<p>Renowned historian <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/southeast-asia-centre/thai-studies-2014/speakers.shtml">Thongchai Winichakul</a> gave a stinging critique of the Thai study of history at the opening ceremony of the Southeast Asian Studies Institute at Thammasat University-Rangsit on July 18, 2013.</p> <p>Thongchai blamed the insular Thai-style teaching of history for Thais’ ignorance and unjustified superiority complex in national history and spotty knowledge about their immediate neighbours. He contended that the extreme Thai-centrism in the study of history—the narcissistic attitude about the nature and source of the Thai identity—has been a major factor in the failure of Thai education. He calls for a more self-reflective, critical and integrated way of learning history and building knowledge, that places Thailand as a part of Southeast Asia—not a singular diamond of the region that sparkles only in the Thai mind.</p> <p></p>

<p>Thailand as Buddhist majority country can be tolerant of other religions as long as Buddhism is not criticized, questioned or violated, said Dr. Thongchai Winichakul, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, at a lecture on Buddhist-Christian Controversies and Comparative Religion in Siam in the 1850s-1980s, held at the Siam Society on July 16. He said that this hypothesis is based on the historical controversy that occurred between Buddhism and Christianity in Thailand.</p> <p></p>

<p>Thongchai Winichakul, former student leader in 1976 and currently professor at the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US, wrote a <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/98322348/Letter-to-ICC-Prosecutor-Draft">letter</a> to the International Criminal Court on 24 May, regarding Thailand's political turmoil in 2010. He also visited the ICC in the Hague with the Red Shirt delegation this week.</p>

<p>This is part two of my recent interview with leading Thai historian and academic, the former student leader, Dr. Thongchai Winichakul. Part one can be found <a href="http://bit.ly/HfEW2D">here</a>.</p>

<p>To anyone interested in Thailand&rsquo;s recent history and politics Dr. Thongchai Winichakul needs little introduction. A famed academic and historian, now resident in Singapore and the USA, Dr. Thongchai was a student leader during the terrible Thammasat Massacre of 1976 and spent time in prison following those events.</p>

<p>The conflict today is partly the result of the atrocious media, esp TV. The government's &quot;interference&quot; is not the only reason to blame. It is bad enough that the government have the full control of one TV channel with outcries only from a fraction of media professionals and none from media professional bodies. But the media professionals at major newspapers and other TV channels including the ThaiPBS do it out of their own biases and horrible lack of professionalism. The government may take some minutes to tell a lie live on air.</p>

<p>In response to <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/1467">Awzar Thi's criticism</a> of human rights advocates in Thailand, Danthong Breen, chairman of the Union for Civil Liberty, a leading human rights organization based in Bangkok, has sent an email to a group of activists. &nbsp;Prachatai sees this as a valuable contribution to the debate on the roles of human rights activists in Thailand, and has translated and published his email on <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/journal/2009/11/26469">Prachatai (Thai version)</a> with the kind permission of Mr Breen. &nbsp;Here is his email and a response from Thongchai Winichakul, Thai academic at the University of Wisconsin in the US.</p>

<p>BANGKOK, Aug 31 (IPS) - Thailand&rsquo;s draconian lese majeste law is steadily emerging as a testing ground for the principles that renowned international human rights lobbies stand for.</p>

<p>The proposed amendment to the lese majeste law is careless and unwise. The existing lese majeste law is already problematic in many respects.</p>