Thais also in the dark about their own history

Oh dear, here we go again. According to Vint Chavala, if you are a foreigner, you can’t understand Thailand. He opines that foreigners should read more about Thailand’s history and culture. Actually, I have a much better idea than that. I suggest that Thai people should read more about Thailand’s history and culture. 

I am one of the foreigners Vint speaks of, but I can assure him that many Thai people I have met seem to know very little about their own country’s history. For example, how many Thais know that, during the Second World War, on January 25, 1942, the Thai government declared war on the United States and Britain and thus sided with the Japanese invaders and the German Nazis? The answer is, in my experience, not many. 

I have met Thais who have no idea that what is Thailand today was once part of the Khmer Empire, who don’t know where Buddhism originates from, and who can’t even find their own country on a map of the world. And I am referring here to people who consider themselves to be “educated”, who attended what they believe to be “good schools” in Bangkok. 

I agree with pretty much everything Vint Chavala said about Thaksin Shinawatra. But, then again, as a foreigner who is incapable of understanding much about Thailand’s history and culture, I guess I must be wrong to do so.

John Worthing

Room 101