An apology to middle-class Thais

Letter-writer Khun Songdej is an observant man. He pretty much said it as it is. Although he didn’t divulge which side of the quality spectrum I belong to, I’ll try to take a positive attitude.
I want to apologise to the upper-middle class Thais that I periodically criticise in my letters. I am apologising because I think that I may be stereotyping them, just as they stereotype Thai farmers. I have yet to read one letter from either a Thai or an expat regarding the true reason that Thai farmers are so loyal to the Shinawatras. Enjoying the privileged position of being an expat who lives among farmers and is married to a Thai lady raised as a farmer, I often speculate as to why things happened as they did in Thailand. Today, I will not speculate. I will give you facts.

Some years back, I found myself sitting in the front yard of an old Thai couple who lived in a small home next to our farm. Even with my wife translating, I found the conversation very difficult because the man had a left arm that was in two pieces. I asked him about it and he told me that years before he had broken it and never gone to the doctor. It healed that way and was held together by skin, muscle and tissue. Whenever he moved, it would sort of flop around like a snake with a broken back. When I asked why he did not have it treated, he laughed at me and said “who has money for doctors”.

It was once a fact that most men and many women in Thailand would not go to a doctor if they were sick or injured. They would take their children to a Bt200 clinic in town. I went once and it was just a cattle-call operation. Invariably the diagnosis was “flu” or “a cold” and the proper medicines would be prescribed. One of my neighbours lost his 11-year-old son to dengue because it was misdiagnosed at the clinic. When I looked into the father’s eyes at the funeral, I could see his grief even though we couldn’t openly communicate.

I have read letters in newspapers suggesting all that farmers want are financial handouts, and that they are illiterate, shiftless and loyal only to those who give them freebies. That explanation is no more accurate than my speculations that the wealthy are insensitive, self-serving and indifferent to the suffering of the poor. Khun Songdej has proven me wrong on several occasions, and now, maybe, I can prove the wealthy wrong about Thai farmers.

Health insurance for Thai farmers should have been started decades ago for humanitarian reasons. 

It wasn’t, because the funding for such a plan was being embezzled by the very people who make disparaging remarks about farmers. Thaksin Shinawatra, not the most genuine of people but an astute politician, ascertained that this was the road to secure loyalty. Thus a plan that should have been started for humanitarian reasons came about for manipulative ones. Farmers do not care how or why it came about, they only realise that many lives have been saved and many deformities have been avoided. Just as politicians will deal with the devil if it furthers their aims, farmers will do likewise. That is not ignorance or a lack of education. It is practical. The caveat here is that Thaksin unwittingly woke up the poor and taught them that their vote was worth more than the Bt300-Bt500 bribes they had been living with for decades. It was power that could actually get them tangible things that they needed. 

I chide the wealthy and powerful because they could have avoided the present divide by doing the right thing years ago. I chide them now because they have come to believe that by simply eliminating the Shinawatras from power, things will go back to “normal”. I’m sorry, folks, but that simply isn’t going to work. The divide is real and festering and has a life of its own with or without the manipulations of devious politicians.

The present government has started programmes to help farmers with production, water and many other practical aspects. That is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough. It is going to take a unified, ongoing effort by anyone who is in a position to help, to improve the living standards of the very people who provide a big portion of the wealth of Thailand. It is also going to take a major change in the way governments are formed in this country. These people not only needed health insurance, they need hope for the future that their children and grandchildren will have a real shot at taking part in the lawmaking of the country. You can scoff at me or not, as you choose, but time will bear me out. 

John Arnone

Yasothon