Thailand/Siam: A Fake Country

[srisatch]

Some members in some topics seem to be having problems with LOS. I propose a new way of looking at this..and who knows maybe helping them towards Nirvana or at least thinking about where they have chosen to live.

Thailand is a fake country. There are and have been, of course, many others. The USA is an amalgam of a vast number of 'States',and it required war to amalgamate them..to some extent! The USSR was a similar pudding and collapsed. The so called Austro-Hungarian Empire? Over the centuries China has been warring with its peripheries and centralities. Empires have come and gone..particularly the British one. One could go on. But I was reminded of Yugoslavia. Remember that? Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia etc. Now Thailand. I propose that Thailand redefine itself. We will have the nations of Issan, Lanna, Thailand Central or shall we call it Suphanland?, There will be City states (like Singapore or Macau) of Bangkok and Phuket,and maybe even Pattaya? Khmer speaking provinces will be re-integrated with Kampuchea or whatever it is called nowadays, and the southern 'islamic'or 'malay' states will be rejoined with the so called Malaysia...after all what's in a name? Great Britain/United Kingdom..America/USA, Iran/Persia. Of course there will be some problems drawing lines, but that has never stopped nation builders...look at all those lines in the middle east desert and the bizarre construction of 'African' countries. It is time for the Thais (where did we come from?) (Maybe we should make a bid forSipsongpanna?) to put a stop to the dilution of the Thai way of doing things, get rid of hill tribes, Mons, muslims, sea gypsies/chao lay,and even chinese and assert our place in the modern world.

[smokie36]

I would agree with some form of devolved goverment certainly in the south and probably in Issan also but it begs me to ask. Do you not consider yourself Thai and then maybe Asian in the same way I might consider myself Scottish,,,British and European?

[Beetlejuice]

Thanks for the history lesson, but I don't think it`s a good idea that Thais should look too deeply into their roots.

Better that they see themselves as one amalgamated nation. The reason being that as worldwide history as proved, separation and the elaboration of differences causes conflicts, the deep south being a typical example.

Edited July 12, 2010 by Beetlejuice

[thaifkrlim]

The land of hybrids with a too strong nationalism, you call it fake?

[Briggsy]

Perhaps a more 'natural' Thai nation would encompass all of Laos, most of Shan State and jettison [the sultanate of] Pattani. However the vicissitudes of history have left us with the current borders. The reasons for this are well documented in history books.

The current 76-province make-up and associated borders has been hammered into the population as sacrosanct and thus discussing this issue and any possible change of borders with Thais is often considered as treasonable and heretical and is likely to put you in danger. Rational responses are few and far between. So I steer very clear of the topic.

[Lannatyne]

OP does make some fair points.

There are internet articles around that suggest, one day, Phuket could do to Thailand what Singapore did to Malaya.

Much more of this failed state, red / yellow shirt mullarkey, then you never know.

[apetley]

Quote "Thailand Central or shall we call it Suphanland?"

Kanchanaland sounds alot better.

[Tod Daniels]

Yet another geo-political pundit on Thai Visa weighs in with their two สลึง's (sa^Lleung^R) worth of nonsense.

With all the experts in various fields who post here on T/V, it's amazing to me that the forum hasn't cured AIDS, solved world peace, world hunger or any of the other plethora of problems facing 'human beans' <sic>.

Given that the glorious "Land 'O Thais" is embroiled in a heated, often violent negotiation with Cambodia for a 4.6 square kilometer piece of economically worthless land bordering the World Heritage Site in Cambodia known as Preah Vihear, I doubt anyone would ever convince the thais to give up a single square centimeter of what they think is their land, either willingly or via 'gun-boat diplomacy'. These are some ultra nationalistic people who should not be underestimated in their rabid almost fanatical defense of what they think is rightfully theirs.

This country seems to have more border disputes with neighboring countries than even a semi-intelligent person might imagine. I really doubt theyve ever surveyed their land borders in the last 30 years (the fact that most of the shared borders are still heavily mined from previous conflicts doesnt make being a member of ANY survey team all that fun of a job ).

I also concur with a previous post, that drawing imaginary dotted lines on the ground inside a country; lines which only serve to accent the populaces' differences can and often is fraught with peril, or worse.

Total rubbish. .. ..

Edited July 13, 2010 by tod-daniels

[Utterlyuseful]

How about a new country called Foodland...could be the first country with 24 hour aircon.

Re. OP, this an overly simplistic analysis...the emergence of the nation state is directly tied to Euro history (and wars)over last 500 years....the rest of the world was either tribal, empires or kingdoms, with a fair dose of religion and colonialism thrown in resulting in many arbitrary demarcation lines OP mentions.

In short, a very complex matter not to be trifled with by meddlers and amateur political scientists....look at the de-evolution of Yugoslavia for a good example of how messy these things can get.

Edited July 13, 2010 by Utterlyuseful

[mahtin]

One of the first computer games I ever played was called Civilisation.

[Garry9999]

Yet another geo-political pundit on Thai Visa weighs in with their two สลึง's (sa^Lleung^R) worth of nonsense.

Total rubbish. .. ..

Agreed, not much thought went in to this one.

[Valdezugar]

One of the first computer games I ever played was called Civilisation.

Roman or Greek?

[SoftWater]

I misunderstood the topic subject from the title. I thought it was about the fact that everything you buy in Thailand is fake, like the utterly counterfeit 'hush puppies' I was sold in Central Silom department store the other week.

Edited July 13, 2010 by SoftWater