Thailand's late king Bhumipol
We created new lives for ourselves
there. We took an intensive, six-month course in Thai, and I began teaching at
Chiang Mai University, developing a course for foreigners who had come to Thailand
to teach English. My course book is still available online
and used by many people in many countries. Soon after we arrived, the Boxing
Day tsunami killed nearly a quarter million people in 14 countries.
We studied Thai culture and language, and Bernie became involved in
charitable organizations – first with local people who had suffered from leprosy;
later, with a Dutch charity directed at the country’s desperately poor Hill
Tribe people. These people, whose lives were restricted to the tops of
mountains, were deprived of the fertile lands in the valleys and often of Thai
citizenship. Hundreds of thousands are among our planet’s stateless peoples.
We travelled a lot. I, for one,
became immersed in the country’s history and religion – nominally Buddhist, but
with trappings of Hinduism and ancestor worship. There was deep reverence for King
Bhumibol. He was the ninth monarch of Thailand from his dynasty, which dates
back to 1782. Born in 1927, he was already elderly. I couldn’t imagine how the
country would respond when he died.
Each morning we woke up to BBC
World News, which kept us informed about the world outside Thailand. But on the
morning of September 19, 2006 that changed. Instead of comforting news from the
Beeb, we woke up to martial music. As I drove to work that morning, I
encountered military vehicles everywhere. Overnight, there had been a coup d’état.
I remember saying to Bernie, “It’s time to go back. We’re Canadians. We don’t
do coups.” A container ship took our belongings, and we returned home.
The Thais restored democracy for a
while, until another general took over in 2014. It was the country’s twelfth coup
since becoming a constitutional monarchy 86 years ago.
~~~~~
Fast forward a decade. The King died in 2016, and the
country mourned for more than a year. Recently a priest we knew in Chiang Mai –
Bernie went to mass at his church – sent a commentary to friends and former
parishioners that “many continue to wear black,” or have black ribbons sewn
onto their clothing, to honour the year of mourning “for the passing of the
well-revered, and genuinely loved, late king.” Although he was not crowned
until after the mourning period, the thrice-married (and, when we were there, unpopular) new king’s reign was back-dated to the
death of his father.
Then Father David Townsend’s
message becomes ominous. “Politically, Thailand remains in the grip of the army
generals who removed the last democratically elected government. Groups of more
than five persons meeting publicly are banned. Some well-respected scholars who
were hosting an international academic gathering here in Chiang Mai University
have been arrested,” he said about a country I once loved.
“There is great use of the
lèse-majesté law, computer laws and defamation laws, against opponents.
Whistle-blowers, social activists, and workers detailing the truth regarding
abuse of workers’ rights and such like, even BBC news reporters, can be
ensnared by defamation suits.” Dissidents are being “called into army barracks
for extended ‘conversations’ to encourage ‘attitude adjustment,’” he said.
~~~~~
The deposed former Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, warned
that the criminal negligence case against her would make future leaders rethink
any policy to help Thailand’s citizens. In court for alleged mismanagement over
her government’s rice pledging scheme, she gave a rather confusing defense. “No
public policy benefits you financially,” she said. “If you measured public
policy only by financial benefits, no government would want to make the
decision.” She came from a wealthy family and her brother, Thaksin, served as
PM while we were there.
When Thai general Prayuth Chan Ocha
staged his coup against her four years ago, it followed six months of street
protests against her fairly elected government. After the military took power,
they charged her with dereliction of duty.
The charges related to her
oversight of a political episode called the “rice pledging scheme.” The idea ran
aground in early 2014, after three years of accumulating from the country’s
many peasant farmers an inventory of more than 17 million tonnes of rice. This angered
the middle class in Bangkok, Southeast Asia’s economic colossus. The
bourgeoisie felt taxes were going into “populist” schemes laden with
corruption.
Four years after the coup, says the
headline
in a Singapore-based newspaper, “Thais tire of corruption and democratic delays.”
The good news, if there is any, is that popular dissent has begun. For example,
a few months ago the people of the northern city of Chiang Mai openly protested
the building of a government luxury housing project on forested land outside
the city. This was the largest gathering since the junta took control.
The military are also being
investigated by the country's anti-graft agency over a suspected
misappropriation of some C$512 million from a state fund for the poor. The
government, most Thais believe, is wide open to corruption and the haemorrhage
of state funds into military hands. The former government minister in charge of
a major aspect of the scheme received a 42-year custodial sentence. Prime
Minister General Prayuth has said to expect an election in about a year’s time.
Presumably activity by approved political parties will be allowed beforehand. Drafted
by military minds, the new constitution will no doubt give the armed forces continuing
political power.
~~~~~
After reading Father Townsend’s epistle, I got in touch with
three friends who had married Thai women and wanted to raise their kids in that
country. Two refused to discuss the situation, because living in a country
operated by a military with a good intelligence system carries risks. The third
– let’s call him Dave – formally responded, but in ways that made the impact of
military rule clear. At best, his comments were cautious; at worst, designing.
“My wife and I and our family are
pretty happy too. We are not rich, but I work and we make enough money,” he writes.
“I’m sending my daughter to university now, for example. I guess we would be
considered middle class by most standards.” In comparison to the days before
the latest coup, he suggested, “the current situation is a gift. I love
Thailand, and my Thai family and friends. The people I love best in the world,
outside of my American family, are all here. Yet this stability comes with high
prices – notably repression and oppression. People are not allowed to talk
about the government. People are not allowed to demand change.”
He says Thais admire justice and
free speech “in the abstract,” but “in the real world in Thailand, they are
secondary considerations at best.” Thais can be jailed for making comments on
social media about the government or monarchy. “I would certainly never do it,
and if any of my Thai friends did something like that I might never see them
again.” The mood is resigned but waiting for change: “Since people are not
permitted to act or speak their minds, or demonstrate in public, they cling to
old and moldy beliefs. No one will make the change themselves because they
think the cost is too high.”
“And they are right.”
