Paradoxcracy

Veerada Supakarapongkul #5745367928

Paradoxcracy

The name of the documentary comes from the combination of a word paradox and democracy that means the contrast of democracy. The documentary tells us about the contents of pure thai politics. It is presented by interviewing many scholars from different places so that they give us various aspects related to incidents that has happened in Thailand during the change of absolute monarchy 2475 to 2540 a year of democracy. Also, the documentary is trying to show use what the real meaning of democracy and how it is started.

The first obvious paradox that I’ve noticed in this documentary is censorship. The director chooses to bleep some scholars voice instead of cutting the scene out. He intentionally wants to shows us that even though we live in a democracy country, there is something that can’t be expressed in public. Base on the lesson that I’ve learned in class, democracy means the government of the people, by the people and for the people. So I start to question that how it can be a democracy if we’re not allow to express our opinion. Moreover, it shows that from the past until now that we always value royal family as the top of society. That’s why we’re forbidden on talking about them.

Another thing that has been missing but it doesn’t show in the documentary is the timeline.  You may notice that the timeline starts with the revolution 2475 by people’s Party to the coup in 2490. Then jump to the year of 2516-2519 ( 6 October ) and end with Thaksin era before the protest between red-yellow shirt. Based on the timeline that I’ve learned in class, many people that have important roles in thai politics haven’t been mentioned (some are mentioned but they didn’t go deep down ) such as Kuang Apaiwong, Sarit Thannarat and Kraingsuk Chamanan, Also, I’ve noticed that the Bloody May incident in 2535 hasn’t been mentioned as well. Additionally, from the 6th October incident, they didn’t go deep down how military has been an important role in the coup .So I start to question again how these names and incident can be missing. I don’t think they forgot to put these names however it may reflect on the freedom in Thai society that even though the director wants to represent all these names but somehow they can’t. What mindset that can bring us to this point?

According to an article “ A History of Thailand” by Baker Chris, it may answer to our doubt why we don’t feel like we have a right to do things that should be allowed in democracy country. Thailand is commonly known as a country under military control since 2475 when Sarit Thannarat was a prime minister. After the coup in 2475, Thailand has been through 19 coups over decades. This can refer that the military will continue to shape Thailand’s political culture and the behavior of its elite actors.  They can control our thought on what can or can’t be expressed.