The title of this post is exactly what the tooktook driver told me when I returned from a meeting in Central Bangkok to my well appointed but still super budget hotel near Bangkok’s version of Banawe Street, Quezon City. I couldn’t take a cab and getting to the MRT was out of the question as Red Shirt protesters and Thaksin fans were marching on the streets.
I will not dwell on the usual CNN and BBC commentaries that the Thai political crisis will affect Thailand’s economy. That is patently obvious. The Thais have made the whole biz of people power more savvy. The main aim to shut down not the TV stations (it was the government who did that) or the stock market, but the biggest shopping malls. If we had that kind of people power now, then the government will have a struggle to be in power.
I have had an interest in Thailand since I have many scientist colleagues from that country. Also my parents have so many close friends from the Kingdom and they have become like family for us. So when I was in Thailand and given the uncertain political situation, these Thai “titos” and “titas” have offered to take me into their homes if Suvarnabhumi airport is shut down once more and if I can’t take the bus to Chang Mai.
One of my mom’s friends did her PhD in political science at UP during the height of the Aquino assassination years leading to EDSA 1. Thus she has had a unique view of the Philippine situation and the current Thai crisis. She is now the Vice Chancellor of a regional university in northern Thailand and is an acknowledged expert on Philippine political studies. She regularly observes Philippine elections.
She also echoes the tooktook driver’s statement and adds that the main difference between the Thais and the Filipinos is that the Thais never developed the skills for negotiation and compromise. She opines that there is still a social glue that sticks the ruling and working classes in the Philippines and that is none other than the Catholic Church and the mainline Christian churches. The moral sway of these religious groups force Filipinos to the negotiating table.
In Thailand she says that this was the role of the Monarchy. But to me Thai society has been in flux in the last twenty years and the King’s direct political influence has somewhat lessened. This too happened in England but a responsible Parliament was able to keep the political negotiations and compromises within two sword lengths on the floor of the Commons at Westminster. This probably staved off revolution in England. The Philippine Daily Inquirer in today’s editorial seems to agree.
Thus in many characteristics Thailand and the Philippines are so similar. The Thai troubles may be portent for us. If the May elections fail, we really do not know who will hold the balance of power. But one thing is definitely sure, the Sin less Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines no longer commands the moral and political sway it had in the mid 1980s. This is largely due to the political bumbling of its bishops who wanted in their own way to become Cardinal Sins on their own turfs. We don’t know if the CBCP can issue anymore morally compelling assessments of our political situation. It has not come out with a statement on the clerical sex scandals hounding the Pope in Rome.
The tooktook driver ( a Thaksin fan!) knows we will have an election and that is why he means our country is still very good. In Thailand the coffins (not mock ones) are being paraded on the streets and there is no guarantee that elections will be held soon.
Democracy has taken deep roots in Thailand as like in the Philippines. Elections are the political safety valve in both countries and is the stage for compromise.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Your tuktuk driver is just looking at the week events.
Pilipinas 170 maternal deaths per hundred-thousand; Thailand 44.
Pilipinas bad, Thailand very good!
Mexico 55 Cuba 33 per hundredthousand, New Zealand 15 Japan 8.
Pilipinas bad 170 bad.
Where is the support for Reproductive Health Bill?!!!!
It’s time to remove the Church Influence in our Politics. Some Churches use Politics to enrich themselves. They sell their Members Votes to Politicians. The Catholic Church was placed in our Political System by the Spanish Colonizers; to control people. Kings used Religions to control their subjects. The Incas, Mayas, Paraohs, etc…invoke their Divinity to reign. The Japanese Emperor, was even seen and believed as a Living God; before World War II. I GO FOR a Secular Society. Put the Priests and Bishops where they belong: in their RECTORIES and CONVENTS.
A “glue that sticks”…? hahaha
Looks more like a slime.
Only Catholic country in Asia is a basket case too.
And now that you’ve mentioned it, the sex scandal isn’t the Church’s biggest worry in the future. The difficult task ahead is how to justify an institution whose existence is predicated in the belief on something (or someone) that does not exist. The explosion of knowledge and information accessible even to the remotest area of the globe and to practically everyone will tear down the veil of mystery from which religious mumbo-jumbo flourish.
Check out this “great happy Vatican death spiral” :
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/04/14/notes041410.DTL
Well there is another basket case Catholic country in Asia and its case has nothing to do with the Catholic Church. Do more research please.
The Catholic Priests and Bishops are against Birth Contol. And other kinds of Contraceptions. The Filipinos, especially the poor and marginalized are reproducing like Flies. Food sources are decreasing, instead of increasing. Hunger is the worst calamity we will ever face. You cannot prevent Hungry People from rampaging for Food…Do those so called Church Leaders; ever think of this FRIGTHENING SCENARIO?…
And I presume you’re mighty glad we aren’t just like Burma yet?
Are you not of the contention that your church’s rigid opposition to population management resulted in a higher than desired population rate thereby thinning per capita wealth and resources, which means widespread poverty and limited access to education? Are you not of the contention that poverty and ignorance is correlated to corruption, malgovernance and our exalted status as a basket case?
Yahoo-news reports about a Joseph Skelton, who when a 26-year-old student at St. John Provincial Seminary in Detroit, Mich. ..was convicted of sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old boy, given three years’ probation and dismissed from his seminary.
Skelton now lives in the Philippines and now serves as parochial vicar of the St. Vincent Ferrer parish in the remote town of Calape.
The archdiocese of Detroit, after learning Skelton had been ordained, sent a letter about his conviction to the Tagbilaran diocese in early 2003. Informed of the case, current Bishop Leonardo Medroso said he would investigate. But he added: “The case has been judged already. He was convicted and that means to say he has served already the conviction. So what obstacle can there be if he has already served his punishment or penalty?”
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Predator Catholic priests relocating to the Philippines, Brazil, other countries : common practice. The local bishops at times are not protective of the local population.
http is news. yahoo.com
/s/ap/20100415/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_predator_priests
I don’t see that Filipinos are skilled at negotiation or compromise. Or how the Catholic Church would have any influence other than hardening positions in their favor. I certainly see no compromise on over-birthing.
Joe