An interesting commentary on the Thai coup has been provided by India’s Economic and Political Weekly. The article provides some useful reflection on the lack of a genuine Thai left political force:
Irrespective of how the new Thai constitution finally looks like, it is becoming clear that a mere tinkering with the paperwork is not going to solve the problems of Thailand’s fledgling and highly unstable electoral democracy. One of the less discussed reasons for such fragility of democratic institutions is the complete absence of any left political party in the country. Anyone surveying the spectrum of political parties in Thailand currently can easily see that every one of them is a right of centre front for one business lobby or the other. This has led to an obvious imbalance in the country’s electoral democracy, which stands on just one right leg and falls down at the slightest political or social provocation.
A popular left party – even garden variety social democrats – openly taking up issues of the rural and urban poor, youth, women and workers will not only provide a much-needed counterweight to the forces of conservatism but also put Thai democracy on a much stronger foundation.
You would think that Thailand’s active and diverse NGO movement may provide some basis for such a leftish political force. But all too often they seem distracted by elitist nostalgia and versions of sufficiency rhetoric (often combined with a simplistic environmentalism that automatically associates modernisation with degradation). As I wrote four days after the coup:
The disconnect from the rural which arises from the anti-modern and anti-capitalist thinking of many of Thailand’s leftish leaning commentators leaves them poorly placed to defend the rights of Thailand’s majority to participate in democratic national politics. Thaksin has badly wrongfooted them, displaying a more acute understanding of rural aspirations than many of these “grass roots” commentators. And the wrong foot is not a good place to be when confronting a coup.
3 responses so far ↓
1 lingling // Nov 19, 2006 at 12:13 am
This is endemic globally, isn’t it? Where is the left anywhere now a days?…I asked this question here earlier today, whether this site had a leftist leaning with some feeling or voice of solidarity with the rural population of Thailand? It would appear that there is a pro rural lobby here…is anyone on this site actually involved in any political movements in Thailand? Are there grass roots groups that are supported here, people outsiders can talk to, perhpas help out?
2 lingling // Nov 19, 2006 at 10:47 am
I saw mention of the “midnight University” in that article on the Thai coup in hot soup, did this site have links to it? Couldn’t New Mandala provide an alternative venue for it until freedom of speech is returned to Thailand? It would make for another picture link that would certainly attract more attention to this site, raising your profile and academic voices in a public forum? Assuming the administrators here share these kinds of political leanings, that is.
Does anyone onthis site know of similar sites with such political links?
3 leftist // Nov 19, 2006 at 8:48 pm
I’m left scratching my head…. what is this “left” that they are talking about? Lots of issues that leftists in the US and Europe traditionally care about aren’t really issues at all in Thailand.
– Abortion/Women’s reproductive rights: Chamlong Srimuang entered politics, not to fight against corruption or military dictatorship, but to fight against a raped woman’s right to get an abortion. Since then, nobody has dared touch the issue.
– Feminism: Lots of girls go to university and enter industries like IT and finance. But women are still largely viewed as sex-objects, yet lots of girls these days (especially teenagers and university students) take pride in their own sexuality. Does that make Thai women opressed? Or does that make them feminists, or post-feminists?
– Human rights: Nobody really cares about this. All those NGOs that complain about the war against drugs did so, not during 2003, but during 2005, when the tide was turning against Thaksin. Self-serving hypocrites, they were.
– Socialism: Lots of people seem to want the government to nationalize/re-nationalize industries like energy and the media. But I don’t think this is because they are socialists as much as they want to undo as many Thaksin policies as possible.
– Environment: Nobody really cares about conservation that much. Since when has a political party ever had a concrete policy about the environment.
– Institutionalized wealth and power: OK, finally an issue that means something in Thailand. Except that the only political party in the past 20 years that has campaigned on and implemented programs to redistribute wealth to the poor has also lined its own pockets. Is a self-serving leftist still a leftist?
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