The reason I have this time to write something again on this blog is that today is another national holiday in Thailand. Every year on December 10th, all Thai citizens are granted a special day, not just to stay in bed longer, but a day to remember that some time more than 60 years ago, a group of people had fought for us to be here. And many occasions from then on, many lives lost to defend our rights as individuals.
Despite all the chaos and confusions in the past 3 years, and precisely in the past 6 months, Thai democracy has been at one of its richest forms. Since the coming of Thaksin Shinawatara and the leading events to the formation of the People Alliance for Democracy (PAD), no other time 'spectrum of political ideology’ in Thailand has been so prominent. To put it in a glass-half-full perspective, in this time around, Thai democracy has developed into a fuller version of pluralistic institution whereby ideological stand of political citizens i.e. everyone could be located based on his/her socio-economic backgrounds and most of all, residential characteristics. Finally, Thailand looks much similar to a number of long-standing democratic countries: US (with the GOP’s supporters in the US South, compare to the Obama-Party in the North) or Britain (with Tory in the South and the Labour in the North)
Nevertheless, what makes a crucial difference between our beloved country and the countries I used as examples, is that yes, we have Democracy, but we do not fully comprehend what Democracy and its following cultures entail. Here I would like to rewind the clock back to my class at the University of York – Politics A-. Many times when we discuss the idea of democracy, we simply overlook its most crucial component- Pluralism. As far as I can recall, in a world of rational individuals, of various self-preferences, it would not be beyond natural to have a society consists of assorted interests. Interests never need to coincide- in fact, they are much prone to collide. What Pluralism suggests is that everyone must follow a mean to be able express their preferences, gather them and achieve the end-result. By economic theory, this is what is Social Welfare Functions are for. Through this mean, social preferences would be achieved, no need to resort for violent means or the intervening role of benevolent dictatorship. Yes, Politics A class taught me another important lesson- we must learn how to respect opinions of all the others. And if we look hard enough, we would find that many apparatus of Kenneth Arrow or Amartaya Sen would become at great assistant to deliver the social optimal solution without having to disregard people on the opposite side of your political spectrum.
Despite all the chaos and confusions in the past 3 years, and precisely in the past 6 months, Thai democracy has been at one of its richest forms. Since the coming of Thaksin Shinawatara and the leading events to the formation of the People Alliance for Democracy (PAD), no other time 'spectrum of political ideology’ in Thailand has been so prominent. To put it in a glass-half-full perspective, in this time around, Thai democracy has developed into a fuller version of pluralistic institution whereby ideological stand of political citizens i.e. everyone could be located based on his/her socio-economic backgrounds and most of all, residential characteristics. Finally, Thailand looks much similar to a number of long-standing democratic countries: US (with the GOP’s supporters in the US South, compare to the Obama-Party in the North) or Britain (with Tory in the South and the Labour in the North)
Nevertheless, what makes a crucial difference between our beloved country and the countries I used as examples, is that yes, we have Democracy, but we do not fully comprehend what Democracy and its following cultures entail. Here I would like to rewind the clock back to my class at the University of York – Politics A-. Many times when we discuss the idea of democracy, we simply overlook its most crucial component- Pluralism. As far as I can recall, in a world of rational individuals, of various self-preferences, it would not be beyond natural to have a society consists of assorted interests. Interests never need to coincide- in fact, they are much prone to collide. What Pluralism suggests is that everyone must follow a mean to be able express their preferences, gather them and achieve the end-result. By economic theory, this is what is Social Welfare Functions are for. Through this mean, social preferences would be achieved, no need to resort for violent means or the intervening role of benevolent dictatorship. Yes, Politics A class taught me another important lesson- we must learn how to respect opinions of all the others. And if we look hard enough, we would find that many apparatus of Kenneth Arrow or Amartaya Sen would become at great assistant to deliver the social optimal solution without having to disregard people on the opposite side of your political spectrum.
1 comment:
Yes, what is a true Democracy?
Why the two groups of people who both said they fought
for Democracy,PAD People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and
United Front Of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), have acted the opposite way and
beaten each other severely as if they weren't born in the same land.
Or Thailand will has its own style of Democracy???
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