Kingdom lacks proper 'memory bank'
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Earlier this year I was a guest at the Diplomatic Archive in Courneuve, Paris, which is one of the many state-of-the -art "memory banks" in France. Numerous documents and maps kept at the archive date back to the 19th century. There I was shown the letter
It dawned on me then that if we go to the Court in The Hague on border issues with references to the colonial period, and our opposite numbers had French backing, we could not possibly win the case short of a miracle. Also as a card-carrying member of the National Archive in Greenwich, London, which is possibly the biggest memory bank in the world, I know that similar cases could have applied to our borders in the west and south. Fortunately in this instance we have no problems with our neighbours and in any case the British have long since left the arena.
When I worked at the Ministry of the Interior, I was told that documents over 30 years old were to be destroyed. Meanwhile, our National Archive is crippled by bureaucracy and meagre funding – it should instead become a trust and operate like the TCDC. All this means that we Thais are left with short memories in historical terms.
If the above is compared to iPhones, it would mean an old handset. Of course, we can always buy the latest model or know-how from abroad. Similarly, we can obtain doctorate degrees in Thai history by going abroad for the sources. But all this is hardly sustainable in the long run. In any case, history or memory, in the case of the ongoing border issues, is overtaken by a blinding nationalism, which will not be of much use at The Hague.
Sumet Jumsai
