To date, more than 500 people have been reportedly killed in the crisis in Myanmar. Over 2,000 have fled across the border to Thailand.
According to General Prayut Chan-o-cha, those who fled said the situation wasn\u2019t a \u201ccrisis,\u201d and so they \u201cshook hands\u201d with Thai authorities and went back across the border of \u201ctheir own accord.\u201d
Aside from the alternate reality of fairies, unicorns, and lavender fields that General Prayut skips joyfully in, Thailand\u2019s refusal to utter a single word of criticism against the Myanmar military junta and its brutal action against the people is owed to many reasons. Often discussed is that the generals of the two lands are buddies and business partners.
But also, it\u2019s a matter of culture, which is why no matter how many children are shot and killed, millions of Thais still support the \u201csee no evil, hear no evil\u201d stance of the Thai government.
Mind you, this cultural trait is not specific to Thailand, but since we are Thais and we want better things for Thailand, then we must shine the spotlight on our flaws and discuss how to better ourselves.
In Thai, we have a saying, \u201c\u0e40\u0e23\u0e37\u0e48\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e02\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e0a\u0e32\u0e27\u0e1a\u0e49\u0e32\u0e19\u201d (other people\u2019s business).
It is the proper social norm to \u201c\u0e2d\u0e22\u0e48\u0e32\u0e44\u0e1b\u0e22\u0e38\u0e48\u0e07\u0e01\u0e31\u0e1a\u0e40\u0e02\u0e32\u0e40\u0e25\u0e22\u201d (don\u2019t get involved in other people\u2019s business).
We would teach our children to \u201c\u0e2d\u0e22\u0e48\u0e32\u0e44\u0e1b\u0e22\u0e38\u0e48\u0e07\u0e01\u0e31\u0e1a\u0e40\u0e02\u0e32\u0e40\u0e25\u0e22\u0e25\u0e39\u0e01\u201d (don\u2019t get involved in their business, my child).
More casually, and with a touch of the derogatory, we would say, \u201c\u0e2d\u0e22\u0e48\u0e32\u0e40\u0e2a\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e01\u0e40\u0e23\u0e37\u0e48\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e0a\u0e32\u0e27\u0e1a\u0e49\u0e32\u0e19\u201d (don\u2019t butt in on other people\u2019s business).
But we would be \u201c\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22\u0e21\u0e38\u0e07\u201d (Thais who gather around and watch).
And we would be \u201c\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22\u0e40\u0e09\u0e22\u201d (Thais who do nothing).
The mentality is that to maintain social harmony we should mind our own business, which is a double-edged sword. It is, of course, considered polite to mind one\u2019s own business.
But should one mind one\u2019s own business in the face of violence and atrocities?
For example, according to The Print, Chief Minister Zoramthanga of India\u2019s Mizoram State has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling the Myanmar crisis a \u201chuman catastrophe of gigantic proportions.\u201d
India is one of eight nations that sent representatives to join in the celebration of Myanmar\u2019s \u201cArmed Forces Day\u201d on 27 March.
\u201cI understand that there are certain foreign policy issues where India needs to proceed cautiously,\u201d the Chief Minister wrote. \u201cHowever, we cannot ignore this humanitarian crisis.\u201d
As The Print stated, Mizoram is currently hosting over a thousand refugees fleeing the violence in Myanmar.
That\u2019s an example of someone who\u2019s pursuing the interest of something that should be more valuable than \u201cappropriate diplomacy\u201d and \u201cproper protocol\u201d:
Pure and simple humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To date, more than 500 people have been reportedly killed in the crisis in Myanmar. Over 2,000 have fled across the border to Thailand. According to General Prayut Chan-o-cha, those who fled said the situation wasn\u2019t a \u201ccrisis,\u201d and so they \u201cshook hands\u201d with Thai authorities and went back across the border of \u201ctheir own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":544,"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":[12,14,13],"class_list":["post-543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thisurpt","tag-thailand","tag-thisrupt","tag-whatshappeninginthailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543","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=543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":545,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions\/545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}