Below are some words from the “Road to Peace” Forum this past Friday, which addressed the current political conflict and opened a space for youth to exchange and develop ideas for supporting peace and solidarity between the people of both countries. The Forum was hosted by the Thai Volunteer Service Foundation and Action Aid Thailand – this kind of democratic space allows for free speech and our right to information to facilitate civil society’s participation in government policy and politics. When youth activists, well-respected academics and NGOs can gather to examine this crisis and think about solutions in solidarity with our friends in Cambodia, a peoples’ centered process takes place that we fail to see in the government.
We can’t just change history, because this is still an issue about a negative kind of nationalism, which stems from a biased pride that Thailand is better or stronger than it’s neighbors. We sometimes blame imperialism, but Thailand has grown in it’s own ways and has it’s own power relations in the region.
Ajaan Chanvit Kasetsiri: The government is forming a new hybrid: Royal Nationalism, Military-Bureaucratic Nationalism and the constitution and the people? The and is important as a symbol for the role of the people and the constitution – are they actually included?
Supalak Kanjankhundee: Nationalists use anger as a tool in their movement politics – those who hate Thaksin, hate Hun Sen, and therefore hate Cambodia
Dr. Pungthong Pawakarapan: We don’t read enough books, ask enough questions or try to learn more about issues, this is inherent to the educational culture, and is true of all parts of the educational system.
Media can take this issue however they want to – the people who are in charge of these sources make decisions without information and simplify issues. Independent media in the globalization world can help to express information clearly and honestly.
