The Propensity Of Thai People To Divide Into Cliques.

[wamberal]

Some years ago I spent almost four years working inside a large Thai corporation. During the course of those four years I travelled widely throughout Thailand, and also worked very closely with many Thai professional, administrative, and clerical staff.

There are two over-arching impressions that I retain from those years. Firstly, how diverse Thai society really is. It struck me that Thais have only two things in common - firstly, a love of their country, and secondly, a love of their monarchy.

But secondly, and more importantly, was their propensity to divide themselves into cliques. In the organisation for which I worked, there were several cliques, and of course membership could overlap. Not in any order of importance, the first clique was the engineers versus the non-engineers. Then there was the Chula graduates versus the rest. And of course, the ethnic Thais versus the ethnic Chinese. I am sure there were more cliques than these, of course, some too subtle for a mere westerner to discern.

It seems to me that in Thai culture, sometimes the things that divide are actually given far more importance than the things that unite. Far more importance than they should be given. Democracy is about accepting the reverse case - the things that unite a nation should really be more important than the things that divide, or separate. Sometimes we just have to accept the other fellow's right to his point of view, and move on to the important things in life - shelter, food, security, education, relationships, peace, prosperity etc etc. The things that we all need, and that we need each other's help to achieve and maintain.

[grahamhc]

This describes it all.....

[kiakaha]

Some years ago I spent almost four years working inside a large Thai corporation. During the course of those four years I travelled widely throughout Thailand, and also worked very closely with many Thai professional, administrative, and clerical staff.

There are two over-arching impressions that I retain from those years. Firstly, how diverse Thai society really is. It struck me that Thais have only two things in common - firstly, a love of their country, and secondly, a love of their monarchy.

But secondly, and more importantly, was their propensity to divide themselves into cliques. In the organisation for which I worked, there were several cliques, and of course membership could overlap. Not in any order of importance, the first clique was the engineers versus the non-engineers. Then there was the Chula graduates versus the rest. And of course, the ethnic Thais versus the ethnic Chinese. I am sure there were more cliques than these, of course, some too subtle for a mere westerner to discern.

It seems to me that in Thai culture, sometimes the things that divide are actually given far more importance than the things that unite. Far more importance than they should be given. Democracy is about accepting the reverse case - the things that unite a nation should really be more important than the things that divide, or separate. Sometimes we just have to accept the other fellow's right to his point of view, and move on to the important things in life - shelter, food, security, education, relationships, peace, prosperity etc etc. The things that we all need, and that we need each other's help to achieve and maintain.

you've just described the tribal and primitive nature of the species known as homo sapian.

Edited December 1, 2008 by kiakaha