I am researching how the Thai monarch is semiotically positioned to represent the hegemonic Thai discourse of ‘unity’, through the multifaceted ways in which conformity is encouraged and open dissent is marginalized. The role of the state in inculculating the masses with a unitary form of Thainess – primarily through the education system and media – does not need to be explained to readers of New Mandala, nor does the role of the lese majeste in stifling overt displays of resistance. However, an interesting angle to consider is how seemingly independent groups like ‘Social Sanction’ orchestrate witch hunts by exposing as ‘red shirts’ those who do not display appropriate ‘Thainess’.
The Social Sanction Facebook group has over 20,000 members and ‘publishes the addresses and phone numbers of red-shirt opponents accused of defaming the Thai monarchy’. Recent cyber witch hunts have resulted in the lese majeste charge brought against ‘Joss Stick’ for her Facebook postings, and the violent attack on Nitirat member Worachet Pakeerut. Furthermore, it seems that one’s career success may also be built on showing the appropriate level of reverence. An obvious example is that of Mark from the ‘AF’ reality TV program, who was hounded off the show in 2010 after making Facebook comments criticizing royalist Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and, perhaps more provocatively, asking “…when will the picture be taken down from all the houses?”. Upon quitting the show Mark contritely apologized, calling for his fellow Thais to ‘put aside our political differences and unite for the pleasure of the King’, thus toeing the party line and, presumably, attempting to minimize the harm done to his career by standing out.
Another celebrity accused of red shirtery in 2010 was Bird Thongchai McIntyre, who was listed on a Facebook site dedicated to ‘condemning’ red celebrities. These accusations perhaps motivated him to insist, “I have no color, and I am loyal to the King”. In this context, it is perhaps unsurprising that Bird has chosen to involve himself in a new Thai cartoon, ‘in the footsteps of the king’, which will teach Thai children to ‘appreciate the King’s duties’. Irrespective of his true beliefs, it is a wise career move to position himself behind the patriarch as a way to avoid accusations of disloyalty. Presumably, if offered such a role, it would be imprudent to reject.
While these high profile cases receive plenty of media attention, another interesting angle to consider is how the politics of loyalty play out in the workplace. It would probably be unwise to overtly display opposing symbols, such as pictures of the Shinawatra clan; but what motivates somebody to decorate their office desk with images of the monarch? Could it be that they are seeking inspiration to get through the day, perhaps in the way that images of Mary are used by Catholics? Or, could it be that such overt displays of conformity are necessary to rise the corporate ladder in these times when suspicions are running high? I have no definitive answer to this question yet, but would very much appreciate any comments.
The history of witch hunting, both literal and metaphorical, has always been based on attempts to enforce conformity to the viewpoints of the dominant political class. This was equally true of the dark age era Catholic Church-inspired persecution of unmarried, rural women selling medicinal herbs, aka ‘witches’; the McCarthyist era’s attempts to stop the social democratic movements happening in Europe from spreading to the US; and the Russian Communist party’s institutionalizing/gulaging of political opponents. The purpose of witch hunts is to instill a singular hegemonic worldview, and those punished are usually guilty of little more than having different ideas to the dominant group. With the increasing rise of political consciousness in the countryside, it will be interesting to see if a more pluralized version of ‘Thainess’ emerges in the coming years once it is no longer possible to claim the need for unity under the semiotic figurehead. In the meantime, don’t stand out.
“I have no definitive answer to this question yet, but would very much appreciate any comments.”
IMO there is no definitive answer and you cannot pigeonhole the varying motivations for society. Whilst no one doubts the all pervasive daily reinforcement of the status quo I think there is a mixture of fear, respect, love and reassurance from long held traditions of filial piety.
The anthropological (and maybe) Freudian question to ask yourself as a researcher was asked famously a couple of years ago.
Do you love your Father?
Why?
Discuss….
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Don’t stand out, and DO stand up.
(and DO crawl)
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The House Committee on UnThai Activities?
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For those people who are interested in real history, there are free ebooks you can download in Project Gutenberg. If you are interested in the history of witch hunts in England there is a free book A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 by Wallace Notestein which you can download. I think it is better to get real history from the people who really did the researches than from words of mouths. From the book, you will see that witch hunts in this period was started by political party who wanted to equal Catholics as witches. In this period witch hunts were more of a political than religious events. Many half learned Western intellects who came to teach Thai children didn’t even study their own history. All they did were regurgitating what they heard in popular culture without checking the original texts. Because they talked from Western popular culture which our people had no expose to, it sounded like they know more than we do. Look at psychology as an example. Many Western people came to our society and talked like they know so much about psychology because of many Western psychologists they were able to name. Names like Freud and Jung, which were used to mesmerized many of our young men and women are already debunked Don’t take their words without study them yourself.
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You are right, Khong (4) that one of the West’s big problems is that its promoters are ignorant of their own history. The promoters also have big problems with their ignorance of other peoples’ languages, and of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology (especially human behaviour). However, there is a disease that the West has managed to throw off that still cripples Thailand, and that is absolutism. It was Science that freed the West from absolutism by securing the divorce of truth from authority. Truth is something dearly worth striving for but forever out of reach. When we strive for it disinterestedly and submit our findings to open-minded criticism, increasingly useful ideas are selected. Truth cannot be defined, as it usually is in Thailand, as anything handed down by teachers, monks, or kings. History tells us that what a king, or any other kind of politician says in private or in public, is seldom disinterested. It may well be corrupted by his desire to hang onto power. The same goes for archbishops, generals, football coaches, and vice-chancellors. Thailand has some catching up to do here.
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Khong,
While I share your sentiments, it’s both the great revolutions and evolution that the West has gone through that enable them to seize the moral high ground and constantly lecture us. In other words we do need some growing up to do and a lot of catching up. As a Burmese I may get nostalgic once in a while thinking of our monarchic past that ended just over 125 years ago, but do I wish it was restored? Hell, no. We have been under autocrats far worse than the old kings of yore for the last half century.
Granted ever since Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape, none of us has been left to our own devices to develop and evolve at our own pace our own sciences or democratic institutions. But we will all of us. We have our own contributions to make in the postmodern global village. The old expression in Burmese is, “ su tu pyu” ( gather, copy, create). And it will be undeniably Burmese.
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Khong #4 You reference a work that is over 100 years old, so hardly the latest in a field rich in research, which has a limited remit of studying England between 1558 and 1718. So it makes no reference to Pope Innocent VIII’s bull against witches pronounced in 1484 or of events happening throughout Europe where the largest trials took place and in which role of the Catholic church was central. Perhaps you too are only “half learned” and do not yet have the “real history”.
In any case I am not sure what the point of your post was. I do not see Thai children being taught “real history” by Thais in the Thai school system. Instead they are fed a State authorised story which is passed off as history. And this is one part of the over-riding objective of the Thai education system which is all about producing docile conforming citizens. Anything else would be un-Thai.
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It’s an open secret: Thailand is wired! And sometimes you get paid big for watching your neighbors…
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#6
“And it will be undeniably Burmese.” This will probably turn out to be an illusion. Or what is “undeniably Thai” in the lifestyle of Bangkok, etc.?
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The word witch-hunt is defined as: an investigation carried out ostensibly to uncover subversive activities but actually used to harass and undermine those with differing views.
In the history of the early modern European witch-hunt, there were two events contributing to the definition of the word witch-hunt, the Knight Templars and the Elizabethan witch hunt. Both of these events were a product of a political power of the monarchies. The first being King Philip of France who had much to gain from eradicating the Knight Templars and confiscating their properties. The second was a group of powerful men within the royal court of Queen Elizabeth who were paranoid about the safety of their queen from the Catholic assassins. Of course during this time magical spells were also tools used to kill people. It was these men of the royal court who formed a Commission to seek out and eradicate any conjuror within the 60 miles radius of London. These political events were responsible for the hysteria and the fear of witches. Because monies can be made from hunting witches, many men dedicated their life as witch hunters and wherever there are neighbors dislike one another witchcraft was the suspect.
It was especially clear during the time of Elizabeth that being witches in itself were not persecuted. Rather it was the crime that cause damage to people or belongings that were persecute. It is not surprise than to see people during this time calling themselves witches. Only when there is an accusation of using witchcraft to hurt or damages properties was there any form of prosecution. It was not until the time of King James when any form of witchcraft, black or white, were prosecuted.
Nowhere in the history of witches can you find a proof that the Catholic Church went out and accused unwedded women as witches. Witch hunts in early modern Europe were the result of powerful political organizations decided to take on their weaker rival. These events gave the definition of witch-hunt for what it is. There were witch prosecutions before these two events but these were rival between individuals for political positions especially within the royal courts.
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Srithanonchai,
Point taken. People in Yangon airport looking a lot like Thais nowadays except for a good proportion of them still wearing longyis and women with thanaka on their face. I remain convinced the Burmese will make it look different in the end.
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@Khong
Your claim that all witch hunts are tools used by monarchies to regulate their people, while actually helping my argument above, is, unfortunately, not the whole picture.
My article above was inspired by a few different things, which happened around the same time…..
Firstly, I was reading about the Malleus Maleficarum – written 1487 by an inquisitor of the Catholic Church. Its main purpose was ‘was to attempt to systematically refute arguments claiming that witchcraft does not exist’ and to ‘discredit those who expressed skepticism about its reality’, while ‘…anyone who did not fit within the contemporary view of pious Christians were suspect, and easily branded “Witch”. Usually to devastating effect’. Moreover, rumour was enough to bring somebody to trial, usually resulting in the accused being found guilty. A guilty plea could lessen the penalty, but still the punishment was grave….There’s more, if you’re interested, here – http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/
It seems apparent then that the ‘anti-witch’ laws – at least in this era- served the purpose of regulating societal behavior by punishing the ‘abnormal’ and enforcing conformity through fear. The purpose of the last paragraph of my article was to give some sort of historical narrative of epochs that, with hindsight, are rightly looked back upon as unnecessarily cruel and, thankfully, anachronistic. These eras saw ordinary people punished by the powerful for having alternative views. A question worth considering is how this period in Thai history will come to be looked back upon for its treatment of those who choose to see their society differently from those with control over the tanks and the education system. Is twenty years in a Thai prison for an old man with cancer for the crime of sending text messages so much different from how the government of the USSR would have treated dissent?
Secondly, during recent conversations with Thais in a few different parts of the country, I have heard a similar story repeating itself – not speaking about these issues is the way to stay out of trouble. If you get added to a pro-yellow facebook group, stay in it – don’t arouse the suspicions of your peers. If somebody gives you an image of the monarch, place it somewhere prominent, hiding it away implies disloyalty, and certainly don’t express any negative views in public or in Facebook, no matter how much you may believe them, as the long arm of the law and citizen cyber watchdogs are all around. I probably don’t need to mention the parallels to Orwell’s 1984, it’s called dystopian for a reason.
Finally, I was in the office of a large Bangkok firm recently and was surprised that there weren’t many images of the big guy on display on most desks, with two notable demographic differences. High ranking managers had images displayed on a more regular basis, this may indicate age and social background – a leaning towards conservative views and yellow shirt ideals. The other group were the lowest ranked in the organization, people in the lower paid administrative jobs, mail room, stationery etc. This observation aroused the question in the article about the purpose of displaying these images. Could it be protection against allegations of ‘redness’ due to their lower socio-economic position, or could it be a way to get through a tough life?
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“Is twenty years in a Thai prison for an old man with cancer for the crime of sending text messages so much different from how the government of the USSR would have treated dissent? ”
A very apt comparison , Jack. And while comparing Thailand to the USSR we should remember the Chiang Rai student who protested with his friends against the deaths at Ratchaprasong in 2010 and was immediately sent for psychiatric treatment. Very Soviet Union.
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And we thought we had problems in Burma. Some of us actually believe the open market economy and interaction with the West would be the answer to all our troubles. Thailand has been doing just that all along. Simply impervious or not quite manna from Western heavens? Perhaps both.
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Jack
If you do search on witch hunt on Wikipedia, you will see that witch persecutions were taking place in Rome long before Christianity. When Rome converted to Christianity witch persecutions stopped. If you read the history of the Middle Age such as Medieval People by Eileen Edna Power, you will see that many Pagan religion believers were not persecuted. In fact you can see some of those pagan beliefs were integrated into Christianity as evidence with the word like Gospel which came from old English for godspel. And you can see in modern literature such as J. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings.
The persecution of witches under Christianity didn’t not take place until 1300’s which was around the time of King Philip IV of France. King Philip was in debt to the Knight Templars and also the Knight Templars were rich. Philip wanted their wealth and made up charges against them and had them burnt at the stages. From this event, witch fearing and persecuting begins. The writing you were talking about took place in 1487 which was after the Knight Templars were being systematically eradicated. Just like I said, Philip set the stage for witch hunts by encourage people to persecute them and at the same time you can take possession of their properties and make yourself rich. That was how witch hunt begun and being sustained.
If you read the history of witch hunt in England, it was not until the time of King James in the late 1500’s to early 1600’s when practicing any form of magic was against the laws, which means being herbalists, or magic casters were not against the laws until this time.
The problem with people trying to write history in black and white without ever looking into the details, is that it misled people to take extreme form of reaction. This is the same with Thailand. The UDD leaders spoke repeatedly against labeling your group as being the good guys and the other as the bad guys. As they said, there are good people who are in the amart camp as well as evil, just as the prai are made up of both good and evil people. I know there are people who are in the amart camp trying to polarized the country into those who are loyal to the king and those who are not. They are creating an environment for their own down fall. The worst thing the prai can do is to play into that rule. This fight is not against anyone group or any particular person. Instead this is a fight for social justice and for a transparency social system.
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Having only been to Thailand once, for six weeks two years ago, I was at the time struck by its incredible beauty and the friendliness of its people…
However, having since learned something of the darker, more sinister political undercurrents that pervade this lovely country, I too am struck by the sheer breadth of the comparisons between Thailand and North Korea, or by the fictitious super-state of Oceania in Orwell’s 1984, or even by the dystopian London-of-the-future in the much more recent graphic novel adaptation, V For Vendetta…
If only there was some way of the ‘freer’ (in theory at least) Western world, intervening….
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Jonathan, the situation is a complex one – but it is unfolding/unravelling rapidly.
As far as western ‘intervention’ goes, I don’t think there is any credible organisation/nation that could perform such a task, nor do I think it would be the right thing to do.
This situation is going to be played out domestically. The outcome at the moment is impossible to predict.
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