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Abstract
This article presents an anatomy of the 2011 Thailand Country Report to the Committee responsible for the UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in which Thailand recognized its largest ethnic minority community, the Thai Lao, to the international community. The article analyses the Country Report as well as the deliberations of the Committee in dialogue with the Thailand Country Delegation. It provides a policy context for the Country Report, including Thailand’s classification of ethnic communities. The article argues the need to minimize racialized discrimination as regards the Thai Lao. Five policy issues, framed in the context of inclusion and which arise from the recognition of the Thai Lao by the Country Report, are considered. The article concludes by discussing how the Thai Lao may be better included in Thailand via political developments towards a social democracy in Thailand, for social democracy can recognize sociocultural rights.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. For the origin and etymology of both ‘Siam’ and ‘Thai’, as well as the transition from Siam to Thailand, see an excellent summary by Juntanamagala, “Thai or Siam?”
2. Breazeale, “The Integration.”
3. Approximately 15% of the population is of Chinese ancestry. West, Encyclopedia, 794.
4. Breazeale, “The Integration”; Bunnag, “The Provincial Administration”; Strate, The Lost Territories; and Streckfuss, “An ‘Ethnic’ Reading.”
5. Breazeale, “The Integration,” 150.
6. See note 2 above.
7. Grabowsky, “The Thai”; and Streckfuss, “The Mixed,” 138–43.
8. Chaloemtiarana, Thailand.
9. For the complex interrelationship between Central Thai and Standard Thai, see Diller, “What Makes Central Thai”.
10. Chaloemtiarana, Thailand, 94.
11. McCargo and Hongladarom, Contesting Isan-ness, 219. For identity-related issues, see also Draper, “The Isan”; Draper and Nilaiyaka, “Culture”; and Alexander and McCargo, “Diglossia.”
12. Winichakul, “The Others”; and Tong, Identity, 35–9.
13. In the case of the Thai Malay, see Aphornsuvan, “Origins.”
14. Laungaramsri, “Constructing,” 31, 36; and Sakboon, “Controlling Bad Drugs.”
15. Onn, “A Comparative Study.”
16. Christie, A Modern History, 173–90.
17. Keyes, Finding, 77–80
18. Draper, “Racism Rising.”
19. This meeting was reported in the Thai English-language media. See Muntarbhorn, “Thailand’s Race.”
20. Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Summary Record of the 2173rd, 3–4.
21. CERD, Thailand. This document is a summary of the actual reservations, available at https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-2&chapter=4&lang=en.
22. Donders, Human Rights, 12.
23. See Ekachai, “Life.”
24. See Draper and Streckfuss, “Minorities,” for a short discussion of this important project as well as an electronic copy of the full project report.
25. The document with the tables is not available from the UN site. However, a full English-Thai translated version is available from the Thai Ministry of Justice, Department of Rights and Liberties Promotion, at two links, here: http://www.rlpd.go.th/rlpdnew/images/rlpd_1/HRC/CERD1–3.pdf and here: http://www.rlpd.go.th/rlpdnew/images/rlpd_1/International_HR/2557/CERD_01/book_2.pdf.
26. Brown, From Ancient Thai, 90.
27. West, Encyclopedia.
28. Keyes, Finding.
29. Brown, From Ancient Thai.
30. See note 2 above.
31. Streckfuss, “An ‘Ethnic’ Reading.”
32. For example, Keyes, Finding.
33. Which it is not. See Cultural Survival, NIPT, and AIPP, Observations.
34. Except for a pilot programme using the term ‘Isan’ for the language, described by Draper, “Towards.”
35. Possibly a reference to Prince Damrong.
36. Grabowsky, “The Thai,” 52, 56–7, 78.
37. See Luangthongkum, “The Positions,” 183.
38. National Statistics Office, The 2010.
39. CERD, Summary Record of the 2173rd, 3–4.
40. Ibid.
41. Thai national identity does exist, can be extremely chauvinistic, and is covered in a multidisciplinary manner in Reynolds, National Identity.
42. CERD, Summary Record of the 2174th.
43. Ibid., 4.
44. Office of the Council of State, “Constitution.”
45. CERD, Summary Record of the 2174th, 4.
46. See note 43 above.
47. Draper, “Towards.”
48. Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), Basic.
49. See note 2 above.
50. See note 28 above.
51. Using the spelling ‘Esan’.
52. See note 31 above.
53. Campbell, “If There’s Going”; and Fuller, “Thailand’s Political Tensions.”
54. See UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs, Goal 10.
55. Miller and Katz, The Inclusion.
56. World Bank, Inclusion Matters, xxiv.
57. World Bank, Social.
58. See note 40 above.
59. Taket et al., “Scoping”. The authors are drawing on Levitas et al., The Multi-Dimensional, 9; and Popay et al., Understanding, 2.
60. Ibid., 4, citing Rorty, Contingency.
61. Ibid., citing Rorty, Contingency.
62. Ibid., citing Chambers, Paradigms.
63. Ibid., citing Gallie and Paugam, “Unemployment.”
64. Ibid., citing Steinert and Pilgram, Welfare.
65. See note 40 above.
66. Arnstein, “A Ladder.”
67. United Nations, Universal Declaration.
68. Taket et al., “Scoping,” citing Room, “Social”; and Renner et al., Summary.
69. Taket et al., “Scoping,” citing Foucault, “Two Lectures.”
70. Azevedo et al., Is Labor.
71. Loayza and Raddatz, “The Composition.”
72. Sayed and Ahmed, “Education.”
73. Dryzek, “Political,” 475.
74. See note 43 above.
75. Ibid.
76. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand, Statement.
77. ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN.
78. This has elsewhere been termed the ‘quantum minority’ problem. See Draper, “2016: The Year.”
79. Originally the Tribal Research Center.
80. Buadaeng, “The Rise.”
81. The twelfth subset, ‘persons on the highlands’, listed in paragraph 15. See the Country Report, paragraphs 12–15.
82. As discussed by criminologist Coretta Phillips in the field of social policy, “Institutional.”
83. National Statistical Office et al., Thailand, 1.
84. Ibid., 35; and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Advancing, 142–3.
85. Draper, “Solving,” “Revisiting,” “PISA”; and United Nations Development Programme, Advancing, 142–3.
86. United Nations Development Programme, Advancing, 148–9.
87. Persaud, “Gender,” 212.
88. See, for example, Van Esterik, Materializing; and Reynolds, “On the Gendering.”
89. Hesse-Swain, “Programming,” “Speaking”; and Chaipraditkul, “Thailand.”
90. The Paris Principles were adopted by the UN General Assembly in Resolution 48/134 of 1993, UN, The Paris Principles.
91. Wongpreedee and Mahakanjana, “Decentralization.”
92. Estimates of the number of Central Thais vary, especially given extensive intermarriage with ethnic Chinese. There may be just over twenty million (Lewis et al., Ethnologue), out of a total population of nearly 68 million.
93. Bunnag, “The Provincial Administration”; Keyes, Thailand; and Winichakul, Siam.
94. Streckfuss, “The Mixed.”
95. Diller, “What Makes Central Thai.”
96. Keyes, Thailand. The best account of the role of the Siamese Chakri dynasty in integrating the Lao ethnic minority into Thailand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century is still Breazeale, “The Integration.” For the post World War II period, see Chaloemtiarana, Thailand. For a semi-official account of the role of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the period’s most influential Chakri dynasty monarch, in development and political issues, including in the Northeast, see Grossman, King Bhumibol. For an unofficial biography, presently banned in Thailand, which is more critical of his nation-building role, see Handley, The King.
97. See Hewison, Considerations.
98. See note 31 above.
99. Draper and Kamnuansilpa, “The Quest.”
100. Ferrara, The Political; and Sopranzetti, “Thailand’s Relapse”. For a multi-disciplinary attempt to understand the polarization of society as of May 2010, see Montesano et al., Bangkok.
101. Lijphart, “Constitutional.”
102. Farrell, “The United Kingdom.”
103. Ministry of the Interior, The Decentralization Plan.
104. See Wongpreedee and Mahakanjana, “Decentralization,” for a discussion.
105. See Glassman and Sneddon, “Chiang Mai.”
106. See Fong, “Political Vulnerabilities.”
107. Lijphart, “Constitutional,” Democracy, Patterns, and Thinking.
108. Meyer and Hinchman, The Theory.
109. See note 43 above.
110. Ibid., 197, following Fraser, Justus.
111. Ibid., 198, citing Taylor, Multiculturalism.
112. A reference to Herder, Johann, 191.
113. Meyer and Hinchman, The Theory, 198.
114. Ibid., quoting Fraser, Justus, 13.
115. Meyer and Hinchman, The Theory.
116. Ibid., citing Kymlicka, Multicultural, 76–80.
117. Ibid., citing Kymlicka, Politics, 23–7.
118. Meyer and Hinchman, The Theory, 198–9.
119. See note 43 above.
120. Lijphart, Democracy, Patterns, and Thinking.
121. Meyer and Hinchman, The Theory, 199, citing Walzer, Spheres; and Rawls, A Theory, in support.
122. Rawls, A Theory, 440.
123. Walzer, Spheres, 278.
124. See note 112 above.
125. Ibid., 200, citing Taylor, Multiculturalism, 39.
126. Ibid., 202–5.
127. See note 43 above.
128. Meyer and Hinchman, The Theory, 203, also define assimilation, exclusion, and segregation. Assimilation is ‘participation in which the values of the host society are largely adopted’, exclusion is defined as ‘lack of participation despite abandonment of the values of society of origin’, and segregation is defined as ‘lack of participation in which the values of the country of origin are retained, and in which an infrastructure of the minority’s own ethnic group is sometimes created’.
129. Premsrirat, “Redefining.”
130. See note 47 above.
131. Royal Institute, National.
132. A more nuanced acknowledgement is necessary because Thailand feels all Thais to be indigenous, thus the term is meaningless. See Erni, The Concept, 443–50; and Baird, “Indigeneity.”
133. Government Public Relations Department, 12 Thai Values.
134. Turoff, “The Policy.”
135. Linz, The Breakdown.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
John Draper
John Draper is Director of the Social Survey Center at Khon Kaen University, where he leads the Human Achievement in Thailand by Ethnicity project. He is presently working on a PhD addressing the exclusion of and the means of providing economic, social, and political inclusion for the Thai Lao, Thailand’s largest ethnic minority.
Peerasit Kamnuansilpa
Dr. Peerasit Kamnuansilpa is former dean of the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences and of Law, as well as the founder of the College of Local Administration, at Khon Kaen University, the main tertiary establishment for Northeast Thailand. His primary research interests have been in public affairs management.
Authors’ postal address: Social Survey Centre, College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, 123 Friendship Highway, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.