Thailand - a country at the crossroads

I can't claim to be an expert on Thailand, not of its society and current political upheaval. But as I have written last Sunday, a part of me still hurts every time I read in the news about all the discord happening there, or see the protests on TV. It's not just because people have to die in the defense of their ideals and principles - that happens almost everywhere now in different countries throughout the world, unfortunately. Not too many gets the opportunity to live in another country in their lifetime. Even if it was just for 21 months.

Friends who had the chance to visit Muang Thai, as what others fondly call it, can attest to the significant progress this country has made in the last three decades. My schoolmates, who, like me, endured the rigors of sleepless nights, getting a degree at the Asian Institute of Technology, 42 kilometers out of Bangkok, will agree with me that the Thais were far behind us in development 30 years ago. And while we have achieved an unprecedented tremendous spike in GDP growth rate under the PNOY administration, we are still a long way behind Thailand, both in GDP value itself, and GDP per capita. But we're getting there.

If we compare the most common infrastructure, between Manila and Bangkok, we certainly can see more developed ones in the latter than the former. Their Suvarnabhumi Airport is definitely newer and better than NAIA, brought about by an earlier timely decision to transfer from the old Don Muang Airport farther north. It was not really a complete transfer because Don Muang is still actively operational. Their urban highway infrastructure is better and public transportation is more advanced, too, with better MRTs and subways, and a Bus Rapid Transit. Many other urban amenities are apparently more advanced, too.

The political set-up is something which is more challenging, to say the least, and there's more than what meets the eye. We have our share of coups d'état, but they had like 16 or 17. And many of those were actually successful, while our four (if I'm not mistaken), failed. Of course, we don't consider the EDSA revolution as one, since we look at it as a people's uprising and not a military takeover. But in this age and time, coups d'état, are still common in Thailand, the last 16 days ago, the one before that, in 2006.

The subliminal issue, I believe, still rests with the people's belief on the monarchy. Mind you, this is more than a feudal devotion to a king, but also a religious affinity to one who is in principle thought of as patron and protector of Buddhism. While absolute monarchy was discontinued upon the promulgation of the 1932 constitution, the country transitioned into a constitutional monarchy, with King Bhumibol Adulyadej presently being the longest serving current head of state in the world and the longest reigning king of Thailand. The government is run by the Prime Minister, of course, elected by the people.

The Thais love their king. I've seen this first hand when I lived there. We've seen coups d'état where opposing parties stop in their tracks by the command of the king. That's why after 17 coups, there was not really a civil war to speak of. Their respect to the monarch extends beyond just lying prone before him in obeisance, a deeper expression of the traditional "wai." But they take pride, too, of being the only country in this part of the world which has never been colonized. Oftentimes, being "free" and having a king is difficult.

It's a society and a country divided. The reds and the yellow, the former associated with a political family from the northeast who has grassroots support and won most of the previous free elections, the latter with the elite middle class in central Bangkok, who maintains a more conservative monarchy-supportive stance, giving them the nickname, "royalists." Now the military stepped in, and the king endorsed the move. And the military junta declared there will be elections only after a year's time.

There is no easy way out of this impasse. For a people deeply rooted in hundreds of years of history, culture, and religion, the respect for the royal family will always be ingrained in their subconscious. But the sense of freedom as the "land of the free" is equally instilled in their psyche. The latter translates to the freedom to elect leaders of their choice, and have a say in the governance of the state. A lot of people may still belittle the state of democratic elections in our country, but we still have it, unlike the Thais, who are still at the crossroads of their destiny.