There\u2019s a mismatch between traditional Thai culture and democratic values, a reason why democracy struggles to take hold in the mindset of many Thais.
Democracy requires citizen participation, not just to vote every four years (or in Thailand, whenever the military allows us), but also to participate politically in everyday life. Why? Because politics operate in everyday life.
Citizens are the most potent checks and balances to the government. A healthy democracy needs passionate citizens willing to stand up for their rights and never stop demanding the government do better. Hence, the popular phrase, \u201c\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22\u0e44\u0e21\u0e48\u0e17\u0e19\u201d ( Thai-mai-ton or Thais will no longer endure).
Contrarily, the traditional Thai culture demands us to endure. To bow our heads and accept our lot in life, even in the face of injustice and\/or incompetence. Hence, the belief, \u201c\u0e0a\u0e30\u0e15\u0e32\u0e01\u0e23\u0e23\u0e21\u201d (cha-taa-gam), which has a religious undertone. It\u2019s a matter of fate or karma.
In short, democracy is confrontational; traditional culture is passive-aggressive.
Regarding COVID-19 management, on 23 June, Doctor Yuwares Sittichanbuncha posted that she has never been disappointed in the government because she never had expectations that \u201cfish could climb a tree\u201d or \u201cchicken could swim underwater.\u201d
Doctor Yuwares is a respected medical expert and Head of Emergency at Ramathibodi Hospital. She concluded that people shouldn\u2019t waste time on things \u201cthey can\u2019t control\u201d (such as criticizing the government). Instead, people should take care of themselves, don\u2019t \u201cdrop the guard.\u201d
Add bitting sarcasm to hopelessness. It\u2019s deliciously passive-aggressive.
The following day, Lakkana \u201cKam Paka\u201d Punwichai went on an expletive-filled tirade against such an attitude. Kam Paka is a talk show host at Voice TV, extremely popular among the younger generation. She\u2019s an accomplished wordsmith and a historian who backup her passionate commentaries with analysis, evidence, and juicy expletives.
Kam Paka believes in hitting back against injustice and never let up on condemning incompetence. She doesn\u2019t shy away from confrontation, and General Prayut Chan-o-cha\u2019s lawyer is suing her for her past criticism.
Hence, the difference between two women, both at the top of their professions:
The traditionally appropriate Thai woman, \u201c\u0e40\u0e23\u0e35\u0e22\u0e1a\u0e23\u0e49\u0e2d\u0e22\u0e40\u0e2b\u0e21\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e19\u0e1c\u0e49\u0e32\u0e1e\u0e31\u0e1a\u0e44\u0e27\u0e49\u201d (proper as a neatly folded cloth) and the \u201cnew woman\u201d who isn\u2019t afraid to go head-to-head with even the most powerful men.
On the other hand, whether democracy requires expletives, that\u2019s a matter of taste and preference. But democracy also has options, such as turn to a different channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a mismatch between traditional Thai culture and democratic values, a reason why democracy struggles to take hold in the mindset of many Thais. Democracy requires citizen participation, not just to vote every four years (or in Thailand, whenever the military allows us), but also to participate politically in everyday life. Why? Because politics operate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,122,12,14,13],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thisurpt","tag-thai-culture","tag-thai-women","tag-thailand","tag-thisrupt","tag-whatshappeninginthailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}