Originally published in Thai by Prachatham News

http://www.newspnn.com/detail.php?dataid=5695&code=n3_12072008_01

“To transcend nationalist history, one needs to nurture the seeds of humanism, rather than nationalism.  Nation is fake.  The notion that one speaks the same language and belongs to the same nation is false.  But humans are real.  All human beings, regardless of language and religion are fellow beings in suffering!”

Sulak Sivaraksa

11 July 2008, Chiang Mai University

On 11 July, panel discussions and a musical event were organized at the Chiang Mai University Auditorium to raise funds for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.  Entitled “Sixty Days after Cyclone Nargis”, the event featured a keynote speech by Sulak Sivaraksa from the Sathien Koset Nakhapratheep Foundation. 

Thai nationalist history fundamentally stems from the impression that we have never been colonized by westerners.  Thus, we look down on our neighbouring countries which used to be under colonialist rule.  At the same time, we aspire to be just like Westerners even though we have so little idea who they are.  Conventional westerners pride themselves on their fair skin, and despite many changes until now, a lot of mainstream westerners still hold on to the notion.  Thus, this has given rise to nationalism and a contempt for our neighbours, i.e. Lao, Cambodian, and Malayu.  Subconsciously we have never overcome our historical grudges against people from Burma in particular, for having been defeated by them a couple of times.  We have been inflicted with the notion that the Burmese razed Ayudhaya to the ground.  A nation defeated in war grows malicious ideas.  Similarly, the American may have a malicious view toward the Vietnamese since they once lost to them.  This will simply make nationalism even worse. 

As we worship westerners, we have been brainwashed by them to hold on to nationalism.  Notions such as racism were never found here, but were instilled in us by westerners.  Hitler, in particular, insisted that the Germans were Aryan, and the Jews were degenerate.  In order to differentiate ourselves from others, we have changed the country’s name from “Siam” to “Thailand”, thinking we are better than them.  This is the second ignorance and without addressing it, we shall never overcome nationalist history.

The ruling class has stuffed in our heads this patriotism, and films such as “Sri Suriyothai”, “Naresuan”, etc, have been made to instil the notion.  Luckily, the story of “Thao Suranaree”, who fought against the Lao rebels during Rama III’s reign, has not been made into a film.  In other words, we harbour nationalist attitudes against our neighbours and look down on them.  Historical biases have been created and perpetuated by the dictatorial ruling class.  The Burmese junta made a monument to Bayinnaung with his finger pointing at Thailand. It simply helps the dictators.  Similarly, the case of Phrea Vihear is being used for similar purpose to oppress one’s own population and to stir up hatred against our neighbours. 

To transcend nationalist history, one needs to nurture the seeds of humanism, rather than nationalism.  Nation is fake.  The notion that one speaks the same language and belongs to the same nation is false.  But humans are real.  All human beings, regardless of language and religion are fellow beings in suffering!”  With understanding, we can transcend nationalism, and humanism comes hand in hand with democracy.  We shall not forget that it was Mr. Pridi Banomyong who brought democracy to this country.  I am glad that a department store I drove past before coming here had a big banner with Pridi’s picture.  Otherwise, we will find that there are only pictures of just one single family that are put up everywhere, and I am so bored with that.  Propping up pictures of the elite helps to instil nationalism and classism.  But in a democracy, one needs to shun classes and take all human beings as equal.

If we understand Pridi Banomyong, we can go beyond nationalism.  After democratizing the country, Pridi made a film, “The King of the White Elephant” in which he reiterated that Burma and Siam were no enemies.  We have been friends.  Those who fought were the King of Burma on one hand and the King of Siam on the other.  They fought because of their greed, hatred and delusion.  But among people of the two countries, we have been friends and loved one other.

Pridi was also a leader of the Free Thai Movement, and after World War II, he helped to set up the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), 40 years before ASEAN.  A meeting was held in Bangkok, and Aung San was here.  Then, Burma was still not independent, yet as members of SEATO, we were on an equal footing.  We were getting together as a socialist bloc to withstand the power of the USA, which was taking over from England.  We got together in order to overcome nationalist history.

And before Burma became independent, and while Aung San was still alive, after returning from the meeting to found SEATO, he invited cultural ambassadors from Siam to Burma.  He was interested in how close the cultures of the two countries were.  The team from Siam was led by Praya Anumanrajadhon or “Sathierakoses”.  Aung San addressed the group by saying that the Siamese and Burmese must adore each other and stand in unity.  The Burmese never hated the Siamese.  Thus, we need to learn not to hate them, but to love them just like they love us.  Most importantly, the Buddhism of the two countries is very similar.  Thus we should learn from each other and once we can depart from nationalism, we shall learn from Buddhism in Burma.  Only then shall we realize that their Buddhism is more advanced.  The person who made this statement was Phra Pimondhamma, President of Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University, and abbot of Wat Mahathat.  He said that we need to learn from the school of Buddhist meditation in Burma.  But the Thai monks are arrogant.  They pride themselves for not having been colonized.  ‘How could the Burmese be compared to us?’ they said.  Thus without transcending nationalism, we can never learn from our friends.

A lesson learned from Nargis is that monks in Burma have always stood by the poor.  They always devote themselves in the service of the destitute, victims of natural disasters, whereas their Thai counterparts simply want to be invited to eat in the royal palace, crave ecclesiastical titles, money, luxuries, etc.  We should learn from people in Burma, and give the things needed to address their suffering.  We cannot deceive ourselves and many westerners have done better than us on this.  We need to share the suffering with our friends in Burma.  Don’t be arrogant and assume that we are better than the Burmese.  We can and have to learn from them, and vice versa.  

In the four Noble Virtues, we start from having compassion or metta or loving oneself, and then extend loving kindness to those who suffer more than we do or karuna.  Then we nurture sympathetic joy (mudita) toward others; that is, we learn to love even those who oppress or exploit us, particularly the Burmese regime.  We shall nurture this sympathetic joy toward them, and harbour no hatred or anger toward them.  We only want to destroy the unjust structure.  And the unjust structure in Burma is as vicious as the one in Siam.  It could be worse in Burma since they are so blatantly dictatorial.  But we have hidden dictators who keep supporting the Burmese regime; both the Thaksin and Samak administrations are equally bad on this count.

With this understanding, we shall neither hate the Burmese nor the Burmese dictators.  We shall not hate Thaksin or Samak.  But we simply want to destroy the structure.  We can learn from Burma, particularly from the Burmese monks who have come out to challenge the Burmese troops.  But there have been no Thai monks coming out to challenge consumerism, capitalism or feudalism.  Based on love, the Burmese monks have come out and recited the Metta Sutra which partly reads, just as a mother can sacrifice her life for her child, we shall extend our love to all living beings.  They recited the sutra while being beaten by the Burmese army.  Similarly, we have to learn from Tibetan monks who have to endure similar plight. 

All these lessons can help us overcome nationalist history.  In all history classes, we have been told that wars are good, and all heroes are noble.  It is fake.  We are made to look in awe at King Naresuan, and the more we worship him, the more we adore militarism, and the more we love to wage wars.  We need to understand the many shortcomings of King Naresuan.  Why don’t we learn from Phra Ekathosarot who went to war with King Naresuan, but later, after he took the throne, renounced all wars and issued the best laws ever.  All the 44 wars we have had with the Burmese are equally bad, and in all the wars, the most important person was not King Naresuan, but the army officers who lost their lives and were survived by widows, and all the elephants and horses which were killed.  If we change our attitude toward history, we shall renounce nationalist history and start to realize the importance of studying peace, the point reiterated in Pridi Banomyong’s “The King of the White Elephant”.

Once we can overcome nationalism, we shall realize that those exiled in our country, including the ethnic Burman, Mon, Karen, Kachin, etc., and even those Malayu in the South, or the nomads such as the Moken, have the same dignity as we have.  Based on humanism, we shall love them and want to fight to protect their human rights.  We shall fight for their dignity just as we do for our own children.  With this understanding, we will have more dignity and become nobler.  We will then be interested in learning from our friends in Burma, Lao, and Cambodia, all of whom are akin to us.

Translated by Pipob Udomittipong