Thaiization
Thaiization ( Thai การ แผลง เป็น ไทย , kan-phlaeng-pen-thai ) refers to the process by which the border areas of the Kingdom of Thailand and ethnic and religious minorities have been adapted to the way of life, culture and economy of the Thais in central Thailand . On the one hand, this process is a natural consequence of the modernization of the country, which also includes the outer regions, on the other hand, targeted measures have also been taken in the past by the Thais to suppress or hinder marginal cultures. This process has weakened since the 1970s and today people of different cultures across the country can speak their mother tongue and live their own culture, as stated in the constitution of Thailand . In 2018, a modified Thaiization became part of the national goal and the government promotes nationalist movements.
Thaiization mainly affected ethnic groups on the edge of the country whose language and culture differed from the central Thais, for example the Lao in Isan , the hill tribes in northern Thailand and in the west of the country and the Muslim Malay in southern Thailand . Larger groups of Chinese and Indian immigrants were also subjected to Thaiization. While the Buddhist and immigrant Chinese assimilated and integrated themselves relatively easily and quickly, attempts at Thaiization among the long-established Muslim Malays have largely failed to this day.
history
In the kingdom of Ayutthaya , resident Mon and Khmer as well as immigrant Chinese, Indians, Persians and Europeans had great influence in economic life and even at court. Until the 19th century, the ethnicity of the inhabitants of Siam did not play a role, the only important thing was their submission to the king. After the modernization and centralization of Thailand under King Rama V (Chulalongkorn), the idea of a unified Thai nation and thus Thaiization arose at the beginning of the 20th century. If the Thai language previously had no term for “nation”, the word chat was used under Rama VI. (Vajiravudh) common. There was also the expression khwam-pen-thai (“being Thai” or “Thaitum”) , which is often used today, and the triad of “nation, religion and king”, which is still the unofficial motto of Thailand.
Rama VI. turned aggressively against the Chinese, who immigrated in large numbers during the 19th and early 20th centuries and who were often active as merchants, tax collectors or moneylenders and thus acquired great economic influence. With reference to anti-Semitism in Europe, the king referred to them as the "Jews of the Orient". However, it was not about racial discrimination, the Thai had mixed too much with the Chinese in the previous centuries and the members of the ruling circles almost all had Chinese ancestors. Rather, first-generation Chinese immigrants should be brought to cultural assimilation, to give up their language and customs, and their economic and political ambitions to be curbed.
After the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932 and the takeover of power by the predominantly younger bourgeois officers of the “People's Party” , who were strongly influenced by the emerging Thai nationalism , this trend intensified. Starting in 1935, the Chinese were banned from working in certain industries, and state-owned companies were supposed to break the influence of Chinese entrepreneurs. The Chinese have been pressured to adopt Thai names. Chinese schools, clubs and newspaper publishers were harassed or banned. The poet and historian Wichit Wichitwathakan created a nationalist historiography, although the concept of the nation state was unknown in Southeast Asia before the colonial era.
The new Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram changed the country name of Siam in Thailand in 1939, which on the one hand gave expression to the dominance of the Thai over the minorities in the country and on the other hand to the expansion claim to areas inhabited by Tai peoples in neighboring countries.
By decree, all residents of Thailand were forced to identify as Thai, and those who represented “foreign” interests were treated as traitors. The national anthem , introduced in 1939 , has an aggressively nationalist text (the first line speaks of "the flesh and blood of the Thai race"). The regional languages and dialects, the Lao script in the northeast region (Isan) and the Lanna script in the north have been pushed back. Cultural differences between Central, South, Northeast and North Thai should no longer be discussed. Phibunsongkhram even had places renamed and folk songs rewritten to remove any reference to other ethnic groups (such as Lao, Shan, or Khmer).
After Phibunsongkhram was overthrown in 1957, the government adopted so-called "soft assimilation" measures:
- Targeted measures for individual groups in the outskirts of the country, for example against the Lao in Isan in 1964, which were linked more closely to Bangkok in an "Accelerated Rural Development Program" .
- Nationwide measures to implement Thai as a language in schools. Speakers of other languages were forced to speak Thai when attending school, such as the Lao, Kham Mueang in northern Thailand and Yawi in southern Thailand .
- Establishing the role of the king as a national symbol of the country, greeting the flag in schools and broadcasting the Thai national anthem twice a day on radio and television.
The promotion of the Thai national consciousness is naturally at the expense of the ties to other states, such as the Isan-Lao with Laos and the Malays with Malaysia .
See also
literature
- Pinkaew Laungaramsri: Ethnicity and the politics of ethnic classification in Thailand. In: Ethnicity in Asia. Routledge Shorton, London / New York 2003.
- Thongchai Winichakul : Siam Mapped. A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1994. ISBN 0-8248-1974-8 .
- David K. Wyatt : Thailand: A Short History . Yale University Press (2nd A.) 2003. ISBN 0-300-08475-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ SPECIAL REPORT: How the junta misused culture to boost 'Thai-ism' - The Nation . In: The Nation . ( nationmultimedia.com [accessed September 16, 2018]).
- ↑ a b Marte Nilsen: Military Temples and Saffron-Robed Soldiers. Legitimacy and the Securing of Buddhism in Southern Thailand. In: Buddhism and Violence. Militarism and Buddhism in Modern Asia. Routledge, New York / Oxford 2013, p. 45.
- ^ Anne Booth: Colonial Legacies. Economic and Social Development in East and Southeast Asia. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 2007, p. 122.
- ↑ Chris Baker, Pasuk Phongpaichit: A History of Thailand. 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 129.
- ^ Baker, Pasuk: A History of Thailand. 2009, p. 133.