In conjunction with the ‘Identities versus Globalisation?’ art exhibition opening at the Chiang Mai Art Museum, the Heinrich Böll Foundation organised the conference

“Debating the politics of culture, identity and globalisation”

Concept note and speaker abstracts for the introductory panel

“Dismantling Identity politics”,

Sunday, 8th February, 9.00-12.00

and two related parallel workshops in the afternoon from 13.30 -18.00

“Identity” as a political category (reflecting `individuality’ or ‘collectivity’) and “identity politics” (reflecting their unsettled relationship) have made a rapid raise from a rather marginalised term in social science to a burning issue of debate and a central category of political sociology in the era if globalisation. Identity and globalisation manifest a twin-relationship. Globalisation explores external space while identity explores the internal space of development.

In this panel debate Khaled Ahmed, a journalist and political analyst with the Friday Times from Lahore, Pakistan, will dismantle to finally re-assemble the multifaceted picture of identity politics. In doing so, he will lay the ground for the audience to better understand the issues of identity, its construction and reconstruction, its pattern in constantly changing life-worlds and that of “identity politics” or the “politics of identification” in different political and social realms.

A more general elaboration of the theme it is hoped will enable the audience to better relate to the three presentations that will follow. Khaled Ahmed will then zoom the perspective to the case of Pakistan, a state initially build upon Islamic identity - as an Islamic state. He will share with the audience the more recent debate on a revisionism of the “Islam first” idea by General Musharaff, when he threw out the slogan “Pakistan first”. In conjunction with this he explores the nature of the “umma” as an imagined community and as a potential subversion of the state. He will also refer to related aspects in the politics of identity in India and countries of the Central Asian region.

Three presentations addressing each different aspects and areas of identity politics will follow:

1. The construction of cultural identity based on a kind of “ethno-culturism” will be addressed by Pinkaew Luangaramsri, PhD, from the Regional Centre for Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University (RCSD) in her paper “On the Politics of Thai Identities.”

The question about what it means to be “Thai” and what constitutes “Thai identity” reflects the unresolved tension between primordialism and constructivism. Primodialist practice of “Thainess”, officialised / institutionalised as national identity, has often been claimed as a successful collective identity shared among Thai people based on the three commonalities of Thai language, Buddhist religion, and monarchy (chat, satsana, phramahakrasat). Essentialist affirmation of Thainess and its power is however not limited only within official discourse but has been extensively reinforced by media and commoditised in popular culture. The masculinisation of Thainess has also become prevalent.

Constructivist scholars and activists dismiss the “myth” of “Thainess” as being arbitrarily, politically constructed, and coercive (influential work includes Thongchai’s Siam Mapped, Nithi’s Thai Nation, Thailand, Textbooks and Monuments). This points to the never completed construction of the official Thai identity as it persistently attempts to mediate the tension between the desire and quest for modernisation / westernisation and the yearning for the preservation of the perceived “unique Thai culture and values”. Central to the constructivist critique is what Pinkaew views as the ‘dreadful dualism’ between the nationalist narrative of Thainess and its construction / codification / stigmatisation of the “non-Thai Other”.

To liberate oneself from the primordialist / essentialist domination and the process of Thai-isation, it is argued that one must look at Thainess outside the discourse of nationalism.
However, what is missing from the constructivist contribution to the understanding of Thai identity politics is the dialectical aspect of identity making. Pingkaew argues that by downplaying the everyday experiences and nationalist practices and subject populations, the constructivist approach overlooks the dialogical processes between the master narrative of Thai identity and local negotiation at various levels and across class, ethnic, and gender relations. Diverse versions of Thainess must then be scrutinised to see how local identification of Thainess in the modern world are also hybrids, bearing traces of cosmopolitan, official, external elements that they have absorbed, reworked, translated and transformed. By doing this, Pingkaew argues, one can come to realise that what needs to be dismantled is perhaps not the national project of Thainess, but the hegemonic / universalisation and monopolisation of the Thai identity and look for the room to manoeuvre between different modules and their contradictions.

2. “In Defence of Nationalism: The Importance of Myths, Memories and Symbols in the Process of Nation Building”, an elaboration of national identity building processes in rather mono-ethnic, but politically fragmented Cambodia, presented by Neak Chandarith, currently Kobe University.

Chandarith argues from the perspective of an ongoing nation building process combined with efforts for political reconciliation and identity in direct contracts to the case of multiethnic Burma, (which will be presented by Kyaw Yin Hlaing, from NUS; Singapore in the afternoon workshop 2).

Nationalism in Cambodia and elsewhere has been subjected to constant demonisation by both the media and academy. The anti-Thai riots on January 29th, 2003 supported this perception. Nationalism is accused of fostering xenophobia and backward thinking. For the Cambodian case, nationalism has been equated with racism, fanaticism and was even charged with being responsible for the genocide project of the Khmer Rouge. Chandarith attempts to clarify these charges and argues that a misreading of nationalism stems from adapting a different paradigm, in particular that of the modernist’s and post-modernist’s, thus focusing on the political manipulations of the so-called “nationalists”. This over-looks the importance and resilience of myths, memories and symbols in the process of nation and related national identity building. He argues against the reduction of national identity building to the political or politicised process, but proposes a re-discovery and interpretation of myth, memories and symbols legitimised by historical facts. In the afternoon workshop, Son Soubert, PhD, a senior Cambodian historian will provide more insights into the history of the Thai-Khmer relations to help de-construct misconceptions that have contributed to negatively impact the bilateral relations between the people of Thailand and Cambodia.

3. Does Thailand have a problem with fundamentalist Islam or militant Islamic separatism? What is behind recent developments in Thailand’s South? Lertchai Sirichai, PhD, from the Institute of Liberal Arts, Walailak University.

A wave of attacks in Southern Thailand in recent weeks forced the Thai government to stop blaming "bandits" and acknowledge, for the first time in decades, that separatist militants were operating in the country. On January 5th, 2004 Thai Prime Minister declared martial law in most of the affected region, the provinces that border Malaysia, specifically Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala which are 85 percent Muslim. Cold-blooded killings of a Buddhist monk and a novice took place in the southern provincial town of Yala on January 26th, 2004, which threatened to trigger secular violence. Religious organisations in the South have issued a joint statement condemning the attack. Concerns were raised from many quarters that the murders would fuel anger among Buddhist followers degenerating into religious war.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said his patience is confined and he will do everything necessary to end the violence in the South. The situation has reached a critical point with attempts to incite religious conflict. The cessation of the unrest would take time and needs both psychological and other operations. Attacks on Buddhist monks were an attempt by “ill-intended” people trying to gather Southern Thai Muslims to join their cause. Fortunately, most Thai Muslims are peaceful. Those opposed to America's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan have expressed their opposition lawfully with demonstrations and a call for a boycott of American goods.

For a well-informed public more insights are needed to understand recent developments in the South from a historical as well as socio-cultural perspective. Lertchai Sirichai has been invited to speak around these issues against the background of the panel’s main focus. His presentation can be seen in conjunction with the afternoon workshop where the editor of the Thai Muslim journal, “Muslim Guidance”, Suwat Jamjureee, and representatives from the Muslim community will share their insights and are ready to answer questions.