Will The Www/global-village Change Thai Democracy ?

[Ricardo]

It has recently been claimed in other threads, that ThaiVisa and the internet might be now enabling more farangs to hold & communicate their opinions on events here, than was the case several years ago. This could well be true, since we can all see more news-items, and posters' varied reactions to them, much more easily than in old-media days. You don't need to be living here anymore, buy newspapers or watch Thai-TV, to see many more press-releases or newspaper-articles, but can be anywhere in the world, as long as you're on-line.

The same must be equally true for Thais, whether living here or overseas, who can access more news & web-sites than ever before, although there are certainly understandably some long-standing government-controls on certain sites or content.

Has this already, or will it in the future, enable more ordinary Thais to learn more about what goes on ? Will they want to ?

Will the resulting increased-ability of normal citizens to connect with others with similar views, under conditions of relative anonymity, lead them to think more about the institutions of democratic-government, or to express their opinions more, despite an apparent cultural bias against criticising poo-yais or authority in general ?

Will the current political-parties encourage & support this sort of social-networking, increasing their own internet-content, and participation ?

Is there a democratic or political change underway - enabled by the internet ? What do TV-members think ?

[xyborg]

Dunno but more and more Thais are seeing (thru the net) there is a world outside of Thailand hopefully making them more disenchanted with their govt. Maybe it will produce more equal rights for women there too.

[dominique355]

The Internet has the potential to induce some changes here, provided:

- the Government does not block or censure the Internet as it does now

- the Thai people wish to get informed about what is going on in Thailand and the rest of the world and that supposes an education, which favors critical thinking

- the Internet in Thailand is modernized and made accessible to more people (high speed, which is really hight speed). Thank you CAT and TOT.

But with an Information and Communication Minister who does not even know what is E-Mail, the future is dim. Oh, but he got sacked, right! Any improvements since?

[Prakanong]

It will have an affect but how much?

One part of the Globalisation debate surrounds the fear of cultural homogeneity but in practice trhis has not happened - maybe the TRhai's will follow the norm and keep to their own systems and views - the www is not having as much affect as a lot of people thought in all area's

[ade100]

It’s a nice idea that world of Web 2.0 with its collaborative information systems will help to educate and raise awareness amongst all world citizens. Sadly though, it may take some time. I have been told that most Thai people get their knowledge of the world through the speaker systems that local government set up in their villages.

[Ricardo]

It’s a nice idea that world of Web 2.0 with its collaborative information systems will help to educate and raise awareness amongst all world citizens. Sadly though, it may take some time. I have been told that most Thai people get their knowledge of the world through the speaker systems that local government set up in their villages.

You mean they're not just for paluangs to tell their local voters which party pays the most ? Sorry, I couldn't resist !

[ade100]

It's a nice idea that world of Web 2.0 with its collaborative information systems will help to educate and raise awareness amongst all world citizens. Sadly though, it may take some time. I have been told that most Thai people get their knowledge of the world through the speaker systems that local government set up in their villages.

You mean they're not just for paluangs to tell their local voters which party pays the most ? Sorry, I couldn't resist !

I have no first hand knowledge of these speaker systems so I don't really know what they broadcast. According to my gf, they would get into big trouble if they openly told people how to vote and who was going to pay them.

I would be very interested to hear from others what the sort of news is on these broadcasts. I suspect it may not be quite up to the standard of BBC World :-) Its quite scary to think that for many Thai people this is their only information source on the world outside of their village.