

Just another elitist advocating big government with big government taxes and spending. Another elitist who believes the people are too dumb to know what is good for them so the government must fill their minds and empty their pockets.

Stan says:I don't understand where you got this line of thinking from the persons speech

The problem isn't disparity or the Chinese. The problem is that the Thai people don't keep 99 baht out of every 100 baht they earn. The problem is a corrupt and predatory state. IMO

I think the writer addressed this issue with ''Amputed Spirit'' ,IMO,the acceptance of ''ordinary Thais''seeing themslves as inferior to the Chinese Thai!As until they change that cultural attitude,there will always be ''disparity'' with the smaller Bangkok Chinese-Thai elite maintaining power as the ''corrupt and predatory state'' creating populus programs that will never correct the problem.only line their pockets!

[Khun Paul]

I read the original twice , the first time while enjoying lunch and as is normal when reading an opinion, I read it with a thought in my mind, what is this load of twaddle. However having read it twice, I can see, that not only did he probably upset some of the audience, but that in fact he has told the truth. The constant grovelling to 'superiors' due to the culture or even their percieved position is outdated, and not something acceptable to a great many people in the world.

The Thai attitude is that they cannot speak out against anything they see as unfair as it will never change, just think how hard it is to get even your wife/gf on occasions to speak out about something which is wrong, or in some cases even to complain to the headman in your village. The culture is ingrained from birth, over gecades, there has to a conscious effort to change it, oh sure it is slowly happening but at a pace which even the youngest snail would be proud to do.

The complaint process is unheard of, to complain is to be seen as a trouble maker and other people will view you unkindly, being self critical isn't an option, I would even go as far as saying saying sorry is not in many Thais vocabulary , they are if you look back in history ( something Thailand does not do it seems , as they never seem to know too much about it anyway), they remind me on occasions of the people I met in some parts of eastern Europe when it was a satellite of the USSR, downtrodden, with that look in their faces as accepting their lot . Their compliant attitude is just like that, their service to the religion is symtomatic of many countries where the poor are turning to the only thing that seems to give them the strength to carry on, I speak of the poor in many Roman Catholic countries where the church has untold wealth while the people suffer , but they spend lavishly on the Church as they do here on the temples.
Nothing wrong in that as it happens but it must be put into perspective.

In fact I felt the writer had written a very though provoking article which will resonate far beyond the Bangkok Post I am sure .

[jai yen yen]

I feel it was a great article and applaud the author for having the courage to say what needs to be said. Good job. =D>

[nkstan]

Interesting that in todays post,the most viewed article was this one!I thought it was interesting that all the the PM's have been Chinese-Thai!Made me wonder if when the Chinese migrated to this region,if their cultural work ethic allowed them to just take over everything?

Anyway,although I think he hit the nail on the head,how can anyone expect those in control to want it any other way!As long as they keep Religion,non-analytical education and programs that ensure the poor keep themselves in debt needing handouts and bailouts,nothing will change!Patronage will always rule over merit in this system,therefore ordinary Thais will be managed and used at will!

[Aardvark]

"Quote :Made me wonder if when the Chinese migrated to this region,if their cultural work ethic allowed them to just take over everything?" I think the Thai's tend to be a little less suspicious of other Asian's, and tend to drop their Guard. The very reason why the poor farmers have missed out all these years is because they were treated the same as their Chinese counter parts.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

NKKSTAN, Sarit and Phibun are two examples of Thai prime ministers, whom, I think do not have Chinese blood. I do not know about Samak.Thaksin is a full-blooded Chinese as is Abhisit....I think.

Chinese have been present in all of the early Tai kingdoms such as Sukhothai, and Ayutthaya. The Kings used them as traders, and they provided the crews to sale the ships to China, Southeast Asia, the Netherlands, France, India, Persia and so on.

Thais were tied to patrons and were not supposed to leave their areas of birth. This is why the phrai (free men) were tattooed with the name of their patron and their area of residence so they could not run away. Many ran away to the forests or became monks anyway. During the modernisation period (after the signing of the 1855 Bowring Treaty), peasants were not permitted to migrate to the urban centres. They were to remain docile peasants on the land growing rice that would be bought at a low price by Chinese middle men and sold at a high price overseas. This is how the Chinese became wealthy and the majority of Thais remained poor. The Thais were taught to love an individual, the country,and the religion, and not to think about anything else.

Chinese migration was actively encouraged in the early 1800s. The Chinese had to pay a head tax, but it was one-third lower than that paid by Thai peasants. There were some problems for the Chinese, in particular, because they sent a lot of money back to China, and they brought their politics (nationalists vs. communist, and anti-Japanese boycotts) to the Kingdom. This was overcome by integrating into Thai society by attending Thai schools, accepting Thai culture and learning the Thai language.

During the Second World War, the Europeans left and the Chinese filled the vacuum and created establishments such as the Bangkok Bank and the other major banks. Subsequently, they took advantage of investments provided by the Americans and Japanese, and branched out internationally, such as CP. In addition, they formed partnerships with Thai elites (politicians and military figures). Thus, one of the elites or more would be invited to sit on the Boards of a Chinese company to offer it protection and opportunities. In return, these elites would gain a substantial income for the partnership. The Chinese business people would be given monopolies in certain areas of the economy.

As Stan mentioned almost all of the major politicians in Thailand currently, are Sino-Thais. The entire leadership of the yellow shirts is Chinese, and Thaksin is Chinese too.

Oh, one more point. Sometime in the early 1990s, the Sino-Thais began questioning the standard history of Thailand, and indicating that the Chinese had as much to do with the development of the kingdom as the Thais. Ayutthaya, for example, was said to be founded by U-thong, a Chinese. After Ayutthaya fell to Burma, Taksin founded a new capital and kingdom. He was half-Chinese. He was replaced by Rama I, who was also half-Chinese. Owing to the power, wealth and status of the Sino-Thais politicians such as Pramoj, began taking public pride in their Chinese heritage and used in their political campaigns. This was new. Furthermore, the media began promoting Sino-Chinese tv programmes, entertainers (movie stars and singers [Joey Boy, Miss Kim]).

It should be noted, however, that many Thais have migrated to urban areas and are doing well financially these days too. For instance, you can see young Thai and Isaan rural children at university nowadays, which would not have been possible 20-30 years ago.

Yet, the Sino-Thais do control the media, politics and the economy, and it is very difficult for any Thai/Lao/Isaan people to break through except in the entertainment fields. In the battle for wealth, power and status, the Sino-Thais are in the lead, and it will not change any time soon.

[TJ]

In Thailand "In the battle for wealth, power and status, the Sino-Thais are in the lead, and it will not change any time soon."

Interesting. In the U.S. it is the Jews that are in the lead. They are great achievers and enjoy most of the high-level controling positions in the U.S. media, economy and politics. The present U.S. Supreme Court nominee is a Jew and will become the third jew within that august group.

[nkstan]

In Thailand "In the battle for wealth, power and status, the Sino-Thais are in the lead, and it will not change any time soon."

Interesting. In the U.S. it is the Jews that are in the lead. They are great achievers and enjoy most of the high-level controling positions in the U.S. media, economy and politics. The present U.S. Supreme Court nominee is a Jew and will become the third jew within that august group.

Probably true,but the disparity between those that want to acheive and those in power is not there because of no opportunity as in Thailand!No comparison ,really!