The most brilliant government policy, if not understand by the people, would fail to gain support. It is simple as that.
What can be say from the woman’s opinion is that, junta have not successfully promote understanding of “sufficient economy” AND its implication to direct IMPROVEMENT of standard of living to their main rural target group. Every media are so busy with making the foreign and many urban elitist/middle class “understand” the concept and assume that with royalist stamp, it is acceptable by rural farmer, whom it apply directly.
But have anyone even bother to stop and ask if rural farmer are indeed want to live in a “sufficiency” economy?
Yes every human right abuse, every torture of prisoner, and every act by one Thai to dehumanize another Thai should shame Thailand. When did we start getting inhuman in the South and when will we stop?
I think a most people in this forum will agree that there is a lot of racism towards people of Northeastern descent and towards ethnic minorities. They are especially disadvantaged in terms of access and quality of higher education – and even if they complete their studies at a well-known university they still won’t get the better jobs because of their descent. So what we might need is some kind of Affirmative Action but this would scare the living daylights out of the Bangkok middle class and they would furiously defend their privileges.
A group of soldiers took Muhamud Arming Usoh from near his home on 30 October 2006, as he returned from work at a rubber plantation. They didn’t produce any arrest warrant or evidence, or tell him where they were taking him or why. The emergency regulations in force over the southern provinces didn’t require this of them. At an unidentified army camp, they allegedly kicked and hit him in the face and over the head with a steel bar; burnt cigarettes onto his neck, chest, ear and genitals; and, smashed beer bottles across his knees. Where the physical torture ended the psychological abuse continued: Arming, a Muslim, was allegedly chained to a dog for the night, before being taken to a bigger camp the next day. After the week was up, he was handed to the police and charged with murder and firearms offences.
Olivier: Spending all your earnings, or borrowing against them using credit cards, or being seduced by advertising, are all usually sure ways of staying, or becoming, poor.
I’m amazed at how Sufficiency philosophy, which advises against doing those things, can be turned into the ‘sufficiency = stay poor’ mantra.
That was Andrew Walker’s village mother and the earth moved in this forum.
If you hear my maid’s or driver’s opinions, there will be an earthquake.
I just get this nagging suspicion that there is some charlatan posing as a scholar trekking the boondocks and impressing the insufficients with his outraged epithets directed at the oppressing urbans.
This sounds like it might be of interest to olivier and others:
New Book!! OUT NOW!!
“A Coup For the Rich: Thailand’s political Crisis”
by
Giles Ji Ungpakorn
Workers Democracy Publishing 2007
If you believe in “elite theory”, you will see all developments in Thai history and politics as being determined by great leaders and great minds. You will support the idea that Democracy is a Western concept, unsuited to Thai society. You will believe that Thais worship Kings and dictators and all political events are due to the manipulation by Kings, Generals, Bosses or rich Politicians. But a one handed clap against thin air is nothing. An analysis that does not consider the relationship between the rulers and the ruled in a dialectical fashion is worthless.
It is impossible to understand Thai society and politics without a class struggle perspective. The reform movement that led to the 1997 Constitution was led from below. It ended up being hijacked by right-wing liberals and money politicians. The Populism of Thai Rak Thai can only be explained by the power of the oppressed and their potential to revolt in times of crisis. But Thai Rak Thai Populism is a terrible distortion of class struggle because it is a mechanism to buy social peace by a capitalist party. The coup of 2006 can only be understood as a “Coup for the Rich” against the interests of the poor. Both Populism and the coup were only possible because of the weakness in politics of the Thai Peoples Movement. This weakness has historical roots in the defeat of a previous cycle of class struggle in the 1970s. Finally, the violence in the South can only be explained by looking at the repression of the Thai State against the Malay Muslim population and how that population is fighting back.
This book attempts to analyse and sharply criticise contemporary Thai politics in a time of serious crisis. It deals with the Taksin crisis, the coup, the various sections of the elite (including the Monarchy), the Peoples Movement and the violence in the South. Hopefully it will stimulate further debate and discussion which will lead to an even better analysis of events.
Contents
Chapter 1 The Taksin Crisis and the Coup for the Rich
Chapter 2 Inventing Ancient Thai Traditions: an analysis of the Monarchy
Chapter 3 The politics of the Peoples Movement and the “October People”
Chapter 4 Southern Woes: Why the Thai state is responsible for the violence in the South and the problems of the tsunami
How to buy this book
The book should be available from Chulalongkorn University bookshops from late February 2007.
You can also order the book direct by mail:
1. Within Thailand: send a Thai bank cheque or postal order for 200 baht (cost includes postage) to: Giles Ji Ungpakorn, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand .
2. From Abroad: send a U.K. sterling bank cheque for five pounds (cost includes airmail postage) to: Giles Ji Ungpakorn, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330 , Thailand. OR send cash to the sum of ten U.S. dollars to the above address.
A third and last comment:
As a principle, sufficiency eocnnomy seems to me as common sense. It has undoubtely positive and generous aspects; for instance, if we ask the elite to follow such a conduct, there will probably be less corruption, people will be less greedy for money and material achievments, and they will also pay more attention to the need of the disadvanged peoples.
But as such, “sufficiency economy” is just common sense, or let say an utopia. It could also simply be called “sustainable development”, the idea is really the same.
Then, the efforts of the Thai elite to build such a principle into a theory (while indeed denying that this can be a theory!) or at least an intellectual framework through seminars (in revolutionary Laos, the communists also used to organise seminars for those who did not understand the principle of the new socialist thinking), articles and critics of any alternative voice are doing more harm than good to this idea. What I have read today in the Bangkok Post makes me think that there are worrying connections between sufficiency, privileges and xenophobia…
I repeat my first comment : what is urgently needed are socials studies of the Thai working class (and not only rural peoples). As far as I know (but I may be wrong), no Thai scholars did any fieldwork on that subject (Bangkok factories workers, working-class migrants in the Middle-East for instance). I have read some papers by Mary Beth Mills, a foreign anthropologist, but nothing by the Thai themselves (either in thai or in english). If anyone can give me bibliogrqaphic references here, these would be much welcome.
Quoting anonymous
“How wonderful for us that we have you to sift through the opinions of people you meet so you can decide whose opinion is “important” and thus worth reporting vs. whose is not. How marvelously non-elitist of you. Keep up the great work”
Hey man, come on! Go to the field yourself then let us know about Thai people opinions! We are open to any other discourse! This is just one examle, maybe you can find contradictory ones…so just do it! Leave your office and your self-sufficiency vison of the world!
sorry, I just realise that my comment is reppeating nearly word by word a previous post of Andrew Walker who quote an old lady from the Chiang Mai area…sorry indeed, this was not intentional…I am delighted to realise that Thai themselves have these kinds of reaction and are sharing them openly with foreigners…there are still reasons for hope!
I don’t know yet if I will be invited to such a seminar by the Chiang Mai University (indeed I hope to be!)…for anyone who still doubts that the sufficiency economy theory is beeing used by the Thai elite as a intelectual dictature over the working class and as a way of condemning any “foreign” (e.g Western) influence or alternative critic, then the commentary of Veera Prateepchaikul (Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Bangkok Post) is a most to read (Bangkok Post 5/02/2007, page 9). The article itself is entitled “Foreign press seems to Love Taksin”.
A short quote:
“Sufficiency economy is not an economic theory but a philosophy on how to live. Like Buddhism, it preaches moderation and sustanaibility. It definitely does not reject capitalism or globalisation. For an individual, it means living within his or her means. If someone earn 10,000 baht a month, they should not spend all their earnings or borrow against them by using credit cards”
So, the working class should stay at their place, the poor should act as poor and should not be seduced by the advetisments which you can see at every corner of the street! And of course, this kind of discourse is held by the upper class!
What Thailand really needs now is studies conducted by intelligent scholars about the working class, its aspiration, its conditions of living and the way for the politicians to meet their desires. Otherwise, sufficiency economy will be another way to say to the poor: be happy with what you have, or we will have to send troops in the streets again!
Yes indeed, I really hope to be invited to a seminar about sufficiency economy !
To be honest, I think this sufficiency economy idea is starting to sound just like a way of weaning people off the way Thailand subsidized them aka bought their vote. My initial reaction is to say that’s a good thing, so in this sense I think the sufficiency economy idea might have a bit of merit.
It sounds like this would increase the farmer’s self-sufficiency and work ethic, which seem like two areas where these farmers can use some improvement.
It seems like many people are still living in a feudal agricultural system where they have no attachment to the idea that the harder they work, the more money they’ll earn.
Where does the Sufficiency Economy fit into all this? help or hurt? opinions anyone?
Nicholas Farrelly and Andrew Walker are breaking new grounds, in my opinion, by translating in English the opinions of maids, cooks and village mothers of Thailand. And I do not refute Andrew Walker that these hard-working Thai helps and rurals have opinions . . I’ll be alarmed if they don’t.
Would Nicholas and Andrew REALLY wish to hear my maid’s opinion about offshore vehicles and her ethical discourse on nominees and tax finagling by the rich? She has opinions plenty, most learned listening to radio broadcasts from Sonthi L’s and reading Thai newspapers and gossips from neighbors.
I am just disappointed with you Andrew Walker, as usual.
In defence of NGO’s, I dont think you will find many that are against increased education opprtunities for rural students.
Also, I am glad the NGO’s are strong environmental acivists because they are about the only ones that act as a counter balance to uncontrolled commercialisaion (capitalism) – we don’t need another Map Ta Phut.
I wonder why sufficiency economy is promoted and encouraged in backward countries like Thailand and Bhutan. Look at China, a former communist country, has never practiced sufficiency economy but now its economy is no. 4 in the world after the US, Japan, and Germany. Something is wrong here….
Oh, Mr Walker, is the level of your analytic thought? Do you confuse bewilderment that a so-called “academic” doesn’t understand how a selective smattering of various comments serves little useful function in a policy debate with alarm that “rural people in Thailand actually have opinions”? A laundry list of various comments that agree with your political viewpoint is your response to a methodological dispute? Hang on a second, let me chat with a few friends…OK, here are some more “important opinions” for you:
1. Apocalypto was a pretty violent film
2. Something smells like its burning in the kitchen
3. It’s really annoying when taxi drivers don’t know directions
There, some erudite “sociologically important” opinions to add to your list – with the same amount of rigor you put in to understanding how those opinions relate to the population you’re reporting on.
Mr Pig Latin – Yes, you’re right of course, I *did” assume that Mr. Walker’s comments were an attempt at useful policy discussion – especially as this random comment was presented as “An interesting contribution to the sufficiency economy debate.” Silly me, so sorry.
Mr Walker – How wonderful for us that we have you to sift through the opinions of people you meet so you can decide whose opinion is “important” and thus worth reporting vs. whose is not. How marvelously non-elitist of you. Keep up the great work.
“She said that the policy was, in effect, discouraging rural people from seeking higher education (rian sung). In her view urban Thais felt threatened by the influx of educated rural youngsters into the labour market (her own daughter had recently graduated and obtained urban employment). Sufficiency economy, in her eyes, was an attempt to shelter urbanites from the educational and occupational competition generated by hardworking and diligent rural students.”
1. To a certain extent this woman is projecting her specific problems onto what is a rather bleak job market for anyone, rural or urban, without money, power, and connections. This has nothing to do with sufficiency economy.
Also rural schools are often backwaters, like Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. One of my wife’s rural teachers humiliated her many years ago by cutting her in front of the whole class. They had only a cold mutual stare for each other when they bumped into each other on the street one day recently.
2. There has always been deep-seated racism against people from Isan and the Akha, or people with darker skin. When you mention Isan or Akha in class, a couple of students will mumble Lao or I-kaw and everyone will laugh. If this woman’s daughter has smooth white skin, long black hair, and a pleasant laugh, her work prospects will increase significantly, for all the wrong reasons.
Just like the myriad forms of plagiarism that a teacher encounters, if they bother to look closely, and that school administrations never seem very concerned about, in fact will probably blame the teacher for because they discovered it, racism seems to be a non-issue in Thai universities. Flaunting of the dress code though….
As a university teacher, what initially seems likes wonderful diversity, you soon realize is, in the mind of the student, an embarrassing identity that must be concealed at all costs.
Granted, it is difficult for rural students to break into the more sophisticated urban work scene. It takes a long time for alumni to set up networks that help graduates get jobs. That’s why universities have internships, many of them in the city.
Also there is just some atrociously low quality teaching and useless curriculums out there along with Thai teacher classloads that would truly boggle westerners.
I know reforms have been made to increase teaching quality, like limited time contracts, the keeping of work portfolios to document contributions, exams for continued employment even very late in one’s career (exams providing objectivity but also possible irrelevance, I’ve seen gifted senior Thai teachers who just left rather than deal with this).
However, bowing your head in humility and defeat, and allowing those senior in the hierarchy to step on you, will always be prized more than contributions that might upset the tenuous hierarchy of power. This is nothing new.
“Research” means “foreign money” and field trips, hotel rooms, buffet lunches, not publications in local or international journals.
When I first came to Bangkok from the provinces, I was surprised to find out how many of my adult students were born, raised, and lived in Bangkok their whole lives. This was very different from Seoul, Korea, for instance, where a large fraction of people there came from provinces around the country.
On the bright side, it is a whole lot easier to be a small business-person in Thailand than it is in the west. One might say that almost everyone in Maesai, for instance, is a small shop owner.
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The poor stay poor, the rich stay rich
The most brilliant government policy, if not understand by the people, would fail to gain support. It is simple as that.
What can be say from the woman’s opinion is that, junta have not successfully promote understanding of “sufficient economy” AND its implication to direct IMPROVEMENT of standard of living to their main rural target group. Every media are so busy with making the foreign and many urban elitist/middle class “understand” the concept and assume that with royalist stamp, it is acceptable by rural farmer, whom it apply directly.
But have anyone even bother to stop and ask if rural farmer are indeed want to live in a “sufficiency” economy?
Why do we even call it ‘Thai’-land?
Yes every human right abuse, every torture of prisoner, and every act by one Thai to dehumanize another Thai should shame Thailand. When did we start getting inhuman in the South and when will we stop?
The poor stay poor, the rich stay rich
I think a most people in this forum will agree that there is a lot of racism towards people of Northeastern descent and towards ethnic minorities. They are especially disadvantaged in terms of access and quality of higher education – and even if they complete their studies at a well-known university they still won’t get the better jobs because of their descent. So what we might need is some kind of Affirmative Action but this would scare the living daylights out of the Bangkok middle class and they would furiously defend their privileges.
Why do we even call it ‘Thai’-land?
From the AHRC’s statement:
A group of soldiers took Muhamud Arming Usoh from near his home on 30 October 2006, as he returned from work at a rubber plantation. They didn’t produce any arrest warrant or evidence, or tell him where they were taking him or why. The emergency regulations in force over the southern provinces didn’t require this of them. At an unidentified army camp, they allegedly kicked and hit him in the face and over the head with a steel bar; burnt cigarettes onto his neck, chest, ear and genitals; and, smashed beer bottles across his knees. Where the physical torture ended the psychological abuse continued: Arming, a Muslim, was allegedly chained to a dog for the night, before being taken to a bigger camp the next day. After the week was up, he was handed to the police and charged with murder and firearms offences.
Read more about these outrages here: http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2006statements/911/
Sufficiency Supreme Command Headquarters
Olivier: Spending all your earnings, or borrowing against them using credit cards, or being seduced by advertising, are all usually sure ways of staying, or becoming, poor.
I’m amazed at how Sufficiency philosophy, which advises against doing those things, can be turned into the ‘sufficiency = stay poor’ mantra.
The poor stay poor, the rich stay rich
Wonderful!
That was Andrew Walker’s village mother and the earth moved in this forum.
If you hear my maid’s or driver’s opinions, there will be an earthquake.
I just get this nagging suspicion that there is some charlatan posing as a scholar trekking the boondocks and impressing the insufficients with his outraged epithets directed at the oppressing urbans.
Sufficiency Supreme Command Headquarters
This sounds like it might be of interest to olivier and others:
New Book!! OUT NOW!!
“A Coup For the Rich: Thailand’s political Crisis”
by
Giles Ji Ungpakorn
Workers Democracy Publishing 2007
If you believe in “elite theory”, you will see all developments in Thai history and politics as being determined by great leaders and great minds. You will support the idea that Democracy is a Western concept, unsuited to Thai society. You will believe that Thais worship Kings and dictators and all political events are due to the manipulation by Kings, Generals, Bosses or rich Politicians. But a one handed clap against thin air is nothing. An analysis that does not consider the relationship between the rulers and the ruled in a dialectical fashion is worthless.
It is impossible to understand Thai society and politics without a class struggle perspective. The reform movement that led to the 1997 Constitution was led from below. It ended up being hijacked by right-wing liberals and money politicians. The Populism of Thai Rak Thai can only be explained by the power of the oppressed and their potential to revolt in times of crisis. But Thai Rak Thai Populism is a terrible distortion of class struggle because it is a mechanism to buy social peace by a capitalist party. The coup of 2006 can only be understood as a “Coup for the Rich” against the interests of the poor. Both Populism and the coup were only possible because of the weakness in politics of the Thai Peoples Movement. This weakness has historical roots in the defeat of a previous cycle of class struggle in the 1970s. Finally, the violence in the South can only be explained by looking at the repression of the Thai State against the Malay Muslim population and how that population is fighting back.
This book attempts to analyse and sharply criticise contemporary Thai politics in a time of serious crisis. It deals with the Taksin crisis, the coup, the various sections of the elite (including the Monarchy), the Peoples Movement and the violence in the South. Hopefully it will stimulate further debate and discussion which will lead to an even better analysis of events.
Contents
Chapter 1 The Taksin Crisis and the Coup for the Rich
Chapter 2 Inventing Ancient Thai Traditions: an analysis of the Monarchy
Chapter 3 The politics of the Peoples Movement and the “October People”
Chapter 4 Southern Woes: Why the Thai state is responsible for the violence in the South and the problems of the tsunami
How to buy this book
The book should be available from Chulalongkorn University bookshops from late February 2007.
You can also order the book direct by mail:
1. Within Thailand: send a Thai bank cheque or postal order for 200 baht (cost includes postage) to: Giles Ji Ungpakorn, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand .
2. From Abroad: send a U.K. sterling bank cheque for five pounds (cost includes airmail postage) to: Giles Ji Ungpakorn, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330 , Thailand. OR send cash to the sum of ten U.S. dollars to the above address.
—
Sufficiency Supreme Command Headquarters
A third and last comment:
As a principle, sufficiency eocnnomy seems to me as common sense. It has undoubtely positive and generous aspects; for instance, if we ask the elite to follow such a conduct, there will probably be less corruption, people will be less greedy for money and material achievments, and they will also pay more attention to the need of the disadvanged peoples.
But as such, “sufficiency economy” is just common sense, or let say an utopia. It could also simply be called “sustainable development”, the idea is really the same.
Then, the efforts of the Thai elite to build such a principle into a theory (while indeed denying that this can be a theory!) or at least an intellectual framework through seminars (in revolutionary Laos, the communists also used to organise seminars for those who did not understand the principle of the new socialist thinking), articles and critics of any alternative voice are doing more harm than good to this idea. What I have read today in the Bangkok Post makes me think that there are worrying connections between sufficiency, privileges and xenophobia…
I repeat my first comment : what is urgently needed are socials studies of the Thai working class (and not only rural peoples). As far as I know (but I may be wrong), no Thai scholars did any fieldwork on that subject (Bangkok factories workers, working-class migrants in the Middle-East for instance). I have read some papers by Mary Beth Mills, a foreign anthropologist, but nothing by the Thai themselves (either in thai or in english). If anyone can give me bibliogrqaphic references here, these would be much welcome.
The poor stay poor, the rich stay rich
Quoting anonymous
“How wonderful for us that we have you to sift through the opinions of people you meet so you can decide whose opinion is “important” and thus worth reporting vs. whose is not. How marvelously non-elitist of you. Keep up the great work”
Hey man, come on! Go to the field yourself then let us know about Thai people opinions! We are open to any other discourse! This is just one examle, maybe you can find contradictory ones…so just do it! Leave your office and your self-sufficiency vison of the world!
Sufficiency Supreme Command Headquarters
sorry, I just realise that my comment is reppeating nearly word by word a previous post of Andrew Walker who quote an old lady from the Chiang Mai area…sorry indeed, this was not intentional…I am delighted to realise that Thai themselves have these kinds of reaction and are sharing them openly with foreigners…there are still reasons for hope!
Sufficiency Supreme Command Headquarters
I don’t know yet if I will be invited to such a seminar by the Chiang Mai University (indeed I hope to be!)…for anyone who still doubts that the sufficiency economy theory is beeing used by the Thai elite as a intelectual dictature over the working class and as a way of condemning any “foreign” (e.g Western) influence or alternative critic, then the commentary of Veera Prateepchaikul (Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Bangkok Post) is a most to read (Bangkok Post 5/02/2007, page 9). The article itself is entitled “Foreign press seems to Love Taksin”.
A short quote:
“Sufficiency economy is not an economic theory but a philosophy on how to live. Like Buddhism, it preaches moderation and sustanaibility. It definitely does not reject capitalism or globalisation. For an individual, it means living within his or her means. If someone earn 10,000 baht a month, they should not spend all their earnings or borrow against them by using credit cards”
So, the working class should stay at their place, the poor should act as poor and should not be seduced by the advetisments which you can see at every corner of the street! And of course, this kind of discourse is held by the upper class!
What Thailand really needs now is studies conducted by intelligent scholars about the working class, its aspiration, its conditions of living and the way for the politicians to meet their desires. Otherwise, sufficiency economy will be another way to say to the poor: be happy with what you have, or we will have to send troops in the streets again!
Yes indeed, I really hope to be invited to a seminar about sufficiency economy !
Sufficiency economy, insufficient money
To be honest, I think this sufficiency economy idea is starting to sound just like a way of weaning people off the way Thailand subsidized them aka bought their vote. My initial reaction is to say that’s a good thing, so in this sense I think the sufficiency economy idea might have a bit of merit.
It sounds like this would increase the farmer’s self-sufficiency and work ethic, which seem like two areas where these farmers can use some improvement.
It seems like many people are still living in a feudal agricultural system where they have no attachment to the idea that the harder they work, the more money they’ll earn.
Where does the Sufficiency Economy fit into all this? help or hurt? opinions anyone?
Sufficiency economy: ‘Why we are grateful to Thaksin’
Nicholas Farrelly and Andrew Walker are breaking new grounds, in my opinion, by translating in English the opinions of maids, cooks and village mothers of Thailand. And I do not refute Andrew Walker that these hard-working Thai helps and rurals have opinions . . I’ll be alarmed if they don’t.
Would Nicholas and Andrew REALLY wish to hear my maid’s opinion about offshore vehicles and her ethical discourse on nominees and tax finagling by the rich? She has opinions plenty, most learned listening to radio broadcasts from Sonthi L’s and reading Thai newspapers and gossips from neighbors.
I am just disappointed with you Andrew Walker, as usual.
Sufficiency economy: ‘Why we are grateful to Thaksin’
pro sufficiency economy and a maid? maybe Veena had two beforehand…
Lessons from the Thaksin era
In defence of NGO’s, I dont think you will find many that are against increased education opprtunities for rural students.
Also, I am glad the NGO’s are strong environmental acivists because they are about the only ones that act as a counter balance to uncontrolled commercialisaion (capitalism) – we don’t need another Map Ta Phut.
Sufficiency economy, insufficient money
To hpboothe:
Maybe it’s time you did some research yourself.
I suggest that you start with: What’s the difference between a blog and a research paper?
The poor stay poor, the rich stay rich
I wonder why sufficiency economy is promoted and encouraged in backward countries like Thailand and Bhutan. Look at China, a former communist country, has never practiced sufficiency economy but now its economy is no. 4 in the world after the US, Japan, and Germany. Something is wrong here….
Sufficiency economy, insufficient money
Oh, Mr Walker, is the level of your analytic thought? Do you confuse bewilderment that a so-called “academic” doesn’t understand how a selective smattering of various comments serves little useful function in a policy debate with alarm that “rural people in Thailand actually have opinions”? A laundry list of various comments that agree with your political viewpoint is your response to a methodological dispute? Hang on a second, let me chat with a few friends…OK, here are some more “important opinions” for you:
1. Apocalypto was a pretty violent film
2. Something smells like its burning in the kitchen
3. It’s really annoying when taxi drivers don’t know directions
There, some erudite “sociologically important” opinions to add to your list – with the same amount of rigor you put in to understanding how those opinions relate to the population you’re reporting on.
The poor stay poor, the rich stay rich
Mr Pig Latin – Yes, you’re right of course, I *did” assume that Mr. Walker’s comments were an attempt at useful policy discussion – especially as this random comment was presented as “An interesting contribution to the sufficiency economy debate.” Silly me, so sorry.
Mr Walker – How wonderful for us that we have you to sift through the opinions of people you meet so you can decide whose opinion is “important” and thus worth reporting vs. whose is not. How marvelously non-elitist of you. Keep up the great work.
The poor stay poor, the rich stay rich
“She said that the policy was, in effect, discouraging rural people from seeking higher education (rian sung). In her view urban Thais felt threatened by the influx of educated rural youngsters into the labour market (her own daughter had recently graduated and obtained urban employment). Sufficiency economy, in her eyes, was an attempt to shelter urbanites from the educational and occupational competition generated by hardworking and diligent rural students.”
1. To a certain extent this woman is projecting her specific problems onto what is a rather bleak job market for anyone, rural or urban, without money, power, and connections. This has nothing to do with sufficiency economy.
Also rural schools are often backwaters, like Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. One of my wife’s rural teachers humiliated her many years ago by cutting her in front of the whole class. They had only a cold mutual stare for each other when they bumped into each other on the street one day recently.
2. There has always been deep-seated racism against people from Isan and the Akha, or people with darker skin. When you mention Isan or Akha in class, a couple of students will mumble Lao or I-kaw and everyone will laugh. If this woman’s daughter has smooth white skin, long black hair, and a pleasant laugh, her work prospects will increase significantly, for all the wrong reasons.
Just like the myriad forms of plagiarism that a teacher encounters, if they bother to look closely, and that school administrations never seem very concerned about, in fact will probably blame the teacher for because they discovered it, racism seems to be a non-issue in Thai universities. Flaunting of the dress code though….
As a university teacher, what initially seems likes wonderful diversity, you soon realize is, in the mind of the student, an embarrassing identity that must be concealed at all costs.
Granted, it is difficult for rural students to break into the more sophisticated urban work scene. It takes a long time for alumni to set up networks that help graduates get jobs. That’s why universities have internships, many of them in the city.
Also there is just some atrociously low quality teaching and useless curriculums out there along with Thai teacher classloads that would truly boggle westerners.
I know reforms have been made to increase teaching quality, like limited time contracts, the keeping of work portfolios to document contributions, exams for continued employment even very late in one’s career (exams providing objectivity but also possible irrelevance, I’ve seen gifted senior Thai teachers who just left rather than deal with this).
However, bowing your head in humility and defeat, and allowing those senior in the hierarchy to step on you, will always be prized more than contributions that might upset the tenuous hierarchy of power. This is nothing new.
“Research” means “foreign money” and field trips, hotel rooms, buffet lunches, not publications in local or international journals.
When I first came to Bangkok from the provinces, I was surprised to find out how many of my adult students were born, raised, and lived in Bangkok their whole lives. This was very different from Seoul, Korea, for instance, where a large fraction of people there came from provinces around the country.
On the bright side, it is a whole lot easier to be a small business-person in Thailand than it is in the west. One might say that almost everyone in Maesai, for instance, is a small shop owner.
None of this is going to change overnight.