Sanctions and the Thought Police

Published in The Nation, July 16, 2010

The public outrage this week over a proposed bill on reproductive health sheds light on much that is going on in Thailand. One section proposes to allow pregnant teens to continue their studies in school during pregnancy as well as to resume it after giving birth. This should not be controversial, right?

Not so in “liberal” Thailand, where many are outraged that, if passed, the bill would encourage more pregnancies in schools. Thai teenagers, it seems, decide whether to get knocked up based on graduation opportunity!

Instead of giving teenagers a decent sex education, Thai society continues to kid itself that teens are not having sex. Are we juvenile enough to believe that kicking out pregnant teens from school will change that? Shouldn’t the soon-to-be mothers get a decent education to become better mothers?

Despite overwhelming evidence proving its ineffectiveness at prevention, Thai society refuses to grow out of this vile sanction, because preemption is just an excuse. What’s at stake here is not prevention but control and punishment.

Similar ugly attitude prevails over all issues pertaining to sex, sexuality and gender. Abortion is a no-no, because it would “promote irresponsible pregnancy” and because Thai people love babies so much. But surely enough there’s never been a talk about providing options in the form of state support for single mothers because that too would “promote irresponsible pregnancy”.

In the same vein, prostitution cannot be legalized lest it “encourages more women to become prostitutes.”

If we look closely, we can understand where these moral outrages come from. They grow out of norms laid down by men to control women’s sexuality. With all the condemnation against teen mothers and prostitutes, nothing is ever said about teen fathers and sex buyers.

However, women are not the only targets of social control. This age-old practice also applies to LGBTs. It’s not a secret that most people don’t take kathoeys seriously, that even when they prove themselves worthy, they will never be allowed to do important work, because it would effectively be an endorsement and encourage children to become “sexual deviants.”

Similarly, gay marriage or any other LGBT rights cannot be recognized because it would be a stamp of approval for homosexuality. A case in point: before the Thai version of the musical “La Cage aux Folles” opened recently, it was being criticized by some as “promoting the third sex”.

Social controls which ensure that women and “the third sex” know their own places is an extra-constitutional structure that rarely gets talked about. To judge and shame someone is a classic social control. This is what our society does best. Chart Kobjitti’s brilliant novel “Kham Phipaksa” is set in a microcosm of Thai society filled with sexual prejudice and judgment.

And why stop only at sexuality? We love to control others and revel in “karmic” retribution. Despite being a “Buddhist” country, the support for capital punishment is overwhelming – higher than in most “materialistic West” nations – even though studies after studies have shown its ineffectiveness in reducing violent crimes.

New situations now call for novel applications of the old measure. The internet is a perfect tool for public lynching of an outcast. Now anyone can shame them, make nasty comments, collect “signatures” to condemn them – without having to reveal their own identities.

It helps social sanction reach an unprecedented dimension, turning into full-scale witch hunting. A “social sanction” Facebook page is dedicated to the “outing” of red-shirt people. To justify continued persecution, the victims are made more objectionable with the indiscriminate accusation of being anti-monarchist and dragged to virtual stoning. The case of Academy Fantasia’s V11, Mark, illustrates the length to which witch hunters will go in the name of political vendetta where even forgery of “evidence” is justified.

Nazis had their youth squad. The Chinese Red Guard and the Khmer Rouge trained children to spy and report on their parents and their neighbors. Now the Thai government is also training “cyber scouts” to patrol the internet. It makes the squabble between the Chinese government and Google look pale in comparison.

It is increasingly difficult to tell if Thailand is a democracy or a police state – and we haven’t even mentioned the emergency decree. Many are saying that we now live under the stares of Big Brother and Orwellian thought police.

I couldn’t agree more. But if they look back carefully enough, they will find that it has always been 1984 – at least for some of us.