Thailand is a wonderful wonderful place, but is now in the throws of defining its future while at the same time trying to cope with its past. The result is a failed nation state with an ambivalent global presence with conflicting priorities, and as a result, a forgotten historical precedent of sustainability. Now here in the great city of Bangkok, I look around into a sea of complacent competitors. With the governmental leadership in question, there are fewer who believe next year will be better than last year (according to a recent poll), rightfully more skepticism of prevailing culture of corruption, and considerably fewer tourists than in past years (exhibiting the international communities lull in confidence for the security of travel in Thailand). With so much change the people are powerless and complacent, yet remain competitive in the quest for the bottom line.
My friend Mike Saltz, a teacher at an international school in Bangkok, thinks that recent political movements exhibit this trend. Recently the ruling party that was overthrown by the military coup of September 19 was removed and destroyed by the new Constitutional Court. This group, called the Thai Rak Thai (or TRT), banned from 2001 to 2005 has again been curbed for activity in the public forum. (TRT is the group that has been urging Thaksin to step down. Its interesting because the TRT is supported by most of the southern and rural pars of Thailand - including other surrounding countries). Its good news that the Democratic Party was allowed to continue into the future, yet it is unfortunate that they have foced this party to be the ONLY major contender in the upcoming elections (now scheduled for December). With no competitors for a democratic election, the military gets to have its cake and eat it too! Mike noted that the Democratic Party developed years ago as a result of the scaling-up of military power, so it is both good and contentious that they have been allowed to be in power.
The end is a big question mark for Thailand... nobody knows what is going to happen. I am actually in support of the fact that the ballots for Thailand include a "none of the above" clause (I think its empowering for people to say outright that the candidates are not acceptable by virtue of the process preceeding their granted ability to run for office). The problem is that many provinces might not send representation to Bangkok. It happened last year and might happen again. As a traveler on the eve of my return to the states, I can say that the international media has portrayed the situation more dire than it is actually. Regardless, we have our own election problems at home...democracy is a challenging but necessary element in our common quest to live harmoniously on national, international, and global levels. The biggest challenge remains transparency and corruption in this process and only a systematic approach to these and other problems will yield fair, legal democratic elections. The people of Thailand continue to chart this historic era of change complacently, yet with a highly competitive attitude for their own stake in the outcome.
Posts
