Is ‘Nam Jai’ more than just a word in Thailand?

The clip starts with these messages: “Thailand is not a developing country. But it has been ‘the most developed it can be and it is still like this’, as it will be in the next 20 years. The problem is Thai’s conscience and just the phrase, ‘Everybody does this’.” 

The video shows a lot of disagreeable behaviour: cars parked on footpaths, motorcycles ridden on footpaths or stopped at crosswalks, vehicles hitting people as they walk at a crosswalk, cars speeding through yellow traffic lights and motorcycle drivers riding in the middle of the road instead of in the left lane. 

“Can’t you wait for the green light? Are you rushing to die? You drove against the direction of traffic, that’s wrong, and how come you used high-beam lights to chase others who come in the right lane?” the clip asks.

“Are we ignoring this behaviour? We believe that your conscience is there but you just ignored it. No need to wait for other people to remind you. Use your conscience and think about it,” the clip says.  The video clip ends with pedestrians who gathered as a group on a footpath to block a motorcycle and successfully force it to go back on the street. 

 “OHPA” means “Is it OK?”, and the Facebook page aims at addressing problems for change. A lot of online users have shown that they agreed and commented harshly on the behaviour mentioned in the clip. 

Another popular post this week gained a similar reaction as OHPA TV’s. It came from blogger CookieCoffee Mobile Backpacker.

He conveyed a message he overheard as two foreigners were talking in a fast food restaurant in Bangkok.

“The basic behaviour of people in my country is disciplined, but the basic behaviour of Thais is selfishness,” one of the two said.

“Thais will be selfish every time that they can, parking on footpaths, in bike lanes, they even make a U-turn and suddenly park the car,” he said.

He used to think the word “nam jai”, which means kindness or thoughtfulness, to describe the decency of Thai people but said he knew nowadays it opened the way for selfishness, the writer wrote.

“If you don’t allow anyone to cut the queue in a restaurant = You lack nam jai.”

“If you don’t allow a driver to stop a car on the left lane to buy some goods = You lack nam jai.”

“If you don’t give way to motorcyclists riding on the footpath = You lack nam jai.”

“A foreigner said ‘nam jai’ was among the first words he learned when arriving in this country but now it is a ‘disgusting word’,” the blogger wrote, adding that “Why should we offer ‘nam jai’ for selfish people?”

Sasinut Limchaijareon wrote: “I admit that I am not fully disciplined while driving. I will change so that Thailand can be better.”

Rangsiman Thianhirun commented: “I disagree. Some Thais love to please Westerners and let them rebuke us despite many good things in Thailand where a lot of foreigners try to move to.”

Utain Shartpinyo shared and wrote: “What do we think about this article? Is it true? What should we do? Or just ignore it?”