Mourning State Celebrations: Amnesic Iterations of Political Violence in Thailand

Abstract

At the height of the United States wars in Southeast Asia in the 1970s, while political violence wrecked the provinces, Bangkok became one of the most visible sites of violence in Thailand against leftist social movements. Drawing from an ethnography of commemoration and the military archive, I suggest that after thirty years of silence, current commemorations speak to how emotional engagements are maneuvered in the public arena into a politics of forgetting. At the same time, relatives of those killed by state violence and activists enact mourning practices to insist on loss and to challenge the state-sponsored celebrations of fallen heroes. Ultimately, Thai pasts are worked through these commemorations as “spectacular-time.” As spectacle, the commemorations reenact the marches of the student movement as part of national history, to witness recreated scenes of violence, to relive particular landmarks as infused with meaning, and to identify with the alterity of 1970s leftist radicalism or the centrality of state manufactured democracy in Thailand.

Keywords:

• Commemoration
• Thailand
• spectacle
• mourning
• memory

This research was completed through the support of the University of California Pacific Rim Research Grant, the Australian National University Henry Luce Fellowship, and the Center for Asian Studies at Willamette University. I am indebted to the four anonymous reviewers and the journal editors. I also thank Hjorleifur Jonsson, Craig Reynolds, Herman Gray, Thongchai Winichakul, Dana Takagi, Neferti Tadiar, Annette Hamilton, Arnika Furhman, Cecily McCaffrey, and my Portland, Oregon, writing group: Priya Kandaswamy, Patti Sakurai, Marie Lo, Hillary Jenks, and Resmi Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt for their support and insightful comments on earlier drafts.

Notes

14 October/14 Tula 2003. Matichon, 11 October 2003, p. 1.

Bangkokians Split on B.M.A. Ban: Poll 2003. The Nation, 1 October 2003.

Mustering the Discussion in the People's Parliament Makes 4–5 October Celebration of 30 Years October 14/Radom Chat Thok Sapha Prachachon Yok Song 4–5 Tulakom Nai Chalong 30 Pi14 Tula 2003. Matichon, 30 September 2003. p. 15.

Samak Slams the Table/ Samak Top Toh. 2003 Matichon,7 October 2003, p. 1.

Samak Stands Firm on Sanam Luang Ban 2003. The Nation, 9 October 2003. Aeusrivongse, Nidhi 2001. Introduction. In From 14 to 6 October/ [Jak 14 Tueng 6 Tula]. C. Kasetsiri and D. Petchlertanan, eds. Bankgok: Social Sciences and Humanities Textbook Foundation/[muniti krongkan tamra sangkomsart la manutsart].