Redefining “Thainess”: Embracing Diversity, Preserving Unity

Abstract

The twenty-first century is an age of rapid change. Language loss, like the loss of biodiversity, is accelerating at an alarming rate. Sixty to ninety percent of the world’s languages are in danger of disappearing. This leads directly to a significant loss of human knowledge. Globalization and nationalism have contributed to the forced assimilation of diverse linguistic and cultural resources into dominant cultures. International organizations have responded by calling for the protection and preservation of language and cultural diversity through consecutive campaigns to raise awareness of this global issue.

This chapter examines the consequences of the successful promotion of the concept of “Thainess” as used for the purpose of nation building. However, despite its obvious national benefit in unifying the country for administrative purposes, it has also had a serious detrimental effect, in particular, contributing to the loss of language diversity as evidenced by the 15 most endangered languages of Thailand. In large language groups in border regions, such as the Patani Malay in southern Thailand, language identity issues and cultural conflict underlie the violence and political unrest. There are concerted efforts by grassroots communities to reverse the situation, with the technical support of academics, to revitalization and maintenance of their language and culture in various ways, including education. One especially important method is through the teaching of the ethnic language as a main subject such as Chong and the provision of mother tongue-based bilingual education, in a number of languages, including Patani Malay.

As for society at large, a multilingual/multicultural society should be promoted to accommodate this undervalued cultural diversity. The notion of “Thainess” needs to be broadened to offer ethnolinguistic groups their own space within Thai political society on an equal basis so that they may be empowered to live a dignified life with security, justice, and opportunity. Central to this is access to quality education and employment, to reinvigorate their culture and linguistic identity. A mass media is a must to meet the demands and needs of the various marginalized minority groups in Thailand. Such a policy will open up opportunities to positively exploit the variety of accumulated wealth and wisdom embodied within such unique cultures and linguistic histories and will provide sustainable public benefits in terms of both economic and security gains.