Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Violence on the Periphery of the Thai State and Nationhood

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
State Terror, State Violence

Part of the book series: Staat – Souveränität – Nation ((SSN))

Abstract

State violence in Thailand is one of the main targets of human rights advocacy. Activists, lawyers and scholars address both the violence as events and the deficiency in institutional processes for holding authorities accountable. Violations of rights are generally understood as belonging within the juridical realm, taking as point of reference a citizen or group of citizens in relation to a state or union of states. From that perspective the most violent space of the state is where non-citizens and marginalized groups are identified. These are people whose claims matter little to the state. Human rights organizations and reports are on agreement that Thailand repeatedly breach the rights of refugees and fail to protect them from abuse. Among the non-nationals on the margins of the Thai state there are more than half a million stateless persons residing within the Thai borders. The state-violence Thailand performs towards these groups of people construes a clear cut between nationals and non-nationals. The Thai state is however also notorious for committing state violence against those regarded as nationals.

Following the custom in Thai language, Thai scholars are referred to by their first name. This custom is also reflected in the bibliography.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    They are the precarious workers from Laos, Burma and Cambodia (but also lower classes of Thai citizens, notably ex-convicts) in construction and in the fishing industry; the Rohingya refugees from Burma being towed out at sea by Thai authorities or, if they manage to enter Thailand, detained under questionable conditions Indefinite detention in accordance with Immigration Act, B.E. 2522 [1979], men are held in detention centers, women and children in social community centers (UNHCR 2015). For a comprehensive report on “push back” and “help on” strategies, see The Equal Rights Trust, 2014, 3.2.; Letter to Prime Minister of Thailand from The Equal Rights Trust, 23 January 2009.

  2. 2.

    While being party to core international human rights treaties, including the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, 19 November 2012, Thailand is not a signatory party to the international Refugee Convention nor to its additional protocol (1951; 1967).

  3. 3.

    To Galtung exploitation is at the core of the ”archetypal violent structure” (Galtung 2013, p. 45)

  4. 4.

    Whether or not to use the framework of colonialism is part of an ongoing debate, see e.g. Lysa 2004; Thongchai 2000a, b. For internal colonialism (aanaanikhohm phaai nai) see Chaiyan 1994.

  5. 5.

    Sakdina can be explained as organization of land and manpower through relationships between four classes: tat (slave), phrai (commoners), nobles and royals. See Akin 1975; Anchalee 1981; Reynolds 1987.

  6. 6.

    Prathet (country) signifies a spatial unit, whereas chat (nation) refers to commonality in origin (Thongchai 1994, pp. 134–135)

  7. 7.

    National language decrees had been introduced by Rama IV, under Phibun’s regime reforms, sometimes violently enforced, were aimed at erasing regional differences (Diller 2002).

  8. 8.

    The word officially used today is thammaphiban: phiban meaning “to take care of, to guard or to protect.”

  9. 9.

    The military regime that took power 22 May 2014 under the leadership of General Prayut Chan-O-Cha is called the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). Through arbitray summons, detention and prosecutions it has curbed dissident thinking and expression, aiming “to control the production of knowledge” (Haberkorn 2014a)

  10. 10.

    Agriculture makes up 40 % of the total national labor pool but receives only 10 % of GDP. The report also confirmed that the “income-generating developments are clustered in urban areas” and that the richest 10 % owned 100 times more land per person than the rest of the population (Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand 2012, p. 220)

  11. 11.

    Patani was a Malay sultanate covering the three border provinces.

  12. 12.

    Civil laws were introduced in Siam in 1934 exempting Islamic family and inheritance law in the Greater Patani region.

  13. 13.

    Most well-known is the “Haji Sulong Rebellion,” protests provoked by the arrest of the religious teacher Haji Sulong who was a strong advocator for autonomy. In 1954 Haiji Sulong was again arrested and mysteriously “disappeared” (Thanet 2007a).

  14. 14.

    The Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) initiated the street troop Red Gaurs and the propaganda group Nawaphon. In order to counter-act communism in the rural areas the Border Police organized the Village Scout movement under royal patronage.

  15. 15.

    Official figures by the National Administrative Reform Council, the military junta behind the coup announced later on the evening of 6 October. Two amnesty bills were passed following the massacre, effectively obstructing any investigation (Haberkorn 2015).

References

  • Akin, R. (1975). Clientship and Class Structure in the Early Bangkok Period. In G. W. Skinner & A. T. Kirsch (Eds.), Change and persistence in Thai society: Essays in honor of Lauriston Sharp (pp. 93–123). Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anchalee, S. (1981). Khwaambpliianbplaaeng khaawng rabohp phrai lae phohngrathohp dtaaw sangkhohm tha nai ratchasamai phrabaatsohmdet phrajoolajaawmglaojaoyuuhuaa [Changes of the phrai system and their effects on Thai society in the reign of King Chulalongkorn]. (Doctoral). Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, C., & Pasuk, P. (2000). Thailand: Economy and politics. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowie, K. A. (1992). Unraveling the myth of the subsistence economy: Textile production in nineteenth-century Northern Thailand. The Journal of Asian Studies, 51(4), 797–823.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chai-anan, S. (1997). Old soldiers never die, they are just bypassed: The military, bureaucracy and globalisation. In K. Hewison (Ed.), Political change in Thailand democracy and participation. Politics in Asia Series (pp. 42–57). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chai-anan, S. (2002). State-identity creation, state‐building and civil society, 1939e–1989. In C. J. Reynolds (Ed.), National identity and its defenders: Thailand Today (Rev. ed., pp. 49–70). Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaiyan, R. (1994). The rise and fall of the Thai absolute monarchy: Foundations of the modern Thai state from feudalism to peripheral capitalism. Bangkok: White Lotus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charnvit, K. (1979). Thai historiography from ancient times to the modern period. In A. Reid & D. G. Marr (Eds.), Perceptions of the past in Southeast Asia (pp. 156–170). Singapore: Asian Studies Association of Australia, Heinemann Educational Books (Asia).

    Google Scholar 

  • Connors, M. K. (2007). Democracy and national identity in Thailand. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Copeland, M. P. (1993). Contested Nationalism and the 1932 Overthrow of the Absolute Monarchy in Siam. Ph.D. thesis. Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diller, A. (2002). What makes Central Thai a national language? In C. J. Reynolds (Ed.), National identity and its defenders: Thailand Today (Rev. ed., pp. 71–107). Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galtung, J. (2013). Cultural violence. In D. Fischer (Ed.), Johan Galtung: Pioneer of peace research. New York: Springer. (In H. G. Brauch (Series Ed.) Springer Briefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice (Vol. 5, pp. 41–58)).

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Haberkorn, T. (2009). An unfinished past. Critical Asian Studies, 41(1), 3–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haberkorn, T. (2011). Revolution interrupted: Farmers, students, law, and violence in Northern Thailand. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haberkorn, T. (2013a). Getting away with murder in Thailand: State violence and impunity in Phatthalung. In N. Ganesan & S. C. Kim (Eds.), State violence in East Asia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haberkorn, T. (2013b). Tracing an uneven History: Notes on sources and trajectories of Thai state violence. Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, 1(1), 109–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haberkorn, T. (2014a). Martial Law and the criminalization of thought in Thailand. The Asia-Pacific Journal, 12, 40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haberkorn, T. (2014b). When torture is a duty: The murder of Imam Yapa Kaseng and the challenge of accountability in Thailand. Asian Studies Review, 39, 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haberkorn, T. (2015). The hidden transcript of amnesty: The 6 October 1976 Massacre and Coup in Thailand. Critical Asian Studies, 47, 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hewison, K., & Kengkij, K. (2010). ‘Thai-Style Democracy’: The royalist struggle for Thailand’s politics. In L. Isager & S. Ivarsson (Eds.), Saying the unsayable: Monarchy and democracy in Thailand (pp. 179–202). Copenhagen: NIAS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, P. (2002). What is the Thai Village? In C. J. Reynolds (Ed.), National identity and its defenders: Thailand Today (Rev. ed., pp. 262–276). Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isager, L., & Ivarsson, S. (Eds.). (2010a). Saying the unsayable: Monarchy and democracy in Thailand. Copenhagen: NIAS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isager, L., & Ivarsson, S. (2010b). Strengthening the moral fibre of the nation: The King’s sufficiency economy as etho-politics. In L. Isager & S. Ivarsson (Eds.), Saying the unsayable: Monarchy and democracy in Thailand (pp. 223–239). Copenhagen: NIAS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, P. A. (2010). Virtual divinity: A 21st-century discourse of Thai royal influence. In S. Ivarsson & L. Isager (Eds.), Saying the Unsayable: Monarchy and Democracy in Thailand (pp. 29–60). Copenhagen: NIAS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasian, T. (2001). Commodifying Marxism: The formation of modern Thai radical culture, 1927–1958. Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University: Kyoto University Press, Trans Pacific Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasian, T. (2009). Thammarat/good governance in glocalizing Thailand. In C. Gluck & A. L. Tsing (Eds.), Words in motion (pp. 306–326). Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lysa, H. (2004). Stranger within the gates: Knowing semi-colonial Siam as extraterritorials. Modern Asian Studies, 38(2), 327–354. doi:10.1017/s0026749 × 0400109x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marks, T. A. (1980a). The Communist Party and the strategy of the United Front in Thailand since October 1976. Asia Quarterly, 1, 3–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marks, T. A. (1980b). October 1976 and the role of the military in Thai politics. Modern Asian Studies, 14(4), 603–644.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazower, M. (2006). An international civilization? Empire, internationalism and the crisis of the mid-twentieth century. International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944–), 82(3), 553–566.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCargo, D. (2008). Tearing apart the land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCargo, D. (2012). Mapping national anxieties: Thailand’s southern conflict. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morell, D., & Chai-Anan, S. (1981). Political conflict in Thailand: Reform, reaction, revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Oelgeschlager Gunn & Hain.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murashima, E. (1988). The Origin of Modern Official State Ideology in Thailand. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 19(1), 80–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poowin, B. (2011). Thailand four years after the Coup: The struggle against the dissenters. Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia, 10(2), 47–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prizzia, R. (1985). Thailand in transition: The role of oppositional force. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Puangthong, P. (2010). Kabuankaan muanchon liew khwa, mongdoo Nazi laew yon doo tua, Khwamdee ammahit. Fa Diawkan, 8, 264–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Puangthong, P. (2015). Will Thailand’s new constitution be a return to authoritarianism? ISEAS perspective, 3, 3–8 .

    Google Scholar 

  • Puey, U. (2000). A Siamese for all seasons: Collected articles by and about Puey Ungphakorn (5 ed.). Bangkok: Komol Keemthong Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renard, R. D. (2000). The differential integration of hill people into the Thai state. In A. Turton (Ed.), Civility and savagery: Social identity in Tai States. Richmond: Curzon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, C. J. (1987). Thai radical discourse: The real face of Thai feudalism today. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, C. J. (2005). Nation and state in histories of nation-building, with special referece to Thailand. In W. Gungwu (Ed.), Nation-building: Five Southeast Asian histories (pp. 21–38). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, C. J. et al. (2012a). Time’s arrow and the burden of the past: A primer on the Thai un-state. sensate, A Journal for Experiments in Critical Media Practice. http://sensatejournal.com/2012/05/craig-reynolds-et-al-times-arrow/

  • Reynolds, C. J. (2012b). The social bases of autocratic rule in Thailand. In M. J. Montesano, P. Chachavalpongpun, & A. Chongvilaivan (Eds.), Bangkok, May 2010: Perspectives on a divided Thailand. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slater, D. (2010). Ordering power: Contentious politics and authoritarian leviathans in Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Streckfuss, D. (1993). The colonial legacy in Siam: Origins of Thai racialist thought, 1890–1910. In L. J. Sears (Ed.), Autonomous histories, particular truths: Essays in honor of John R.W. Smail (pp. 123–153). Madison: University of Wisconsin, Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thak, C. (2007). Thailand: The politics of despotic paternalism. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thanet, A. (2007a). Rebellion in Southern Thailand: Contending histories. Policy studies (p. 89). Washington: East-West Center Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thanet, A. (2007b). The search for order: Constitutions and human rights in Thai political history. Article 2, 6(3), 32–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thongchai, W. (1994). Siam mapped: A history of the geo-body of a nation. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thongchai, W. (2000a). The others within: Travel & ethno-spatial differentiation of siamese subjects 1885–1910. In A. Turton (Ed.), Civility and savagery: Social identity in Thai states (pp. 38–62). Richmond: Curzon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thongchai, W. (2000b). The quest for Siwilai: A geographical discourse of civilizational thinking in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Siam. Journal of Asian Studies, 59(3), 528–549.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thongchai, W. (2010). The “germs”: the reds’ infection of the Thai political body. http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2010/05/03/thongchai-winichakul-on-the-red-germs/. Accessed 9 Feb 2015.

  • Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand, T. (2012). Final Report of Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT) July 2010–July 2012. Bangkok.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turton, A., & Akin, R. (1987). Production, power and participation in rural Thailand: Experiences of poor farmers’ groups. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNHCR. (2015). 2015 UNHCR country operations profile—Thailand. http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e489646&submit=GO. Accessed 1 Nov 2015.

  • Viernes, N. (2015). The aesthetics of protest: Street politics and urban physiology in Bangkok. New Political Science, 37, 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, A. (2010). Royal sufficiency and elite misrepresentation of rural Livelihoods. In L. Isager & S. Ivarsson (Eds.), Saying the unsayable: Monarchy and democracy in Thailand. Copenhagen: NIAS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, A. (2012). Thailand’s political peasants: Power in the modern rural economy [Electronic resource].

    Google Scholar 

Resources on State Violence in Thailand:

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Historiska institutionen, LUX, Lunds Universitet, Box 192, 221 00, Lund, Sweden

    Karin Zackari

Authors
  1. Karin Zackari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karin Zackari .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Virginia Polytech. Inst. and State Department of Political Science, BLACKSBURG, Virginia, USA

    Bettina Koch

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Zackari, K. (2016). Violence on the Periphery of the Thai State and Nationhood. In: Koch, B. (eds) State Terror, State Violence. Staat – Souveränität – Nation. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-11181-6_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation