Thailand in winter is hardly winter. This iconic southeastern Asian nation is fully within the tropics, so the entire country is pretty warm all year ’round, at least from the perspective of an American used to “real” winters.
I was recently in Thailand for about a week visiting my ailing father who is suffering from cancer and other ailments. It seems in recent years that I’ve been following Pops as he trots around the globe, meeting up when our schedules allow. He lived in England for about 10 years, until a couple of years ago. Then he lived in Holland briefly, and I met up with him there last fall. And he and I met my mother in Prague for a weekend also last fall.
This February, I “popped” over from Hawaii to Thailand — a mere 14-hour journey — to see him again because he told me that he felt like he might kick the bucket any day now. It’s hard to say no to a parent under such circumstances.
I was already planning a trip to Thailand and surrounding nations for early summer, but he convinced me — by offering to pay for the trip — to come over for a week, before my other trip. I thought about it and realized I’d feel terrible if he were to die before I arrived in Thailand. So I rearranged some things and booked a nine-day trip to Thailand from Hawaii, where I’m living.
I looked forward to hanging out with my father and getting to know a part of the world that he really loves. Little did I know that almost my entire trip would consist of staring at hospital and hotel walls.
Big daddy, small daddy
There were some interesting parallels between my life and the collective life of Thailand that I noticed on my trip. Thailand is a highly patriarchal country, as are many other nations in Asia. This can be strange for Westerners used to far more egalitarian and democratic social structures. A strong patriarchy feels like a strong throwback to an earlier era.
Here are three front-page headlines from a single day of the Bangkok Post (the main English language paper):
» “King asks for smooth investiture of patriarch” – Thailand’s king appoints the chief (the Supreme Patriarch) of the Buddhist religion in Thailand. Imagine the U.S. president appointing the pope.
» “Women subjected to rape, abuse” — reporting on a recent survey of Thai women that found that 42 percent of women had been forced into sex recently by a husband or boyfriend.
» And my favorite — “PM urges against rights obsession” — quoting the prime minister (a military general who achieved his ministership through a military coup) urging his people not to “be obsessed with democracy, rights and liberties.”
I also learned that in Thailand you are literally forbidden from criticizing or, in many cases, even commenting on the king or his associates. I asked a nurse, who I got to know a little while my father was in the hospital, what she thought of the king — “the dead king,” I clarified, rather than the new king who came into power in late 2016 after his father died. She answered, with a laugh: “Thai people are not allowed to comment on that.”
This law is officially described as “lèse majesté” (pronounced “lez majestay”), and it has a long pedigree in European countries where it also used to be illegal to criticize the monarch. I found it archaic and backwards, to say the least, that Thailand, a country yearning to be recognized as a modern and developed nation, would outlaw any criticism of the king and, of course, the military junta that rules that country in the name of the king.
The Thai military conducted its latest coup in 2014, after protests primarily in Bangkok threatened to harm the economy. This coup was the 19th (!) in the past century. Clearly, Thailand is struggling to get democracy “right.”
I was very surprised when I read about lèse majesté and how repressive and regressive the Thai government is, and has been at other times in the past. The current military junta has sent a record number of people to jail for violating this law, and for record long sentences — sentencing some to jail for decades for simply posting comments on Facebook. Another recent case led to five years in jail for a taxi driver who spoke privately to a passenger about the monarch in a way that was deemed to be disparaging.
Why do we not hear more about these injustices in the United States? Why isn’t there a public campaign against the Thai junta to restore social justice or at least free expression? The easy answer is: because Thailand is a strong ally of the United States, and the U.S. government rarely criticizes its allies for human rights abuses. Our corporatist media tend to fall in line with our government in terms of which nations it chooses to criticize.
Like father, like son
It was an interesting juxtaposition to be in Thailand to learn about this history while also attempting to make peace with my father. We often clash, despite having much in common. An obvious part of why my father and I clash so much is the degree to which we are alike. We both enjoy the play of ideas, the “commerce of mind,” that can make life so much richer. And we are, I guess, still trying to impress each other a bit.
Like any child, I’m always happy if my parents can feel proud of me for what I have done or have achieved. And, partly because my father has never enjoyed a “normal” career, it seems like he’s still trying to impress me and the rest of the family with his achievements. That can lead to him feeling slighted if such achievements are not recognized.
I’ve also noticed that my dad’s temper has become steadily worse over the years. So, where previously a friendly and interesting debate might have led to a nice back and forth, and some mutual enrichment, lately it simply leads to him getting angry when I don’t immediately agree with his perspective or simply let him talk at me during our “dialogue.”
Part of this shortness of temper is because of his steadily worsening cancer and discomfort, but it seems that an equal part of it is simply his attitude that he should be accorded more deference just because he’s older and wiser.
On this particular trip, it didn’t help at all that he fell off his scooter the first day I arrived in Pai, Thailand, and broke his hip. He was in the hospital for the next five days, getting ready for surgery and then recovering from surgery. Breaking your hip has a way of putting you in a bad mood. It was a difficult time between us as I attempted to keep him company, to be sure.
Temporary discomforts aside, I was disheartened to find that he seems to have become more authoritarian in his personal style, while at the same time coming to support authoritarian regimes in his personal politics — including the Thai military junta. His rationale is that the country was just not functioning well during the protests and the brief era of civilian rule. He also frequently rails against democracy because it, in his view, provides no real power for people and instead allows corporate interests to hold sway under a veneer of alleged democracy.
There’s some truth to this critique of current western democracy, but my view is that the cure for what ails our democracies in the West is more (real) democracy, not less. We need to substitute real democracy — the power of the people — for the fake democracy that many western nations now suffer under, not jettison the idea of democracy itself.
We need more direct democracy initiatives like online voting and mobile voting, liquid democracy, pirate democracy and binding online referenda. Almost any tools that place more power in the hands of the people ultimately will lead us forward rather than backwards. We can look to the arc of history for some confidence for this statement.
The more that prominent Western nations give in to authoritarianism the more other nations struggling to find their own path will see authoritarian rule as a legitimate path forward. But we have good data showing that democracy is not only good for human rights and freedom, it’s also good for economic growth.
My father and I eventually made up after our difficult time together in Thailand, largely because time heals all wounds, but we still don’t agree on what kind of governance structure represents the best path forward for particular countries or for humanity as a whole.
We seem to be on a cusp at this point in history, teetering between advancing forward into expanded democracy around the world, but facing the opposite extreme of a slide back into authoritarianism.
Let’s hope the democratic and egalitarian impulse wins this particular teeter-totter struggle — both in Thailand and the United States.
— Tam Hunt is a lawyer and writer based in Santa Barbara and Hilo, Hawaii.