Ministry Of Silly Walks , Thailand.

[taxexile]

</SPAN> link from chang noi , geocities.

cultural bureaucracy means bureaucratic culture

12 nov 2007.

A television ad aired a couple of years ago showed a youth whose back, when tapped, resounded with a loud boinggg. This was supposed to be funny, and there was even a bit of canned laughter after every boinggg to make sure the viewer understood that. The intended message was that the lad’s back was so stiff he could not assume a correct pose of stooping deference. The ad was made by the Ministry of Culture.

The Ministry has recently reissued a booklet entitled “Thai Social Etiquette.” The booklet is written in English and offers visiting foreigners the usual tips about making a proper wai, not pointing with the feet, and not patting the head. But it is much more wide-ranging than most such guides. It tells its readers how to sit, eat, lie down, walk, speak, dress, make a phone call, queue for the loo, drink, use a spoon, give a speech, pay a visit, and perform at a seminar.

It is really a handbook on what foreigners should not do in Thailand, but rather a manual on how Thais should behave in their own country. It sums it all up like this:

“In Thai society, where seniority is given much importance and politeness to everyone is stressed, in order to be a person with good manners, one must be aware and careful of almost every gesture or movement, and also of almost every word or sentence one utters.”

Let’s imagine a newly arrived foreigner toting this book along to some of the common everyday spaces in Thai society. At the open-air restaurant, she would find that most of the booklet’s rules (not reaching across, always using a serving spoon, making sure to wipe lipstick off your glass) were being broken at almost every table. The lively atmosphere would make her doubt that all the people present were being careful with their every gesture and their every word.

In a business office or factory, the foreigner would find people interacting without any attention to the booklet’s rules about social behaviour. In a village, all the booklet’s procedures about how to pay a social call would make no sense at all. In the shopping mall, bus, or Skytrain, the visitor would be forced to conclude that almost none of the people were Thai since they did not seem to walk, talk, sit, or dress in the prescribed manner. The booklet warns, “Refrain from holding hands in public as it may have undesirable implication,” and declares that “Men do not roll up their sleeves as if getting ready for a fight,” but the visitor would find even such desperately stern injunctions being transgressed in full public view.

By now the visitor might conclude that the booklet is a work of complete fantasy on the level of Star Wars. But that would be wrong. The society described and idealized in the booklet does exist, but is not “Thai society,” either past or present. Rather it is one rarefied segment of the society, occupied by senior bureaucrats of the sort that work in or with the Ministry of Culture.

They have some defining characteristics. They have a good surname proving they come from a good family—or else they wish they did. They have a private income because it is difficult to maintain the proper public display on the standard bureaucratic pittance—or at least they wish they did. They belong to a profession which used to be very influential but which is being rapidly marginalized as the society becomes richer, more commercial, and more open—and they have nostalgia for an idealized past.

If you remove from the etiquette booklet all the advice which is really universal (e.g., don’t eat with your mouth open), it has one clear message: hierarchy is everything, and deference is always due.

Since its reincarnation in the early 2000s, the Ministry of Culture has had two main roles. First, it administers a small budget to preserve and promote valuable creative work, past and present. This is Culture with a capital C, and is a very valid and necessary role.

But the Ministry of Culture also wants to be the Ministry of culture with a small c. This is dangerous because “culture” is such a slippery word. Does it mean how people actually live? Or how some people think other people ought to live?

In the early years after its rebirth, the Ministry spent a lot of effort compiling a Masterplan defining its role. The first part of this plan goes out of its way to emphasise how varied Thai society is (in ethnicity, region, urban/rural, occupation), and how dynamic it is as part of the modern globe. This part is descriptive—describing how things are in all their messy variety. But moving to the second part which frames what the Ministry is going to do, the plan slips into another mode altogether. This part is prescriptive— prescribing how things ought to be. And this part junks the enthusiasm for messy variety in favour of a much narrower view.

The results have been both hilarious and tragic. The Ministry has tried to outlaw risqué songs on the grounds that they are “against Thai culture” when in fact these songs belong to a great tradition of boisterous counterpoint singing which is the historical culture of far more Thais than the courtly arts. The Ministry rages against “un-Thai” forms of dress which are rather similar to the way most ordinary people dressed around a century ago. Much more tragically, the Ministry has obstructed some highly creative contemporary work in theatre, cinema, and the plastic arts.

In these obstructive actions, as in the boingg-back ad and the etiquette booklet, the Ministry claims a right and duty to impose the values of a declining minority on the society as a whole. Perhaps the Ministry should obey one of the rules from its own etiquette booklet: “Do not scratch here and scratch there.”

[Jai Dee]

I gotta get myself a copy of this book...

[peter991]

Thanks TE for bringing that to my attention. One of the main reasons many of us visit Thailand (and eventually live here) is the Culture.

But what exactly is Thai culture? Many of the websites I viewed prior to my first visit mentioned some of the more common ideas - like reverence for the King, not pointing your foot at anybody and not to pat anybody on the head.

When I actually arrived in Thailand, I asked a Thai guy about what I had read online.

Yes - the Royal Family was held in high regard by all Thai people - because of the good the royals had done and continue to do for Thailand.

Yes - pointing your foot (the 'lowest' part of the human body) was considered an extreme insult.

No - patting the head of a Thai person (especially a child) would not earn disapproval.

Culture, society and mores in a country are constantly changing.

The Internet is a wonderful thing - it enables us to read about other countries - but do not take as gospel all you read.

On topic: There is definitely room for the Ministry of Culture - but it needs to escape from its 'ivory towers' and be RELEVANT to today's Thailand.

Peter

[BigSnake]

Seem like it really does exist in Thailand because there of some that has nothing else to do but montior others,

[wilko]

I have a book "Thai Language and Culture" written by a Juruwan Puangmalee that has a similar attitude.

He's meant to be a full-time lecturer but it is such an un-academic book one wonders what his qualifications really are......

"the Ministry claims a right and duty to impose the values of a declining minority on the society as a whole. Perhaps the Ministry should obey one of the rules from its own etiquette booklet: “

no culture is definable and these un-thinking efforts to delineate it are both a waste of time and harmful.

Thailand is really a "top-down" society.....as with so many Asian countries whether purporting to be capitalist or socialist, they will never acheive a true democracy until this attitude is dropped.

Edited March 28, 2008 by wilko

[samran]

The MOC serves and extremely useful purpose, that is to act as a holding ground for the ultra conservatives and the people who need to be rewarded with status and title.

My experience is no one (even in this government) is silly enough to think they should have any sort of credible remit. It is a place to go so people who think they are important can be shown the love, while not getting themselves into trouble at other more 'useful' ministry's.

The modus operandi is to let these guys out of their enclosure once a year, to issue the 'no spaghetti strap' edict just before Songkran, and then they get put back for the rest of the year, to plan and strategise how they are going to set in stone "thainess".

It is a game, and an extremely necessary one.

[micksterbs]

Thanks, Taxexile, for an informative and well-written post. I'd be interested to know what their view would be of the recent attempts to have the name Thailand ditched in favour of the far more inclusive Siam. Whilst the Ministry wears its culture with a capital C hat, and "emphasises how varied Thai society is (in ethnicity, region, urban/rural, occupation), and how dynamic it is as part of the modern globe", you'd be forgiven for thinking that they would look favourably upon such a proposal. Of course, like a lot of things in Thai society, it's window-dressing. The rest of the booklet shows that the culture with a small c outlook would never tolerate such a thing and will always assume that the Thai are the dominant race in this land.

[taxexile]

hierarchy is everything, and deference is always due.

sounds like the dine- oh - sows

for an informative and well-written post.

.....cut and pasted from an online blog !

[jstumbo]

It is a place to go so people who think they are important can be shown the love, while not getting themselves into trouble at other more 'useful' ministry's.

Maybe they need to create the "Thai Ministry of Inactive Posts". An entire ministry dedicated to people who have screwed up moved to a job where they get paid without having to do anything.

Edited March 28, 2008 by jstumbo

[samran]

It is a place to go so people who think they are important can be shown the love, while not getting themselves into trouble at other more 'useful' ministry's.

Maybe they need to create the "Thai Ministry of Inactive Posts". An entire ministry dedicated to people who have screwed up moved to a job where they get paid without having to do anything.

it already exists. It is called the PM's office.

[londonthai]

the ministry of culture should not be for the ultra conservatists or titled politicians, but for people associated with arts (cinema, theatre, tv, museums, radio, art schools, literature publishers, music, cultural minorities etc) who know what's happening in the real life and what problems there are.

otherwise the ministry will be re-heating ideas from the manuals for the high society from the last centuries and burning public money on useless actions

[cclub75]

Let’s imagine a newly arrived foreigner toting this book along to some of the common everyday spaces in Thai society.

Ah.... The Monty Python... Good old times.

As for the book, it's not surprising. I mean not more than to give to every female farang arriving in Phuket an anti-rape and anti-murder... whistle.

It's a pack.

Edited March 30, 2008 by cclub75

[Ijustwannateach]

Samran,

I can agree with everything you say about their harmlessness except in the manner they have recently been allowed to stifle real public discussion of the realities of sex. I would say there's a major crisis in the making- i.e., there will be a repeat of the HIV explosions of the 80s/90s- and putting the inactivity of the other branches of government together with the activity of the MOC and there's some moral culpability there.

"S"