While the country is still debating whether martial law is actually just a coup, people across the country are subjected to daily brutality, whether from deeply ingrained militarism in officialdom or our own psyche.
Ask 28-year-old Mueno, an ethnic Karen mother-of-five from Phetchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan forest.
Her husband, Porlajee “Billy” Rakchongcharoen, disappeared after he was arrested by national park chief Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn last month.
Had it not been for the mysterious disappearance, Billy would have been with a group of Karen forest dwellers who gathered at the Administrative Court on Monday to fight state oppression.
Fluent in Thai, Billy was in charge of helping his relatives who are illiterate forest dwellers gather evidence and prepare lawsuits against the park chief and state agencies — the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry and the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Park Conservation.
In 2011, the park chief led a team of armed soldiers and forest rangers to burn down 20 forest dwellers’ huts and rice barns which were scattered in the deep jungle of Kaeng Krachan National Park under a forced resettlement scheme.
Mr Chaiwat took a group of TV reporters with him to cover the raids which were reported as a heroic mission to save the forest against the enemies of the nation.
The footage of simple huts and rice barns being torched was not questioned by the public — thanks to effective and systematic brainwashing to vilify the hill peoples as forest destroyers — or by outsiders. The hill tribe people were viewed as national enemies who deserve to be punished under a military-style crackdown.
Militarism is enshrined in draconian forestry laws which criminalise people living in forests as national enemies who deserve being purged, arrested and sent to jail.
There are millions of families living in forests. When officials use their draconian law to purge the locals, we are talking about violent oppression nationwide — with or without martial law.
Sadly, the public is giving a nod of approval to such atrocities in the belief the forest should be free of human beings, even though this is against the reality of tropical forests.
These hill peoples are trying to tell the public they have lived in the forest for generations and their rotation farming system is ecologically friendly, which is why their forest remains lush and healthy. Few are willing to listen. And the oppression continues.
Why is that? Is it the same reason that mainstream Buddhists feel indifferent to the use of force, torture, and other abuses of power by security personnel in the South? Is it because we are systematically brainwashed that we see ethnic Malay Muslims as outsiders? Or why we think immigrant workers do not deserve the same rights as Thais?
Maybe ethnic prejudice is not the only reason we approve of the use of force to deal with what we perceive as disorder. Look at the way we raise our children — our focus on total obedience.
Look at the way schools teach our kids — the focus on total submissiveness. Look at the way kindergarten teachers train our toddlers to turn left and right on order as if in military camps. Look at our endorsement of spanking, in families and in schools.
And when we cannot clean up political messes ourselves, look at the way we think military intervention and a show of force can work the magic for us — which is why many of us are still reluctant to call a coup a coup when we see one.
How to turn things around? Maybe Billy’s wife Mueno has the answer.
“Please put yourself in our shoes,” she pleaded. “How would you feel if your loved ones were abducted like my husband? How would you feel if your families were victims of brute force like our Karen people?”
Mueno is asking for our empathy, our ability to feel moral outrage against the injustice to which grassroots people are routinely subjected.
It’s only when we see militarism in our culture and frown on the use of force against the powerless that our society will be able to reject military coups under any guise.
Sanitsuda Ekachai is editorial pages editor, Bangkok Post.