The
now ousted PM of Thailand, Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra, was elected by the
poor, uneducated rural population on the promise that he would eradicate
poverty and corruption in Thailand in 5 years. That was 6 years ago
and nothing has happened other than Mr. Thaksin and his cronies have
gotten fabulously rich.
So why do poor people still support him? When pressed on the issue, the invariable answer from his followers is that he deserves their support simply because he is so rich. When I tell this to people from the West, they always shake their heads in disbelief. "That's not how democracy works", they tell me, "the Thais must have gotten it all wrong." To which I answer, " au contraire my friend, the Thais have got it absolutely right, and you are the one who lives in unreality."
Usually the conversation stops there, because there are things to do around here, and in Thailand it is bad manners to either talk or think too much. But in the following I will try to explain the materialistic wisdom of the East.
The first thing that comes to mind is to educate the poor farmer about the fact that Mr. Thaksin got so fabulously rich on the back of people like himself. But that is no objection, because the Thai have a very clear sense that those who work honestly for their money can never be rich or powerful. Neither is it of any use to say that Mr. Thaksin made promises he has not kept.
Both of these circumstances
are easily reconciled with what I, with every possible qualification,
term "vulgar Buddhism'. That is, a form of Buddhism that has lost
its ascetic focus, and where the practitioners consequently have lost
their moral discipline - not their moral ideals but their discipline,
in which case the ideals soon follow. General discipline collapses whenever
a people's cultural roots are severed, either as part of a 'natural'
inherent process, or, as happens with imperialism, when powerful outside
forces effect rapid contamination and change. The world is
full of such examples, from the natives of the Americas to Iraq.
In Thailand, it is recognized that the wealth of any one person requires an intricate system of corruption, exploitation and accumulation to make it possible. And since wealth is the outward sign of god sent good luck, one does not question this system, but prays to the gods of chance to rain wealth from the skies on one's humble self.
This is in fact good old fashion Capitalism with a twist, because it requires that the mechanisms of expansion and socio-hierarchical exploitation remain in place to accumulate wealth so as to make it physically possible for any one person to win that wealth in the lottery of life. In other words, to retain the possibility for each and any one of us to rise above our station and become darling of the gods, we must accept a system of exploitation.
This thinking stands traditional sheepish morality and notions of just desert on their head. Since wealth is the sign of divine favour, once one possesses it nobody asks how it was won. Virtue, then, inheres not in action, not in intent, but in the resulting wealth itself.
But once wealth is expressed in money, it becomes possible to extract value from it, and to quantify, accumulate and store this value in symbolic form. In such a case all value, even spiritual value, will soon be expressed through this means. The consequence is that as soon as money is introduced into any value system it inevitably begets its own divinity. That is why the Gospel says we cannot serve two masters but must choose between God and Mammon. If Mammon is admitted, his authority recognized, the spiritual god has already been expelled from one's house and heart. Money then becomes god.
Now we should be in a position to understand the insight of the East: Where money is measure of anything, it is the measure of all. Mr. Thaksin is almost immeasurably rich, and thus half the Prime Minister he promised to be. He has also banned almost all popular gambling and replaced it with a lottery named after himself. In this way he has fulfilled his promise to the poor by personally giving each and any person the longed for opportunity to rise far above his station in life, and perhaps one day aspire to sit by the right hand of Mr. Thaksin himself – Mr. Thaksin, the democratically elected representative of the god of Money.
Any similarities between this cultural critique and the exploitation by AIDS Inc. of their willing constituency are in the eyes of the beholder.
Claus Jensen is a Dane living in Thailand
where he is able to eke out a meager but sustainable
existence as a
martial arts instructor primarily because he is much
taller than the average Thai,
and can overpower
most ordinarily accomplished
Thai boxing teachers provided they are half his size and twice his age. (Hank)
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