We won’t treat police who show up in their uniform. But if they come in as general people, we will provide treatment.
- Dr Kasem Tantipalacheeva from the Somdet Chaopraya Institute of Psychiatry quoted in “Doctors defend decision”, The Nation, 10 October 2008.
The full Thai-language statement by Dr Kasem is available here. Treatment for police in uniform is, I’m sure, available elsewhere. O, and if the obscure title reference is missed some pointers are available here, here and here.
2 responses so far ↓
1 R. N. England // Oct 10, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Western armies at war treat wounded enemy soldiers.
Compare this to the attitiude of these high-status Thais to fellow Thais they regard as inferior.
2 Leif Jonsson // Oct 12, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Glancing at this with tired eyes, I thought your “obscure title” was Madonna’s (that has to be Jao-Mae something) Material Girl, “We are living in a material world, and I am a material girl”.
Looking at the news story from Matichon, I see no sign that this is about elitism, “the attitiude of these high-status Thais to fellow Thais they regard as inferior,” but rather a set of unresolved tensions in Thai society regarding the meaning of people in police and military uniforms. It is interesting to see this come from the supposedly clear-mided people at the royally-identified psychiatry institute. There are many skeletons (in uniform) in the closet, from the 1970s, 1992, and quite recently, that’s where the itch is from, not some non-Western elitism.
In theory, “western armies at war treat wounded enemy soldiers,” but the statement also conjures up a reality of honorable occidentals and the dishonorable rest. That is, it invents a (racialized) social division on a global scale that is analogous to what the PAD and many other players in Thailand are doing on a national scale.
I had never thought that I would take the side of the Thai police in any of these public debates and unrest, but the account of Oct 7 (and other recent PAD stunts) took me somewhere really new. Thanks for the post and more generally.
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