State-imposed national identity is not a social cure-all

Mukdawan Sakboon
The Nation, Bangkok
30 October 2004

We have been taught by our parents and by our schools to believe that we belong to the same community, known as the Thai nation state. In this state, we share the same language, culture, identity and beliefs. Our schools and our teachers told us that our country has a rich culture and history. They told us that our ancestors and our kings fought courageously, without caring for their own safety, in order to protect the nation?s territory and its sovereignty.

In school, we would be punished for speaking regional dialects. In some schools in the North, students who speak in the Northern dialect in class would be fined, as teachers would consider this to be a failure of the educational system, which emphasises the importance of the central Thai language.

We have been told that our opportunities in study, in work, and in life would be limited if we did not learn to speak the central Thai language properly. Being unable to communicate in the central Thai language - considered to be the official and national language, thus usually brings shame and humiliation to speakers of dialects.

Culturally, we have been taught to admire the beauty and uniqueness of our culture, as expressed through our national dress, arts, performance and social manners. We have learnt and remembered how to distinguish ourselves from those who don't share the same language, culture and territory. For example, we will tell others that Thai people are easygoing by nature. Visitors to Thailand might remember generosity, kindness, gentleness and a love of fun among the major features that Thais usually characterise themselves as having.

The three things that we have been taught to value above all others are the nation, religion, and the monarchy.

To express our love of the Royal family and the nation, we have been taught to pay respect to its symbols; the national anthem and the national flag. In Thailand, we are proud to show our love for our nation twice a day - at 8am and 6pm - when the whole nation freezes for about 30 seconds to listen to the national anthem. Thanks to modern communications technology, some people now show their love of the nation by programming their cell-phone ring tone to play the national anthem.

We have been taught that Buddhism is the national religion. Buddhists, we have learnt, are tolerant, merciful and peace-loving people - a belief that has been challenged by public apathy in response to the hundreds of Thai people killed in the Thai government's recent crackdown on suspected drugs traffickers and, now, protesters.

In most parts of the country our educational system - now under reform - that produces, promotes, and distributes what we have been learnt to be our national identity, has worked successfully, with the exception of the South.

It is in the South of Thailand, in the predominantly Muslim provinces, where the Thai state's regime of nationalism and national identity has failed, unfortunately without the authorities' realisation. It is there that residents insist on preserving their local identities, religious beliefs and linguistic preferences. People there have long identified themselves with other identities than the Thai authorities would have preferred.

It is apparent that the Thai authorities' notion of the nation state is different from that in which some elements in the country's southern provinces believe they live. Theirs is one identified by a shared language and religion unfamiliar to state authorities, which flies in the face of the wishes of the Thai state authorities. The rhetoric of national security usually means that anyone failing to conform with the state-defined national identity is a traitor.

Claims by military officials that they heard protesters participating in the Narathiwat incident communicating in Arabic reinforced the perception that the protesters were "others", who don't have "Thai" consciousness.

The authorities' failure to impose linguistic nationalism on the Muslim communities of the South has long embarrassed local authorities.

Thus, it is not surprising that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, in his immediate reaction to the recent crackdown in Narathiwat province, addressed the importance of enforcing the centralised education system in the South, and introducing ideas of controlling the Islamic-based pondok school system.

The premier sincerely believes that the unrest in the South can be easily resolved by taming young southern people with the centralised educational system that has been applied in other regions. Then find these youngsters work after graduation, so that they don't become involve in separatist activities.

Yet, the complexity of the situation, which is a symptom of the decades-old tension between local identities and the imposed "national identity", requires solutions that reflect a greater understanding of the historical, political and cultural context.

Mukdawan Sakboon