Afew days ago, a foreign friend asked me why there are so few Thais, especially those from civil society and NGOs, who oppose the Thai-Cambodian war.
I told him it’s similar to the not-insignificant number of Thais who choose their own interests and political leanings over upholding democratic system. (Yes, I’m talking about you—the ones who cheer on coups and hate the Shinawatra family so much you would gladly take anything else as long as it isn’t “Shinawatra.”)
And it’s also similar to those well-educated, seemingly modern “good Thai people” who can accept many universal rights, including LGBT rights and others, but when it comes to the royal defamation law (the lèse-majesté law), their parochial, uncritical devotion to the monarchy causes them to support the indefinite imprisonment of those who criticize or insult the royal institution.
So, when you filter out people who did not stand for democracy and freedom of expression, who for whatever reason failed to uphold two key princioles, the remaining number of Thais who adhere to higher principles is pitifully small, even among civil society and NGOs.
And when you add ultranationalism, it leaves only a few dozen pacifists, if not less, courageous enough to swim against the tide of ultranationalism to publicly speak out and say that we don’t want war, we don’t see the entire Cambodian nation as our enemy, we also feel empathy for the deaths, injuries, and suffering on the Cambodian side, and that we recognise that the border conflicts can be resolved peacefully if both sides try harder.
……
Note: when the post was first made by Pravit Rojanaphruk earlier this morning on Facebook, exiled historian and social media influencer Somsak Jeamteerasakul posted a comment to express his views.
Below the the translated text from Somsak:
Why do only a handful of Thai people oppose the war?
This is a question posed by Pravit Rojanaphruk.
My answer is: The core issue lies with the opposition party.
The People’s Party made a mistake by not opposing the military’s consolidation of power from the beginning. They made Cambodia the enemy instead of the military.
This was compounded by seeing their competitor make a blunder (“Paetongtarn” having a “slip” on the phone).
(Piyabutr Saengkanokkul [co-leader of Progresive Movement], seeing the problem, quickly proposed dissolving Parliament, but when Paetongtarn didn’t, he went silent.)
If the opposition had seen the problem from the start and chosen to lead with what was right, opposing the border closure (doing what Paetongtarn couldn’t), they could have created a movement to stop the war. The war could definitely have been stopped.
_________
