Thai society is now being sick

As a Thai citizen, teenager, and new generation of Thai who spend whole life in Thailand, Thailand has never seemed to be separated and divided like this before, but throughout the history of blood and violence that Thailand always faces, this seems to be normal to those observers especially the scholar who spend their life studying the history of Thai political.

Even though, Thailand is a country that is remembered by foreigners as a land of smiles, but Is that really their smile of joy? This still is a mysterious thing that many observers may not understand. As a Thai citizen who can be called an ‘insider’, because of my little interest in Thai history and politics, I can say that Thailand has completely changed since the so-called “breaking the ceiling” phenomenon by the youth who mostly are the new generation whose has never been in the circle of political dilemma in the past decades. This makes them rightfully be and independent from the political conflict in the eyes of the middle class who hardly seem to understand the situation of the poor and hardly agree with the current government that has been in power since 2014. These make them got a huge amount of supporters spacially middle class in Bangkok and its surround.

Being the majority and the winner is not the same thing according to how so-called “Thai’s democracy” works, but most of Thai middle class upraising always be the winner and gain the stake when it went on the street. These are not exaggerating and it’s happening all the time throughout the Thai history of protesting.

Why Thai society is being sick?

An answer to the topic should be separated to 2 categories, One raising another question Thai society is always sick?, and Two Thai society has been psychologically convinced to be sick?
I personally don’t think that Thai people are different from the rest of the world, we are human being what makes us different?.

For the first time since the coup in 2014 Thailand has a democratic protest on the street and this time it’s different from the past, This protest is not backed by the unknown hand or dark power, and of course not from the government. This time the protester has varied from those people who protest for some simple problems to complicated one, from some school problems to social structure, This never ever happened before in the history of Thailand, some may argue that this happened in the 70–80s but in reality, this time is different. People are now questioning the authority and the systems.

“Being Sick” is basically the best description for Thai society since the beginning of many upraising in the past. These can be seen and had been overseen by looking into the history of Thai political structure and violence, which if you look closely there always have a group of people who supported the undemocratic structure or government. This can be compared to the situation that is happening in Myanmar which is totally the fighting between the military regime who is in the power and its citizen.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history"
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

In recent months, a lot of protesters throughout Thailand are being threatened by the authority. Some of them are underage, the lowest one is 14 years old, these never been happened before. The come of technology somehow has shaped the new generation to have their own way of thinking as well as the future they desired. Economic unstable and shrinkage are other problems for some protesters not only the newer generation but the whole, which most of them have never lied their eyes on these so-called “dirty politics” before. It can be said that the number of supporters who wanted to ride out this undemocratic power is getting bigger and bigger. Some people may argue that this is just another time of upraising or protestor which is not a big deal for those who in the power. I may say that the breaking the ceiling phenomenon is another example of mind convincing and thought war that change and shape society at least for the way of how people are thinking.

The phenomenon we have talked about in the last paragraph is stating that people are starting to comment or give their honest opinion to untouchable topics freely and more clearly. Those topics were considered as “uncomfortable” and been forbidden by the norm of the society, to state to those outsiders how bad it is, imagine that you have something in your mind about anything that you can think of and these topics are related to those untouchable topics and not imagine that you cannot even share your own and honest opinion on these topics with your close friends or family.

“Breaking the ceiling” is the description of the phenomenon that people are now free to speak about those topics they were uncomfortable talking about in the past. The phrase “Breaking the ceiling” not only refer to the image of people who are now free from cages of thought but also refer to the people from above in the view of economical and political structure so-called “Elite” who form these norm and sit on the lower classes shoulder. The main aim of this phenomenon that people mostly are talking about is the “Monarch” which hold a strong political power and soft power for the past two decades.

This phenomenon does not only give people a ticket to freedom but also take out their blur glasses from their eyes to make them see though the human being of Thai citizens which has been ignored for many decades. Many cases and abnormalities that had happened in the past, people are now starting to question as well as dig them up and discuss what was happening.

We do not know yet what we will see in the end and when will the fear and sickness of Thai society be ended. But this sign of change is here, strong and not the same. People are starting to fight back the fear they suffered, not only the ceiling is now broken, but the sky is also falling.