'Democracy' depends on the word in front

JC Wilcox’s definition of democracy (“a form of government controlled by laws”) seems to me a bit rigid. Keep in mind that there are many kinds of democracy. We have American democracy, British democracy, French democracy, even democracy as practised in North Korea. All of these systems have significant differences. The adjective is vital if we’re to understand the kind of democracy we’re talking about. Professor Thitinan is talking about Thai democracy, not some other kind.  

I must remind Mr Wilcox of Humpty-Dumpty’s wise observation in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean,” not what somebody else thinks it means. We get a striking example of this in China’s use of the expression “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. To a Westerner that doesn’t mean socialism at all. It means state capitalism. 

To understand what Thai democracy is, you’d have to ask the Thais. In fact a Dusit poll in which a cross-section of Thais is asked, “What does democracy mean to you?” would be an interesting exercise. Anybody inclined to criticise Thai democracy ought to take a good look at how democracy is working in his own country. Let’s not be like the Englishman I once met who insisted that Thais don’t know how to make curry, and, even though the Indians invented it, the only decent curry is a British one.

S Tsow

Bangkok