We Farang often have difficulty with understand the thinking and actions of Thais. Those of us who are really trying to understand - and any Farang living in Thailand should be interested in that - must begin with the teachings the children get at home and at school. This should be not at least the knowledge of this world and of a functioning social system. Every social order is ultimately the product of religion and history of a people, and therefore the behavior of the Thais, their pride of their country, often incomprehensible for us, is a product of religion and history, as taught to the children in school. They learn that all Thais are a big family, and the king is revered by all as the father of this large family. Everybody has the place he deserves in the hierarchy, and everyone higher in this hierarchy has the natural right to a certain degree of respect. Hence their understanding of democracy and a legal system is different from our understanding.

 

History, as taught in Thai-school books, is a King story. In summary, the Thai–History is presented as follows: Thailand is a peace-loving country, but was in the past repeatedly attacked by foreign powers. Each time, however, the king managed to save the country, and the Thais could still live happy in peace. Without the King, there is no history and no Thailand. In this history  there is no place for ordinary mortals, and so the political development of Thailand in the school books ends suddenly in 1932, when after a bloodless coup, the 7th King of the Chakri dynasty renounced to the absolute monarchy and the country has been converted into a constitutional monarchy. Then comes a large hole till 1946, when the history of Thailand begins once more with the accession to the throne of the present monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, or Rama IX, as is his official name.

 

What then is coming - so the biggest part of the 20th Century - with its volatile political ups and downs, (since 1932 there were 19  military coups in Thailand, the last one 2007), knows no more people or politicians, but only a god-like king, who watches as a father over his people, and makes its problems to matters of his heart. His wisdom and his care are protecting the people against injustice and against enemies. Without the King, there is no nation; the people are just an anonymous mass.

 

The schoolbooks say almost nothing about the social structures of the country, and nothing at all about its changes. Only on the fringes children learn something about conventional serfdom still in effect 100 years ago, and the dependence of the serfs from the noble lords. In this picture there is no place for social structures, opposition and class divisions between rich and poor. The moral (ideal) model that is taught in schools, has nothing to do with the real form of the society, but paints a rather utopian picture of the national community. Here facts are replaced by wishful thinking and by mythology. A king watching over all Thais is pouring a stream of blessings and boons over them. The books are filled with examples of the good deeds of the King (drainage and irrigation schemes, artificial rain, caring for wounded soldiers, and promotion of school education, even the invention of a domestic fuel from palm oil to replace the expensive imported Diesel-Oil

 

The concepts of nation, state, society and welfare are all synonyms for an ideology which is wholly focused on the king. He represents the integration figure of the nation. The commonality of the nation will be less defined by language, borders, or history, but by the common feeling of love and gratitude to the king. The happiness and welfare of the people depends entirely on the king. The undifferentiated image of the country the children get in school is a big family with the King as father and the Queen as mother. Significantly in Thailand Father's Day and Mother's Day fall every year on the birthday of the king and the queen. In addition, the obligations of every Thai to this extended family are highlighted to the student, but without informing him in the same way about his rights in a democratic constitutional state. Freedom of expression, protection of personality, in short everything the United Nations has declared as fundamental human rights are not mentioned. The idea that all people are born with the same rights, do not correspond to Thailand’s image of a hierarchical order.

 

Thailand is a democracy, and the students learn in class, that every citizen has the right to choose the people, who will decide about the problems of the community. This begins with the election of the mayor, goes on with the election of delegates for the district and provincial representation, up to the election of the Parliament and the Senate in Bangkok. This grassroots democracy works even in the smallest village. In the election of the District Representative in our village, for example, the voter participation was 95%, a figure which we are accustomed only for dictatorial regimes. The government will not depicted in the school books as the representation of all people and authorized body for the enforcement of its fundamental rights, nor will the right to vote be shown as the basis of Democracy. It appears that the right of the people to choose the government is a concession from the government to the governed. Also is not shown to the students, that democracy is an indispensable means to find compromises between the different groups and interests in people.

 

What in the last few months we have seen in Bangkok, so the demonstrations and the opposition to existing governments, could show a positive development, if not the motives with which the people are brought on the streets, and also the characters of the politicians at the head of the protest movement, will let suspect the Farang knowing this country that the object is not more democracy but the quest for the flesh-pots involved with power. W hen the people in the German Democratic Republic went to the streets, and toppled the regime it was primarily the desire for more personal freedom. For this people will risk their life if necessary. But among the demonstrators in Bangkok there was nobody demonstrating for his personal freedom.

 

People in Thailand are busy day to day struggling for survival and they do not believe that they can change something. It has been drummed into their heads that everything the Big People decide must be accepted. Subservience is the biggest problem in Thailand.