Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 © Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2June 2019 from Taiwan’s ofEducation, AcademiaSinica,andtheNationalTaiwan Ministry University. TheAsian which wasco-directedbyProfessors FuHuandYun-han Chuandreceivedmajorfundingsupport Some ofthedataanalyzedinthisarticle wascollectedbytheAsianBarometerProject(2001–2016), Acknowledgments: of development,bureaucraticreforms, andnationalidentity. Email:[email protected]. he studiespoliticsinSoutheastAsia, withspecialemphasisonThailand.Hepublishesthetopics Jacob Ricksisanassistantprofessorofpoliticalscience atSingaporeManagementUniversity, where ______Puzzling AbsenceofEthnicity- DOI: 10.5509/2019922257 Thailand Keywords: nationalism. among theIsanpeopleandthatethnicmobilizationishindered byardent that theThaistatehassuccessfullyinculcatedasenseofnational identity withself-identifiedIsanpeople.Thefindingssuggest as asetofinterviews dataas well demonstrate this through the application of large-scale survey be Thaiis superior tobeing labelled aspart of analternate ethnic group.I for “Thai-ness.” MostinhabitantsofThailandespousethemantrathatto country’s most disadvantaged, such as Isan people, support is still strong and embrace of the government-approved Thai identity. Even among the mobilization remains minimal because of the large-scale public acceptance little mobilization along ethnic cleavages. Why? I argue that ethnic see very south. Despitethisconfluenceofethnicityandpoliticalpartysupport,we among theThai-andPaktay-speakingpeopleofcentralplains Khammuang speakers in the north while the Democrat Party dominates subsequent incarnationshaveenjoyedstrongsupportfromIsanpeopleand align with areas of political party strength: the Thai Rak Thai Party and its being thelargestat28percentofpopulation.Ethnicdivisionsclosely of thepopulation,withLaoinnortheast,oftencalledIsanpeople, tongue; multiplealternateethnolinguisticgroupscomprisetheremainder of Thailand’s inhabitantsspeakthenationallanguageastheirmother Thailand ishometoaheterogeneouspopulation.Onlyaboutone-third Underneath theveneerofahomogenousstate-approvedThaiethnicity, Based Political Cleavagesin Northeastern Thailand Proud tobeThai:The ethnic identity, ethnicmobilization,nation-building,nationalism, Research for this project was supported by the Singapore Management University. Jacob I.Ricks Abstract 257 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 in theDemocraticParty’s bastionsofBangkokandthesouthernprovinces, and unification, of centralpolitical government discourse. domination Owing to a long history ethnicity, andparty. these ethnicboundaries,showingaconfluenceofsocioeconomicdivisions, signalling theapparentriseofatwo-partysystem. O 258 respondents. Anymistakeshereinaretheresponsibilityofauthor. also thanktheCollegeofLocalAdministrationatKhonKaenUniversityaswellmyanonymous Pongphisoot Busbarat, Saowanee Alexander, Joel Selway, SarahShair-Rosenfield, and DanSlater. I well asAimSinpeng,AjirapaPienkhuntod,ColmFox,AmyLiu,DuncanMcCargo,KaiOstwald, aforementioned. Manyhelpfulcommentscamefromtheeditorandfouranonymousreviewersas The authorappreciatestheassistanceinprovidingdatafrominstitutesandindividuals Barometer Project Office (www.asianbarometer.org) is solely responsible for the data distribution. ______(2017): 79–85. “Ordering Peace: Thailand’s 2016ConstitutionalReferendum,” SoutheastAsia 39,no.1 Contemporary Survey Northeast Thailand: Linguistic,Social,andPolitical Hierarchy,” JournalofSociolinguistics18,no.1 Silkworm Books,2014);Saowanee Alexander andDuncanMcCargo,“DiglossiaIdentityin 3 (2012):497–501. Jacob I.Ricks,“CoalitionsandLanguage Politics: Policy Shiftsin SoutheastAsia,” World Politics 64,no. Official ‘Thai’NationalModel,” SoutheastAsiaResearch 20,no.3(2015):305–327;AmyH. Liuand Mekong Subregion AtlasoftheEnviornment,2 [Ethnolinguistic mapsofThailand](Bangkok:MahidolUniversity, 2004),16,33–60;ADB,Greater Development through theASEAN Community(Bangkok:UNDP, 2014), 63–64. Simler (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2007), 244, 247; see also UNDP, Advancing Human eds.Tara MapstoDesignBetterPoliciesUsing Poverty andInterventions, Bedi,AlineCoudouel,andKenneth TRaNS 1,no.2(2013):202–203. 2009), 127–136;AllenHicken,“LatetotheParty:TheDevelopmentof PartisanshipinThailand,” SystemsinDevelopingDemocraciesAllen Hicken,BuildingParty (NewYork: CambridgeUniversityPress, (khon Isan),andthelocalversionofLaolanguagephasa). term applied to the northeast region, its inhabitants who are ethnically Lao theimportanceofethnicdistinctions,especiallythoseIsan,a to identify poor comparedtothecentralandsouthregions. align witheconomicdivisions,wherethenorthandnortheastarerelatively the south. Lao incontrastwiththeThai-speakingpopulationscentralplainsand of thenorthandnortheasttogetherasspeakinglanguagescloselyrelatedto economic cleavagescorrelatewithethnolinguisticmapsthatlumpthepeople Despite theseoverlaps, ethnicityremainslargelyoutsidetherealmofThai 6 5 4 3 2 1
53, no.4(2013):625.SeealsoDuncanMcCargo,SaowaneeT. Alexander, andPetra Desatova, Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, “Reviving Democracy at Thailand’s 2011 Election,” Asian Charles F. Keyes,FindingtheirVoice: andtheThai State(ChiangMai: Villagers Northeastern intheTwilight DavidStreckfuss,“An‘Ethnic’Reading of‘Thai’History ofthe Century-old SuwilaiPremsriratetal.,PhaenthiPhasakhongKlumchatphanTang-Tang naiPrathed Thai SomchaiJitsuchonandKasparRichter, “Thailand’s Poverty Maps,” inMore thanaPretty Picture: Somewhatexpectedfollowingtheinstitutionalengineeringof1997 constitution.See and northeast,strongholdsofthePheuThaiParty, anddeepblue Thailand. Recentelectoralmapspresentbrightredinthenorth ver thepast two decades,a clear politicalschism has emerged in 4 Political partylinesseemtohaveconvergedgeographicallywith 5 such cleavages appear apolitical. Even so, scholars continue suchcleavagesappearapolitical.Evenso,scholarscontinue Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 nd edition(Manila:AsianDevelopment Bank,2012),56. 2 Theseboundariesclosely 3 Furthermore,partyand 6 These 1
Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 channel ofethnicpeace,emphasizingfactorssuchasnationalism thatallow political sciencehasapproachedethnicconflictthrough thealternate of thestate’s achievements. referred toas“regionaldialects”ratherthandistinctlanguagesisasymbol Indeed, thefactthatalternatetongues,includingphasaIsan,aretoday wherein ethnicidentitieshavebeensubsumedwithinanationalnarrative. people ofnortheasternThailandtheir“Thai-ness”(khwampenThai), ofstate-directednation-building effortshaveconvincedtheLao century extensive publicadoptionofagovernment-approved Thai identity. Overa coherent Isan population, do we not see ethnicity-based political mobilization? on economicorpersonalisticovertures. political partiesrefrainfrommakingexplicitethnicappeals,insteadrelying or campaigns.Althoughtheirsupportbasesalignwithdistinctregions, differences, though,donotappearregularly innationalpoliticaldiscourse or insultwhenusedbycentralThaispeakers. many IsanpeoplerefertothemselvesasLao,thewordhasfrequentlybeen employedasaderision khon Isan,astherearestrongnegativesocialconnotationsassociatedwith thetermLao.Although (2014): 60–86.ThroughoutthisessayIrefertoethnicallyLaocitizensof ThailandasIsanpeople,or ______ethnic identityandhindermobilization. quantitative andqualitativeevidencesuggestthatThainationalismcantrump khon Isan to gain greater leverage on their perceptions of identity. Both the amongself-identified findings fromaseriesofsemi-structuredinterviews higher thantheircounterparts from otherregions. Furthermore, I present positiveviewoftheirThaiidentity,very rankingtheirfeelingsofThai-ness demonstrate that Isan people have a conducted in Thailand. These surveys the Thaiidentitybydrawingonmultipleroundsoflarge-scalesurveys I provideexpandedevidenceofthebreadthIsanpeople’s adoptionof nation-building hassubsumedethnicitywithinabroadernationalistnarrative. as thetheoreticalliteratureonethnicpeace,arguingthatprocessofThai ethnicity-based mobilization. Making (NewYork: OxfordUniversityPress,2013), 102–104,209–210. Data andAnalysis,” World Politics 62,no.1(2010):94–96,109;Andreas Wimmer, EthnicBoundary Multiple Transitions inThailand,” Politics Party 11,no.6(2005):728–747. 1967), 43–48; no. 3(2015):270–275. Identity Salience and Pro-Social BehaviorToward the Ethnic Other,” the emergenceofethniccampaigns. inequalities, areexcludedfrompoliticalpower, thereishighpotentialfor shown thatwhenethnicgroups,especiallythosealignwithsocioeconomic These findings provide two main contributions. First, recent work in I contendthatethnicmobilizationremainsminimalbecauseofthe 10 9 8 7 This essay builds on a growing literature concerning Isan identity as well
Streckfuss,“’Ethnic’ Reading,” 311–312. Lars-ErikCederman,AndreasWimmer, and Brian Min, “Why do Ethnic Groups Rebel? New Charles F. Thailand(Ithaca,NY: Keyes, Isan:RegionalisminNortheastern CornellUniversity, SeeVolha Charnysh,ChristopherLucas,andPrerna Singh,“TheTies thatBind:National James Ockey, “Variations onaTheme:SocietalCleavagesand PartyOrientationsthrough 9 Broad-scaleprideinbeingThaihasprecluded Proud tobeThai 8 Why, withasufficientlylargeand 7 Thisposesapuzzle,asresearchhas 10
Comparative Political Studies 48, 259 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 ideology, orsomeothersocietaldivision. become politicallysalient,whetherthesebebasedinreligion,ethnicity, class, A classic question in political science concerns which societal cleavages Context Conditions forEthnicMobilizationandtheNortheastern the implicationsofthesefindings. quantitative andqualitativedata.Iconcludetheessaywithadiscussionof then demonstratethesuccessofthesegovernmentpolicies,throughboth state’s allcitizensunderasingleThaiidentity. extensiveefforts tounify I Thailand’s ethnicenvironmentbeforeturningtoadiscussionoftheThai of theoretical foundations of the argument and provide a brief overview breadth anddepthofIsanpeople’s assimilationasThais. empirics presentedhereprovideadditionalevidence,demonstratingthe often accompaniedbyhostilitytowardoutgroups.” felt, behaviorbasedonethnicityisnormativelysanctioned,and easy arenaforpoliticalmobilization:“Ingeneral,ethnicidentityisstrongly prominently intheliterature,andmanyscholarsconsiderethnicityarelatively on ethniccleavagesincludesbothviolentactslikeriots andsecessionist for thestablecoexistenceofethnicgroups. 260 ______to thestate nation-building efforts,withsomehighlightingIsanpeople’s quietresistance nation, butscholarssomewhatdisagreeastotheeffectivenessofstate’s Thai studies investigates the incorporation of Isan people into the Thai insights intoonepathtowardethnicpeace.Second,agrowingliteraturein In otherwords,theintegrationofLaoethnicsinThailandprovidessome tame alternateidentitiesandinculcateabeliefinhomogenousnationhood. Thai nationalidentitydemonstratesthecapacityofadeterminedstateto York: FreePress,1967),1–64. Alignments,” SystemsandVoter inParty Alignments,eds.SeymourM.LipsetandStein Rokkan (New Thailand” (PhDdissertation,University ofHawaii,2003),37–40. (1999): 348–349.SeealsoPamelaDaGrossa, “TheMeaningsofSex:UniversityStudentsinNortheast and theResurgenceofRegionalIdentities inThailand,” Australian JournalofSocialIssues34,no.4 University, 2011),187–188. Emerging IdentitiesofLaoIsanYouth livinginNortheastThailand,” (PhD dissertation,EdithCowan See alsoCatherineHess-Swain,“SpeakinginThai,DreamingIsan:Popular ThaiTelevision and Discourses ofPolitics andIdentityinNortheastThailand,” AsianEthnicity5,no.2(2004):219–234. ISEAS, 2019), 90–113; Duncan McCargo and Krisadawan Hongladarom, “Contesting Isan-ness: Council forPeace andOrder Era andthe Future ofThailand,eds.MichaelMontesanoetal.(Singapore: “Exit, Voice, (Dis)loyalty? NortheastThailandafterthe2014Coup,” inAftertheCoup:TheNational 28–32. Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018): Apart The remainderofthisessayisstructuredasfollows:Inextdiscussthe 15 14 13 12 11
Donald L.Horowitz,EthnicGroups inConflict(Berkeley: UniversityofCaliforniaPress, 1985),7. Seymour M. Lipset and Stein Rokkan, “Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Keyes, SaowaneeandMcCargo,“Diglossia,” 79–80;SaowaneeAlexanderand DuncanMcCargo, Charnysh, Lucas, and Singh, “The Ties,” 288–290; Andreas Wimmer, Isan, 36–49; Keyes, 12 andotherssuggestamoresuccessfulincorporation. Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 Finding their Voice, 175–194; Patrick Jory, “Political Decentralisation 11 Isanpeople’s embraceofthe 14 Ethniccleavagesfigure 15 Political conductbased Nation Building: Why 13 The Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 organize politically. as governmentrepresentationoftheirethnicinterestsaremorelikelyto that are perpetually excluded from both socioeconomic advancement as well being language. houses adiversepopulation,withthemostprominentindicatorofethnicity leader. Despite perceptions that Thailand is largely homogenous, the country Isan peoplefitthecharacteristicsofapotentialpowerbaseforpolitical mobilization tooccur. First,ifweconsiderpopulationsizeandconcentration, Thailand andevaluatetheextenttowhichwemightexpectethnic mobilization inthepoliticalsphere. economic and political disadvantages, then conditions are ripe for ethnic populous toprovideaviablevotingbloc,sufficiently distinct,andsuffers contains anethnicgroupthatisadequately pool ofvoters.Ifacountry to campaignonethnictermsinordertakeadvantageofthispotential movements ______interests ofitsmembers. thepolicyandmaterial of partyloyaltyaswellashortcutforidentifying asasource emergence ofethnicparties,asawell-definedgroupcanserve of backingforpoliticians. when geographically concentrated, then it is likely to be an attractive source that itssupportcanensureparticipationinthegoverningcoalition,especially (Chicago: University ofChicagoPress,1994),369. 2003), 193;WilliamA.Smalley, inThailand LinguisticDiversityandNationalUnity: Language Ecology and EthnicRelationsinAsia,eds.MichaelE.BrownSumitGanguly (Cambridge,MA:MITPress, Charles F. Keyes,“ThePolitics ofLanguageinThailandandLaos,” inFightingWords: Language Policy in Democratization, ed.WilliamCase(NewYork: Routledge, 2015),148. than others?”EthnicandRacialStudies40,no.12(2017):2002–2004. , 102–104. Boundary York: CambridgeUniversityPress,2015). Politics (NewYork: CambridgeUniversityPress,2007);JoelSelway,Coalitions oftheWell-Being (New JournalofEconomics114,no.4(1999):1243–1284;JohannaBirnir,Quarterly Ethnicity andElectoral and MuslimsinIndia(NewHaven:Yale UniversityPress,2002), 87–111. have adoptedthelanguage. central Thaiathome;ofthesealmostone-fourthareethnicChinesewho population), Khammuangspeakersinthenorth(10percentof alternative ethnicgroupsaretheLaopeopleofIsan(28percent involvement inpoliticalpartiesorvotingasanethnicbloc. Ethnologue: Languages oftheWorld, vol.18,eds.Lewisetal.(Dallas,TX: SILInternational),29; A variety of circumstances encourage ethnic mobilization. Ethnic groups At atheoreticallevelwecanapplytheseconditionstonortheastern 22 21 20 19 18 17 16
Paul M. Lewis, Gary F. PaulM.Lewis,Gary Simons,andCharles D.Fennig, “Ethnologue:LanguagesofThailand,” Joel Sawat Selway, “Ethnicity and Democracy,” in DanielN.Posner, “WhenandwhydosomeSocialCleavagesbecomePolitically Salientrather Horowitz,EthnicGroups, 293–296. Birnir, Ethnicity, 9–11;Cederman,Wimmer, andMin,“WhydoEthnic,” 114;Wimmer,Ethnic AlbertoAlesina,RezaBaqir, andWilliamEasterly, “PublicGoodsandEthnicDivisions,” The Horowitz,EthnicGroups, 233–236;AshutoshVarshney, Ethnic ConflictandCivicLife:Hindus 16 aswellmorepeacefulpoliticalparticipation,such 21 Slightlylessthan40percentofthepopulationspeaks 18 Coherentethnicboundariesalsoencouragethe 19 Furthermore,ifanethnicgroupislargeenough 20 Rationalpoliticalentrepreneurswouldchoose 22 Proud tobeThai Oftheremainingpopulation,largest Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian 17
261 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 than aninterestinthewelfare of Isanpeople. rise of communism during the period from the 1950s to the 1970s, rather were historicallydrivenprimarilybysecurityconcerns,especiallythepotential toalleviatepooreconomicoutcomesinthenortheast State interventions from theThaistate.Theregionlagsbehindrestofcountry’s economy. asabasefor electoralpolitics. the Isanidentityisstrongenoughtoserve establish athresholdstrengthforethnicmobilization,itdoesappearthat system resultedinenduringethnicmobilizationMauritius. has demonstrated,similarelectoralrulestoThailand’s 1979–1997blockvote coalition.Indeed,asJoelSelway important blockofseatsforaparliamentary population, ifmobilizedtovotealongethniclines,wouldprovidean geographically concentratedinaspecificregionmeansthattheIsan official Thaidiscourse. group sizeandgeographicconcentration. mobilization would have made some sense in the Thai context based on seats.Thus,ethnicobtain approximately30percentofparliamentary party list system would have also allowed for an Isan-based party to successfully aswellthe the creationofsingle-memberdistrictsthroughoutcountry population). population), andPaktayspeakerslocatedinthesouth(9percentof 262 ______political partywasfloatedinthelate1950s,butthis wassuppressedby incidence wasatleast50percentinexcessofthenational average.” it becameregionallyconcentrated,especiallyinthenortheast, where“poverty and 1990s,thenortheasttrailedbehind.Althoughpoverty felldramatically, political supportthanoverturesincentralThai. that Isanlinguisticappealshavebeenshowntobemoreeffectiveingarnering officials fromcentralThailand. many localssufferedbothimpliedandrealslightsatthe handsofgovernment wasrelativelyineffectiveinpromotingeconomicgrowth.Instead strategy development projectstowintheheartsandmindsofpeople,butthis prominent duringthe1990sand2000s. within theofficialrequirementsofThaistate,“beingIsan” becamemore 123–125. in Thailand,” Political Behavior (2018):12–16,https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-018-9487-z Third, Isan people have experienced both economic and political exclusion Third, Isanpeoplehaveexperiencedbotheconomicandpoliticalexclusion Second, anIsanidentityhaspersistedandstrengthened,countertothe 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 Politically, Isan people have not fared much better. The idea of a regional
SomchaiandRicter, “Thailand’s Poverty Maps,” 247;UNDP, Advancing,63–64,116–118. SomchaiPhatharathananunth,“Political Resistance inIsan,” Tai Culture 7,no.1(2002): Keyes,FindingTheirVoice, 99–102,115–118. JacobI.Ricks,“TheEffectofLanguage on Experiment Political Appeal:ResultsfromaSurvey Jory, “Political Decentralisation,” 341–342. McCargoandKrisadawan,“ContestingIsan-ness,” 219–234. Selway, Coalitions,95–99,161–165. Suwilaietal.,Phaenthi,17;Lewis,Simmons,andFennig,“Ethnologue,” 29–32. 23 Making up almost one-third of the population and being Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 25 WhileIsanpeoplemustnegotiatetheiridentities 29 AsThailand’s economyboomedinthe1980s 26 The identity is sufficiently coherent Theidentityissufficientlycoherent 28 27 TheThaistatepushed Whileitisdifficult to 24 After1997, 30 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 the late1940sandearly 1960s. multiple membersofparliament fromtheregionbeingexecutedbetween who gainedpoliticalreputationsinthe1940sweresilencedbystate,with the NewAspirationPartyinregionfailedtotakeonanIsancharacter. Burriram, ratherthanethnicmobilization.Inthe1990s,anattempttobuild prominent familiesandpersonalisticappeals,suchastheChidchobclanin take root,withthemostlong-lastingpoliticalorganizationsbeingbasedon centralized. Norcanwecompletelyblamethedesignofelectoralrules. an ethnicgroup’s boundariesareexclusiveandimpermeable. linguistic homogenization.First,socialclosurerefersto thedegreetowhich political figures. Shirt movement,withastrongnortheasternfollowing,ispilotedbynon-Isan heavily onIsanpeopleforsupport,displayedfewleaders.EventheRed Both theThaiRakandPheupartyorganizations,whichrelied suppression ratherthaninclusioninthebodypolitic. the Thainationandrespondedwithcounterinsurgencyprograms regimes,whichsawapoliticallyactiveIsanasthreatto successive military ______conflict. demands forethnicity-basedbenefits,reducingthepropensityethnic feelings ofnationalismcanovercomeethnicboundariesanddecrease of nation-buildinginsurmountingpotentialethniccleavages,asstrong Research onpeacefulmulti-ethnicsocietieshasrecentlyhighlightedtherole Homogenizing Thailand state’s nation-building process. Instead, theanswertoalackofethnicmobilizationcanbefoundinThai devolution ofpowerorregionalautonomy, mobilization. Yet ithasnotoccurred.Thisiscertainlyduetoany representation, andanIsanidentityremainsabsentfromnationalpolitics. University ofHawai‘iPress,2004),34–35; Selway, Coalitions,95–99,161–165. ethnic mobilization.SeeOckey, “Variations,” 738,741–742;James Ockey, MakingDemocracy (Honolulu: Post-1997 electoral rules were more favourable to large parties, but that does not necessarily preclude regionalism. Selwayshowsthatsimilar electoralrulesinothercontextshaveresultedethnicparties. but hethenacknowledgesthatthese rulesallowedtheDemocratPartytoengageinsouthern to EthnicCivilWars,” InternationalSecurity20,no.4(1996):150–151,158–159. in Thailand,ed.KevinHewison(NewYork: Routledge,1997),127–129. 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 Under these conditions it would seem that the region is primed for ethnic Under theseconditionsitwouldseemthattheregionisprimedforethnic
Wimmer, 83–86. EthnicBoundary, Charnysh,Lucas,andSingh,“TheTies thatBind,” 288–292. Ockeyarguesthatpartymembership rulesfrom1979–1997reducedregionalisminparties, SeeHorowitz,EthnicGroups , 601–628;ChaimKaufmann,“Possible andImpossibleSolutions SaowaneeandMcCargo,“Exit,” 111. DuncanMcCargo,“Thailand’s Political Parties:Real,Authentic,andActual,” inPolitical Change SaowaneeandMcCargo,“Exit,” 95–96. Keyes,FindingTheirVoice, 88–89,101–102. 37 Two keycomponentstothisprocessaresocialclosureaswell 34 AppealstotheIsanpeopledonotrelyondescriptive Proud tobeThai 32 Otherpoliticalmovementshavefailedto 35 as the Thai state remains highly astheThaistateremainshighly 31 Promising Isan leaders PromisingIsanleaders 38 Higher 263 33 36
Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 centripetal forcesofethnicity. by thepopulation,” nation-buildingwillbemoreeffectiveinovercoming the underlying nationalistmessage,irrespectiveoftheactuallanguages spoken entire populationisschooledinthesamecurriculumwith refrain fromsocialclosurebyabsorbing alternateethnicitiesintoThai-ness. careful tostandardizeandcentralizelanguagetrainingaswellofficially training cancircumventthepropensityforethnicmobilization. process includinglowlevelsofsocialclosureaswellstandardizedlanguage monolingualism serves as a powerful component of nation-building. as a powerful monolingualism serves groups whileporousidentitiesencouragepeacefulcoexistence.Second, alternate ethnicgroups.Socialclosurecanencourageconflictbetween minorities, translateintostark dividesandsocialpoliticalexclusionof degrees ofsocialclosure,especiallybetweenthemetropolegroupand 264 ______explained thefluidnatureofThai-ness: brieflyasprimeminister,Kukrit Pramoj,amemberoftheelitewhoalsoserved nationalism,” embraced theirversionofThai-nessthroughcreatingan“official and dominanceoverthepoliticalsystemtorewardthosewhoadopted The Thaielite,arelativelyhomogenousgroup,usedtheirsocialposition within Thaibordersunderasingle,government-approvedethnicity. series ofgovernmentpoliciesdesignedtoassimilatepopulationslocated This processbeganinthe1890s,whenThaistateinitiatedacentury-long their formerethnicityinfavourofThai-nessenjoyedupwardsocial mobility. those whosurrendered immigrants aswellnativeinhabitantsofthecountry; abandoning previousethnicaffiliations.ThisheldforbothChinese though, waspermeable.ThosewhowishedtobecomeThaicoulddosoby enjoys higherstatusandrecognitionthananyotheridentity. Thehierarchy, of anethnicandlinguistichierarchywhereinthestate-approvedThaiidentity Seas Society16(1960):86–100. (London: Verso, 1991),99–101. 82–83. Streckfuss,“‘Ethnic’ Reading,” 306–313. Nationalism, Ethnicity, andEconomicInequalityinThailand,” SoutheastAsiaResearch 15,no.1(2007): Press, 2008). 23–24, 29–32. Thailand’s experienceechoesthese claims. The Thai state has been very 45 44 43 42 41 40 39
and …totheThaination... Thai ideals,mostlyyoubecomeaBuddhist…areloyal to theking yourself, thenyoubecomeaThai.[This]meansacceptThai values, A Thaiisnotapersonwhobornbyblood…ifyoudosomething to QuotedinSmalley, LinguisticDiversity, 322–323. WilliamG.Skinner, “Changeand Persistence inChineseCulture Overseas,” JournaloftheSouth BenedictAnderson,ImaginedCommunities:Reflectionson theOriginandSpread ofNationalism LiuandRicks,“Coalitions,” 497–501; JoelSawatSelway, “Turning MalaysintoThai-men: Withexceptions.SeeDuncanMcCargo,Tearing theLand(Ithaca:CornellUniversity Apart Wimmer, NationBuilding,30–32. AmyH.Liu,Standardizing Diversity (Philadelphia:UniversityofPennsylvania Press,2015), 43 which operated via a few mechanisms, including the creation whichoperatedviaafewmechanisms,includingthecreation Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 40 45 Inessence,acentralizednation-building 39 If “the If “the 42 41 44
Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 defeated. within theboundariesofThaistatewasadangertobeovercomeand as a threat to national security, and, as such, the cultural diversity found its adoption,primarilythroughlanguage. within the Thai geo-body, thehigh status of theThai ethnicity encouraged for hispolicies,hasaccusedbothadversariesandskeptics ofnotbeingThai. dictatorPrayuthChan-ocha,frustratedwithalackofsupport current military centralized Thaiauthority. regions, werebrutallymurderedbythestatetoreducechallenges late 1940s and the 1950s, political leaders from the northeast, as well as other primary indicators of ethnicity.primary asthe became privilegedabovethealternativelanguageswhichserved Thai-ness werehypotheticallyopentoallwhoconformedtherequirements. The hierarchyplacedbeingThaiatthepinnacleofsociety, butthegatesof ______Such allegations are dangerous, as “being defined as non-Thai can have fatal northeast’s HolyManrebellionin1902 Regional movementswerealsocrushed,includingthebrutalquellingof Thailand tobetteraligntheThaiethnicitywithcountry’s boundaries. fromSiamto social practices,andevenchangingthenameofcountry governments. Policies included forced standardizationoflanguage, religion, the absolutemonarchy, inlargepart thankstosuccessivemilitary reforms ofKingChulalongkorn(1868–1910)andcontinuedafterthefall Sriwichai. movements inthenorth,mostfamouslylargefollowingofKhruba politics/news_499177. the country, asksare youThai?],MatichonOnline,17March2017,https://www.matichon.co.th/ Pen KhonThaiRuePlao?”[BigTu, disappointedthat somedon’t understandproblemsandabuse Press, 2007),59–62,127–130. 30, no.3(1971):554–559. (New York: OxfordUniversityPress,1995),110–129. Ethnicity inAsia,ed.ColinMackerras(NewYork: Routledge,2003),161. Defenders: ThailandToday, ed.CraigJ.Reynolds(ChiangMai:SilkwormBooks,2002),84–88. a vitalcomponentofbeingThai. of thelanguage’s exclusivity. Learningand speaking StandardThaibecame viaacentralized curriculum,reducingtheperception throughout thecountry On the other hand, creating “Thai-ness” involved identifying non-Thais On theotherhand,creating“Thai-ness”involvedidentifying Punishments fornotbeingsatisfactorily“Thai”continuetoday. The Crucial to the hierarchy was language, and central or Standard Thai 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46
“BigTu SiachaiKhonBangklumMai KhaochaiPanhaThaemChobprachanPrathedTham ThakChaloemtiarana,Thailand:ThePolitics of DespoticPaternalism (Ithaca:CornellUniversity Charles F. Keyes,“BuddhismandNationalIntegration inThailand,” JournalofAsianStudies Somchai,“Political Resistance,” 109–113. KobkuaSuwannathat-Pian,Thailand’s Durable Premier: Phibun through Three Decades,1932–1957 Pinkaew Laungaramsri, “Ethnicity and the Politics of EthnicClassification inThailand,” in Smalley, LinguisticDiversity,340. AnthonyDiller, “WhatMakesCentralThaiaNational Language?”inNationalIdentityandits 48 51 ConsolidationofThaiidentitybeganunderthecentralizing Later, dictatorshipinthe asmentioned above,undermilitary 52
Proud tobeThai 47 46 Actingasacarrotforalternateethnicities The Thai state spread Standard Thai 50 aswellsuppressionofBuddhist 265 49 53
Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 economy. to definethemasThaiwelltheirownefforts engageinthebroader ness largely in response to top-down policies by the state education system into the Thai state.Charles Keyesdepicts Isan people accepting their Thai- Scholars ofThailandhavedebatedthemagnitudeIsanpeople’s integration Being Proud toBeThai Now weturntothedatabetterunderstandimpactoftheseefforts. alternative ethnicgroupsandpromoteauniform,state-sanctionedThai-ness. government policyhasbeendesignedtoneutralizechallengesfrom of alternativeidentitiesusingviolentmeans.Overacentury’s worthof curriculum. Enforcementincludedthecastigation,bothpoliticalandsocial, homogenizing thenationallanguagethroughacentralizededucation for assimilationofalternateethnicgroups.Thiswasreinforcedby (khon Thairueplao). including therockgroupCarabao’s well-knownchorus,“AreyouThai?” has beenpopularized,evidencedinabroadswathofmusicalnumbers, up againsttheabsentThaksin.Beyondpolitics,embraceofThai-ness flags andcallingon“Thaibrothers andsisters”(phinongchaoThai)tostand his “ShutdownBangkok,RestartThailand”campaign,adorninghimselfwith political spectrum, Suthep Thaugsuban also called on national pride during consequences.” 266 ______Thailand” (khuenkhwamsukhaiprathed Thai). to mentionGeneralPrayuthChan-Ocha’s ownmusicalcontributionof“Returning Happinessto Micro, BigAss,andBodyslamtitled “Thai’s UnitedHeart”(khonThaihuachaidiawkan).Thisisnot Together” (ruampenThai ) and“ThaiBlood”(sailueadThai the Thaksin-affiliatedparties. thai/. 25 March2017,http://www.khaosodenglish.com/opinion/2017/03/25/insidious-identity-politics- “Thais SavetheNation” (ThaiRaksaChart). Love Thais”(ThaiRakThai)anditssuccessors“For(Pheu examples includethenamingofThaksinShinawatra’s politicalparty“Thais unity aspartoftheireffortstoencouragepoliticalsupport.Prominent and societal discourses. Indeed, politicians effectively used appeals to national weapon. camps. To becastigatedasbeinginsufficientlyThaihasbecomeapolitical especially inrecent decades, their involvement hasbeen based oneconomic Thus, theThaistatecreatedanabsorbent Thainationalidentity, allowing 57 56 55 54 The omnipresentforceofThai-nesshasfounditswayintobothpolitical
Keyes,FindingtheirVoice, 110–111,140–149. Otherwell-knownmusicalactspromoting aunifiedThai-nessincludeSekLoso’s “Thai Theuseofnationalistictermsinpartytitles,suchasThaiorchart PravitRojanaphruk,“How‘AreyouThai?’AccusesandDeflectsDangerously,” KhaosodEnglish, 57 As the Isan population has become an active force in Thai politics, AstheIsanpopulationhasbecomeanactiveforceinThai politics, 54 Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 TheThaiidentitycanalsothreatenalternatepolitical 56
55 Ontheoppositesideof and thecollaborationwithAmphol & (nation), isnotlimitedto Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 identities, frequentlyinoppositiontotheThaistate. people ofthenortheastareengagedindefiningandredefiningtheir Hongladarom have offered a different perspective, contending that the Lao Between 2007and2014,theAsianBarometer(AB) Surveys Thai identity. carried outwithkhonIsan,examininghowtheseindividualsperceivethe Iturntoaseriesofsemi-structuredinterviews addition tothesesurveys, Isan peopletogaugethestrengthofoneidentityoverother. Assuch,in interaction betweentheThaiandIsanidentity, aswellthepropensityfor may struggletogaintraction. is thatIsanpeopleadheresostronglytoThai-nesspurelyethnicappeals These findingsalsosuggestthatonereasonethnicmobilizationdoesn’t occur give addedcredencetotheclaimthatIsanpeopleareproudbeThai. than their compatriots. The scale andrepresentativeness of these surveys even higherlevelsofnationalprideandidentificationwiththeThaiidentity throughout Thailand,IdemonstratethatIsanspeakers,ingeneral,exhibit thathavebeenconducted these claims.Appealingtoaseriesofsurveys of thedegreeIsanpeople’s acceptanceofThainational identity. northeast haveintegratedasThaicitizens,butdifferingintheirinterpretation exhibits anuanceddivision,acknowledgingthattheLaopeopleof claims ratherthanethnicorregionalmobilization. ______Thai nation.” the Thai state, “Bangkok was able to secure the loyalty of Isan people to the the growthofanethno-regionalconsciousnessandcontinuedresistanceto Phatharathananunth’s researchintoradicalismintheIsanfoundthat, despite JD SystemsInstitute, 2014),www.worldvaluessurvey.org. 2017), www.asianbarometer.org. central Thai-speaking counterparts, as one might expect from an economically central Thai-speakingcounterparts,asonemightexpect from aneconomically Isan speakersconsistentlyscorefeelingsofnationalidentity lowerthantheir nation-building effortshavebeensuccessful.Forinstance, ifweseethatphasa groups in Thailand,weareabletotest the extenttowhich the Thaistate’s questionsbetweendifferent ethnolinguistic comparing responsestosurvey speakers of central Thai and phasa Isan, as reported in table 1. By identify language spoken at home by their respondents, allowing us to the primary Survey (WVS) Survey The data collected in the surveys, though,failstotellusmuchaboutthe The datacollectedinthesurveys, to further investigate Building on this literature, I use large-scale surveys 62 61 60 59 58
World Values Survey: All Rounds – Country-Pooled Datafile(Madrid: RonaldInglehartetal.,eds.,World ValuesAllRounds–Country-Pooled Survey: FuHuandYun-han Chu,AsianBarometer: AllRounds(Taipei: NationalTaiwan University, Saowanee andMcCargo, “Diglossia,” 79–80; McCargo andKrisadawan, “Contesting,” 229–230. Somchai,“Political Resistance,” 129. Keyes,Isan,36–49;FindingtheirVoice, 175–194. 59 62 SaowaneeAlexander, DuncanMcCargo,andKrisadawan conducted four large-scale surveys inThailand,recording conductedfourlarge-scalesurveys Proud tobeThai 61 andtheWorld Values 60 58 Thus,theliterature Similarly, Somchai 267 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 speakers isstatisticallysignificant. FurtherdataanalysisalsoshowsthatIsan demonstrating thatthegapbetweenphasaIsanspeakers andcentralThai scores areshowninfigure1alongwiththeirconfidence intervals, the nationashigherthannativecentralThaispeakers. Differenceofmeans rounds,phasaIsanspeakers,onaverage, ranked theirpridein these survey a statisticallysignificantdifferencebetweentheirresponses. Inallfourof Thai andthosewhospeakphasaIsanathome,wecan testwhetherthereis language groups.Bydividingthesamplebetweenthose whospeakcentral Proud” to be Thai. Even so, there is a small amount of variation between the their nation,withover80percentofrespondentsscoring themselvesas“Very which wasaskedinallfoursurveys. question aboutarespondent’s levelofprideinbeingacitizenThailand, gauge feelingsofnationalintegration.Themostprominenttheseisa askseveralquestionsthatcanbeusedto identity formation,bothsurveys Sources: HuandChu,AsianBarometer; Inglehartetal., World Values Survey Note: Percent oftotalresponsesinparentheses. disadvantaged group, 268 ______ness aspartoftheiridentities. citizens, wecanbemoreconfidentthatIsanpeoplehaveintegratedThai- speakers despitetheeconomicandsocialdisadvantagestheyfaceasThai people respondtoquestionsofnationalidentitysimilarly tocentralThai integration efforts were successful. On the other hand, if we see that Isan WVS, thequestionwasphrasedslightly differently, as“Howproudareyouto beThai?” Phillip E.JacobandJamesV. Toscano (Philadelphia:JPLippincott,1964),143–178. (September 2013) WVS wave6 2007) (June-July WVS wave5 (Aug-Oct 2014) AB wave4 (Aug-Dec 2010) AB wave3 While neither the AB nor the WVS is expressly concerned with national 64 63
InABthisquestiontooktheformof “HowproudareyoutobeacitizenofThailand?”Inthe Karl W. Deutsch,“ThePriceofIntegration,” in TheIntegration ofPolitical Communities,eds. Distribution ofspeakersinAsianBarometer and World Values Survey Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 speakers Central Thai (46.67) 560 (41.79) 641 (44.92) 539 (51.06) 772 63 thenwemightquestionthedegreetowhich speakers Phasa Isan (33.58) 403 (32.20) 494 (34.50) 414 (29.76) 450 Table 1 64 Thaisingeneralarequiteproudof speakers Khammuang (6.75) 81 (6.91) 106 (12.25) 147 (4.17) 63 speakers Paktay (8.83) 106 (11.41) 175 (7.25) 87 (10.65) 161 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 ethnolinguistic groups(KhammuangandPaktay). people scoredsignificantlyhigherontheseresponsesthantheother ______with thestatement,“IseemyselfaspartofThaination [khitwatoneng waves oftheWVS,respondentswereaskeddegree to whichtheyagreed betweenethnicgroupsinThailand.Inboth of nationalidentitythatvary waves 5and6. Source: HuandChu,AsianBarometer , waves3and4;Inglehartetal.,World Values, Survey percent confidenceintervals. asthebase (0),barsrepresent95 Note: Average scoreforcentralThaispeakersserves very proudorquitetobeThai. very claimedthattheywereeither respondents spreadthroughoutallfoursurveys pride amongIsanpeople.Theremaining1,748language-speaking a smallswingofonlyeightrespondentsindicatesthestrengthnational popularinIsan,wasdeposedbythemilitary.Shinawatra, whowasvery Such responses occurring in 2014 after the most recent coup wherein Yingluck indicated thattheywerelessthanproudtobeThai,witheightofthese identity. only a total of nineIndeed, phasa from Isan all speakers four surveys, exclusion from the Thai body politic, feel positively about their Thai national identity, of theresultsdemonstratethatIsanpeople,despitetheirhistory positive feelings of Thais about their national due to the overwhelmingly are availableinthe appendix. no significantdifferencebetween them andspeakersofbothKhammuangPaktay. Theseresults WVS wave5,phasaIsanspeakersscored significantlyhigherthancentralThaispeakers,buttherewas but therewasnosignificantdifference betweenphasaIsanspeakersandKhammuangspeakers.In ranked theirprideintheThaination significantlyhigherthanthecentralThaiandPaktayspeakers spoke centralThai,Khammuang,and Paktay. InbothABwave3andWVS 6,phasaIsanspeakers speakers hadrankedtheirprideinthe Thainationsignificantlyhigherthantheircounterpartswho Difference ofmeansbetweenphasaIsanandcentral Thaispeakersfor responses to AB AB WVSWVS 65 provide additional insights into feelings Other questions in the surveys
20 20 20 20 AKruskal-Wallis Htest withpost-hocDunn’s testsindicatethatinABwave4,phasaIsan 10 14 07 13 00 .0 50 “How proud are youtobeThai?” .1 Proud tobeThai 0. 15 Figure 1 0. 20 .2 65 50 While degrees are small Whiledegreesaresmall .3 0. 35 269 0. 4 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 ______Source: Inglehartetal.,World Values,waves5and6. Survey percent confidenceintervals. asthebase(0),barsrepresent95 Note: Average scorefor centralThaispeakersserves with similarresults. analysis tocreateapredictednationalism variable.Ialsoconductedtheanalysiswithanindexvariable to reflecthighervaluescorresponding withhighercommitmenttoThailandbeforeusingfactor Thesewerereordered Given thechance,howwillingwould youbetogoandliveinanothercountry? always remainloyalonlytohiscountry, itisorwhatwronghasdone;(4) nomatterhowimperfect Thailand?; (2)Thinkingin general, I am proud of our system of government; (3) A citizen should that respondentswhospeakphasaIsanathomeexhibit higherlevelsof and whethertherespondentlivedinanurban area.Theresultsdemonstrate included controlvariablesforgender, age,educationlevel,income level, respondents. Idothisthroughasimplelinearregression model,which commitment toThailandandtheThaiidentityrelative toallothersurvey opportunity to test the degree to which Isan language speakers exhibit that theywerepartoftheThaination,relatedinfigure2. Isan speakers were statistically more likely to either strongly agree or agree compared withcentralThaispeakersusingadifferenceofmeanstest,phasa expressed thefeelingthattheywerenotpartofThaination.Again,when Across bothwavesofthesurvey, onlynineoutof897phasaIsanspeakers speakers providing affirmative scores to the question in the respective waves. identification with the Thai nation, with 99.4 and 98.5percent ofphasa Isan 95.8 percent.Inbothcases,though,Isanpeopleagainshowedtheir 5 thescorestotaled96.4percentofresponsesandinwave6numberwas respondents wastoeitherstronglyagreeorwiththestatement;inwave pen suannueng khong chat Thai 270 nationalism. that allowustodevelopacompositevariablemeasuring feelingsof WVSWVS Difference ofmeansbetweenphasaIsanandcentral Thaispeakersfor responses to 66 The third and fourth wave of the AB surveys included a set of questions The third and fourth wave of the AB surveys 20 20
07 13 Theindexincludedthefollowingfour responses:(1)Howproudareyoutobeacitizenof 66 Thecreationofthiscontinuousvariablegivesusanother Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 “I see myself as part oftheThaination.”“I seemyself aspart ].” response among The overwhelming Figure 2
Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 being translatedandtranscribedinEnglishbytheauthor. some phasaIsanphrasessprinkledthroughout,andwere recordedbefore of semi-structured interviews with 23 individuals who identify askhonIsan. with23individualswhoidentify of semi-structuredinterviews to ThailandinDecember2016,andAprilJuly2017,Iconductedaseries To betterunderstand this phenomenon,duringthreeshortresearchtrips Interviews Semi-Structured provide strongevidencethatIsanpeopleareproudtobeThai. speakers ofcentralThai.Eventhoughthesedifferencesaresmall,they people displaygreatercommitmenttothenationalidentitythannative speak central Thaiat home. Theresults, though, show the opposite: Isan of nationalprideamongphasaIsanspeakersincomparisonwiththosewho resultstoexhibitlowerlevels successful, wewouldhaveexpectedthesesurvey a ThaiidentityintothepeopleofnortheasternThailandhadnotbeen all citizenswithasenseofThai-ness.Ifthegovernment’s effortstoinculcate majority ofIsanpeoplehaveinternalizedtheThaistate’s effortstoimbue speaker ispositivelycorrelatedwithhigherlevelsofnationalisticfeeling. In otherwords,thistestgivesusgreaterconfidencethatbeingaphasaIsan mother tongues,evenwhencontrollingforasetofdemographicvariables. identification withtheThainationthantheircompatriotswhospeakother ______“Howproudareyou I adoptedthesamequestionaslarge-scalesurveys, expressed astrongandabidingcommitmenttothenational Thaiidentity. based inthenortheast. were living in Bangkok while the remainder were bracket; four interviewees schooleducation in thelowestincome well asthosewithonly a primary includedhighly-educatedandrelativelywealthyindividualsas Interviewees Isan-languagespeakersandtoinvitethemforaninterview.to identify snowballing process,obtainedrespondents.Second,Iusedstreet-contacting contacts whoidentifiedasIsanpeopletoobtaintheirfeedbackand,viaa werechosen throughtwomethods.First,Iapproachedpersonal interviewees As mygoalwastospeakwithrespondentsfromavarietyoflifecircumstances, instruct anoutsideronwhattheyperceive itmeanstobeThai. wereearnestintheirresponsesastheytooktheopportunityto my impressionthatmostinterviewees mightgivetoaco-ethnicresearcher.of Thai-nessthaninterviewees WhileIacknowledgethis,itwas Isan; assuchthereispotentialthatresponses werebiasedinordertogiveamorepositiveimpression (Ithaca, NY: CornellUniversity Press,2011),3. available intheappendix. and statistically significant(p The data from these large-scale surveys supporttheclaimthatclear The datafromtheselarge-scalesurveys 71 70 69 68 67 allinterviewees Confirming thefindingsoflarge-scalesurveys,
Interviewees wereimmediatelyaware thatIamnotanativespeakerofeitherThaiorphasa Interviewees demographics areavailableintheappendix. Interviewee Similartopreviouswork. Yoshinori Nishizaki,Political AuthorityandProvincial IdentityinThailand followedIRBprotocols(SMU-IRBApprovalNumber:IRB-16-130-A134[1216]). Interviews TherelationshipbetweenspeakingIsanathomeandfeelingsofnational identitywaspositive < 0.01) in the data for bothAB wave 3 and wave 4. These results are 70 Interviews wereconductedincentralThai,with Interviews Proud tobeThai 71 271 69 67 68
Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 a strategic fashion. During everyday interactions,hemightusephasaIsan, a strategicfashion.Duringeveryday a financialmanagerforlawofficeexplainedthatheusedIsanlanguagein following: dai),” beforeaskingthemtoexplain.Typical responsesincludedthe to beThai?(khunrusuekphumchainaikhwampen/sanchatThaithuengphiang 272 ______majority of their daily interactions, but they would switch to Thai when with closefriendsorfamilydidhefeelcouldbefullykhonIsan. within hisThai-nessduringwork andother formalinteractions;onlywhen maintain therespectofhisstudents.HisIsan-nessneededtobesubsumed he shouldonlyuseformallanguagetosetagoodexampleforothersand spoke ofavoidingusingphasaIsanduetohiscareer. Asateacher, heargued, come frombeingThairatherthankhonIsan.Forinstance,onerespondent identity. (khawmpen Isan).OthersincorporatedtheirIsan-nesswithinabroaderThai highlighted theireffortstoexpressThaiidentityoverIsan-ness expressedfeelingsofThainationalism, andsomerepeatedly All interviewees only a primary schooleducationand workedonly aprimary asamechanicinKhonKaen. respondent 1 was a well-educated public-school teacher living in Bangkok, while respondent 11 had such responsescamefromindividuals acrosstheeconomicandeducationalspectrum.Forinstance, 75 74 73 72 Most respondentsexplainedthattheyusedIsanlanguage throughoutthe perceived to This was, in part, due to the positive benefits interviewees
was khonIsan.AnythingformalinlifeneedstobedoneThai. Students always had to useThai with theteacher, evenwhen the teacher will onlyspeakThaiwithme.It’s likefromthetimewewereinschool. Thai. People whowork attheoffice, theyknowthatI’mtheboss,so when weneedtotalkaboutsomethingformal.I…switch directlyto someone speaks phasa Isan with me, I’ll use phasa Isan with them, except that theymustdothework. So,itdepends onthesituation.Usuallyif give instructionsinThai.That’s moreformalandclear. Thentheyknow … butwhenIneedtogive[subordinates]instructionsforwork, thenI was bornunderthe9 I amextremely proudofbeingThai( phumchai makthisut)…becauseI Thai. so IwasalmostbornaCambodian.ButinThailandandam born inThailand….IamfromSisaket,whichisalmostCambodia, wealthy,very proud….Ibelieve it’s luckythatIwas wearevery very from ourancestors.We werenevercolonized.Eventhoughwe’renot asanationcoming proud.BecauseIhavereadaboutourhistory I’m very Respondent 4, interview withauthor, Respondent4,interview Bangkok,16December2016. Respondent1,interview, 14December2016. withauthor, Respondent11,interview KhonKaen,6April2017.Itisimportanttonote that withauthor, Respondent1,interview Bangkok,14December2016. 72 Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 th monarchoftheChakriDynasty! 73 75 74
Similarly, Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 Bangkok-based taxidriverfromMahaSarakhamexplained: in efforts by Isan people to limit the use of their own mother tongue. A sits atopahierarchyofpotentialidentities. developed bytheThaistatewhereingovernment-approvedidentity and highersocialstatus.Thisisevidenceoftheeffectpositiveinducements identity andlanguagethusbecomesymbolsofeducation,wealth,refinement, contacting governmentofficialsorconductinganyofficialbusiness.Thai ______These narrativeswereadopted bysomerespondents. An entrepreneur born are sociallylessdesirablethan themetropolitancentralThaisofBangkok. of theidentity. Suchadverse effectsincludebroadnarrativesthatIsanpeople Thai identity, negativerepercussionsofbeingkhonIsanalsodeterthegrowth the economicandsocialbenefitsthatcomefrombeing Thai. Many Isanpeople,then,arestrivingtoembracetheThai identitytoaccess with herfuturechildren: of central Thai. One young woman planned to speak primarily central Thai Isan intheirpubliclivesandsomehadcompletelyabandoneditfavour thatfeweryoungpeoplewerespeakingphasa Some respondentsobserved central Thaiwithhimashegrewup: Anotherrespondentrelatedthathisparentshadtakenpainstoonlyspeak The positive inducements or necessities of adopting a Thai identity result ThepositiveinducementsornecessitiesofadoptingaThaiidentityresult 78 77 76 At the same time as positive inducements encourage the adoption of the
it’s bettertousethecentrallanguageinchildhood. their classmates.Idon’t wantthemtohaveproblemsintheirlife….So central Thai,andIwant[thechildren]tofollowthesame patternas They need to be prepared to do well in school using Thai … schools use proper centralThai.[Fearofanaccent]mightbethereason. You can distinguish them and tell because they won’t speak clear and their kids….IfachildstartsspeakingphasaIsanthey’llhaveanaccent. … you’ll oftenseeurban nottospeakphasaIsanwith Isanpeopletry My parentsspeakphasaIsan,buttheydon’t speakitwithus[children] understand it.Buttheydon’t speakitlikeinthepast. Sometimes ourchildrenwillspeaktousinphasaIsan,andthey topromoteThai. we usephasaIsan,butwithourchildrentry in Bangkok,wemustuseThai.Inmyfamily, betweenhusbandandwife, but someoftheyoungerpeopletodayalmostcan’t speakphasa Isan… Phasa Isanisonlyourregionallanguage.Oldpeopleusethelanguage, … wheneverweneedtocommunicatesomething,mustuseThai. Respondent 16, interview withauthor, Respondent16,interview KhonKaen,19July2017. withauthor, Respondent9,interview KhonKaen,5April2017. withauthor, Respondent2,interview Bangkok,15December2016. Proud tobeThai 78
76 77
273 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 ______accept ourIsan-ness.That’s betterthangettingangry.” can’t togetthem force[centralThais]tospeak phasaIsan…wecantry andbeunited.We’retry allThaipeople,wecanusetogether. We the government’s callsforunityamongallThais.Oneargued,“We needto being violated.Instead,respondentsacceptedthisasafactoflifeandechoed people’s rightstospeak theirnativelanguageoridentityaskhonIsanwere negative stigmaassignedtobeingkhonIsan.Onerelated: about by politicians. movement explainedthatIsanpeoplewerepoorly educatedandeasilyled in RoiEtwhohadrelocatedtoBangkokandsupportedtheyellowshirt 274 full ofyokels(khonbannok).” and subsequentlymocktheirformerhome:“Isanisnotdeveloped northeast whohavemovedtoBangkokandadoptedtheidentity who engageinthegreatestsocialshamingarepeopleoriginallyfrom Interestingly, onewomanfromMahaSarakham claimedthattheindividuals explained: further asLao.Anotherinterviewee and theirwillingnesstopubliclyidentify effectonthefeelingsofIsanpeople Negative socialshaminghasapowerful an undertoneofresentmentduringsomediscussionabout thetreatmentof the majorityofrespondentsrepliedwitharesoundingno. Therewas,though, Isan. WhenaskedwhetherphasaIsanshouldbetaught formallyinschools, publiclyaskhon rights forIsanpeopletousethelanguageoridentify easily believethings.” region, accordingtotherespondent,werebecause“khon Isanwillsometimes identity orrights.Indeed,tensionsbetweenthenortheast andthecentral tostirupsupportratherthananyviolationofIsanpeople’spoliticians trying that anytensionbetweenIsanpeopleandcentralThais wastheresultof 84 83 82 81 80 79 Even so, this shaming did not result in any retaliatory claimsthatIsan Even so,thisshamingdidnotresultinanyretaliatory
Respondent3,interview, 16December2016. Respondent1,interview, 14December2016. withauthor, Respondent13,interview KhonKaen,6April2017. withauthor, Respondent20,interview KhonKaen,19July2017. Respondent2,interview, 15December2016. withauthor, Respondent3,interview Bangkok,16December2016. regions. proper orpolitecentralThaiwithus….Theyliketolookdownonother niceandthecentral Thaipeoplecallusthat.Theyalsodon’tvery speak Most ofusdon’t wanttobecalled“ailao.” People callusthat.It’s not won’t sayittoyourface. insulting. InrealitymostIsanpeopleareLao.ButcentralThai speakers ...They’llcallthemLaoorsiao,andIknowthey’rebeing I know that some people from other regions look down on phasa Isan 81
Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 79 84 Multiple respondents acknowledged that there was a Among all interviewees therewerenodiscussionsof Amongallinterviewees 80 82
83 Anotherclaimed Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 more proudofbeingThaiorkhonIsan,retorted: just endureit.” for beingkhonIsan,buttheonlyresponseavailablewasto“bequietand Bangkok, hewasfrequentlysubjecttoinsultandridiculebycentralThais Isan people.Oneexplainedthatduringhisyoungeryearsworking in ______most insistedthattheywereIsanpeople.Theethnicidentity ofLaohasbeen Thais andtheLaolivinginLaos.Whilemanyacknowledged speakingLao, as beingIsan allowed respondents to differentiate betweenthemselves as history. Theuseoftheterm“Isan” becameimportantinthesediscussions, distinct fromtheLaoacrossMekhong,despiteacknowledging ashared She wasnotaloneinthisbelief.Otherrespondentsexplained thattheywere is where I’m from and I feel it deeper.” is stronger than my Thai identity … Isan-ness is part of being Thai, but [Isan] of prideintheirIsanidentity. OnenativeofKalasinsaid,“MyIsanidentity negative connotations of Isan-ness, respondents all expressedsome degree Thai-ness. Thai unity, andimportantly, allrespondents werequicktoreasserttheir These feelingsofresentment,though,appeartosimmerbeneathacover nation. affirmed thatshewasproudtobeThaiandfeltherselfpartofthe as shedeclaredherselftobe“authenticallyLao(laothae),” alsorepeatedly separating IsanandThaiidentity. AstreetvendorinKhonKaen,wholaughed argued,though,thattherewaslittle of thecentralThais.Interviewees Isan food,andbeliefincommonpracticeswhichdifferedfromthose among Isanpeoplewerereinforcedbytheuseoflanguage,alove 89 88 87 86 85 Despite boththepositiveinducementstoadoptcentralThaiand
Thai-ness becauseIsanpeopleareThaipeople. separation. IfweareproudofourIsan-ness,also ofour I havetoexplainyouthatIsanpeopleareThai.There’s nota employed bythem. don’t havethe righttoopposeorcauseproblemsbecauseweare Second, they have a nice life already. If we go and work for them, we region thatbenefitsthemostiscentralregion.First,theyarebosses. people aretheoneswhogotowork elseinthecountry. everywhere The that Isanpeoplearethemostpopulousofcountry. Second,Isan I thinkit’s Isanthatpays[forthehappinessofThailand].First,wesee Respondent 21, interview withauthor, Respondent21,interview SakonNakhon,24July2017. withauthor, Respondent12,interview KhonKaen,6April2017. withauthor, Respondent5,interview KhonKaen,5April2017. withauthor, Respondent14,interview KhonKaen,19July2017. withauthor, Respondent23,interview SakonNakhon,24July2017. 88 A native of Sakon Nakhorn, when asked to gauge whether she was 85 OneyoungmanfromUdonThaniprovinceexplained: 86
Proud tobeThai 87 The feelings of unity and closeness 89
275 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 Ethnic conflictmotivatesagreatdealofacademic research. Conclusion has worked. an alternativeethnicidentity. Ineffect,theThaistate’s socialengineering Thai aswellavoidthenegativesocialstigmaassociated withbeingassigned in an effort to gain the economic and social benefits that come with using been asuccess.Respondentshaveacceptedandadopted theThaiidentity the effortsofThaistatetoimposeaidentity upon Isanpeoplehas than promotingIsan-ness. a national focus, andcommunication between Thais was more important respondents feltthatatthegovernmentlevelidentityshouldgivewayto offered atypicalresponse: needs forclearcommunicationacrossregions.AnativeofUdonThani who answeredthelineofquestionsquicklyturnedtoadiscussionnational challenges andconcerns.Atthesametime,though,almostallrespondents politician whospokephasaIsanwouldbemorefamiliarwithvoters’ beneficial inlocalcampaigning,andmanyexpressedthebeliefthat a discourse. Mostacknowledgedthatusingthetonguewouldbeelectorally Respondents weresplitontheirsupportoftheusephasaIsaninpolitical political messagestogaugetheirfeelingsaboutpotentialethnicmobilization. Thai identity. largely setasideinfavourofanIsanidentitywhichissubsumedwithinthe 276 ______to representtheentirecountry.” region; ayoungwomanexplained,“[membersofparliament] are supposed emphasizing theneedsofThainationratherthanIsan language aswellafocusontheregionwasinappropriate,instead Multiple respondentsfurtherarguedthatonthenationalstage,ethnic Wimmer, EthnicBoundary. Varshney argues, though, that “until we study ethnic peace, we will not be The data gathered from these interviews largely confirms the claim that The data gathered from these interviews Finally, I also spoke with respondents about the use of Isanlanguage in 92 91 90
Thai. together,There’s topulleveryone somethingthatisnecessary andthat’s canunderstand… Peopleeveryone needto use thecentrallanguage. different languages.IfyoujustusephasaIsan,thennot They arevery We havesixregionsinThailand,andeachusesadifferentlanguage. ExamplesincludeHorowitz,EthnicGroups; Cederman,Wimmer, andMin,“WhydoEthnic”; Respondent16,interview, 19July2017. Respondent14,interview, 19July2017. 90 Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 91 WhilephasaIsancouldbeusedlocally, 92 Ashutosh Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 constrained byardentnationalism. Assuch,concernsoverseparatismare within theThaihierarchy, indicatingthat Isanmobilizationwilllikelyremain here showthatIsanpeoplecontinuetoincorporate their ethnicidentity that population, in Thailand’s DeepSouthdemonstratesthestate’s weaknessinassimilating state actioncanresultinpeacefulcohabitation.Whileresearchontheconflict cleavages providesanimportantcontributiontotheunderstandingofhow people’s espousaloftheThaiidentityandabsencepoliticizedethnic may emerge between khon Isan and the Thai state, leading tobalkanization.Whilerecentwork suggeststhatpossibletensions regional identitiestoflourishwithoutthemturninginto centripetalforces of alternateethnicidentitiesthatcontinuestoday. ethnic harmony, ofviolent suppression albeitonepartlybasedonahistory inachieving Thus, thepeacebetweenLaoandThaiisasuccess story these pressuresreducethedemandforethnicity-basedpolitical mobilization. ostracism andpoliticalthreatthatmaycomefrombeinglabelled“non-Thai,” the centralaccenttobemorefluentasThais.Combinedwithsocial social ladderstrivetohelptheirchildrenspeaktheThailanguageandadopt closeness tothemetropole.Isanpeoplewhoinhabitlowerrungsof Standard Thaiwhenaddressingtheirsocialsubordinates,demonstrating approved Thaiidentity. Thosewhohavemovedintotheupperclassesadopt Thai nation.Indoingso,theyreinforcetheethnichierarchyofstate- the vastmajorityofLaopeoplewithinitsboundariestoascribe building andhomogenizinglanguageinstruction,theThaistatehasconvinced such politicalactivitieshasbeenlargelyabsentfrommodernThaipolitics. movements basedonregionalidentities.Inotherwords,thedemandfor might threaten this unified Thai identity, including political parties or the Thaistate.Assuch,therehasbeenlittleroomforpoliticalappealsthat suppression of alternate systems of identification within the boundaries of the government-approvedcentralThaiidentityinconjunctionwithbrutal effortbytheThaistatetoencourageadoptionof result ofthecentury-long speakers ofcentralThai.ThisstrongidentificationwiththeThainationisa Statistically, onaverage,theyaremoreproudofbeingThaithannative tensions. that givesusgreaterinsightintothecapacityofstatestodefuseethnic able to have a good theory of ethnic conflict.”able to have a good theory ______1 (2017):85–108;Ricks,“TheEffect,” 16–18. The currentstrengthofThainationalismpotentially provides spacefor This demonstratesthecapacityofstatestoshapeidentity. Through nation- The ethnicallyLaopeopleofIsanhavebecomeproudtobeThai. 95 94 93
DuncanMcCargo,“ThingsFall Apart?Thailand’s Post-Colonial Politics,” Suvannabhumi9,no. McCargo,Tearing, 187–189;Selway, “Turning Malays,” 85–87. Varshney, EthnicConflict, 6. 94 it is the successful incorporation of the Lao in the Northeast itisthesuccessfulincorporationofLaoinNortheast Proud tobeThai 93 As such, the ethnic Lao 95 the findings presented 277 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 ______See alsoSomchai,“Political Resistance,” 126. for secession;insteadtheaspirationis togainrepresentationonequalfootingwithethnicThaielites. though, thatevenamongthosewho areunhappywiththeThaistate,therenoseriousdemands the Thaistateandareengagedmethods ofquietdefiance(“Exit,” 103–105);110–112.Iwouldargue, 98–105, 120–126;SaowaneeandMcCargo contendthatmanyIsanpeoplearenotnecessarilyloyalto Divisions,” NewYork Times, 12April2014. Time, 2July2014;ThomasFuller, “Thailand’s Political Tensions areRekindlingEthnicandRegional largely overblown. 278 Singapore Management University, Singapore, March 2019 attempt atasecessionistexit. political voicecombinedwithastrongloyaltytoThailandratherthanany aggregation ofpoliticaldemandsfromIsanderivesthedesiretoobtain Thai nation.Indeed,countertothefearsofaparanoidmilitary, the fitting withinthebroaderThaiidentity, and,assuch,itisnotathreattothe Although their identity is coherent and distinct, Isan people see it as naturally themselves as partof the Thaination. They are alsoproud of their Isan-ness. 97 96
AlbertO.Hirschman,Exit,Voice, UniversityPress, 1970), andLoyalty(Cambridge:Harvard Charlie Campbell,“IfThere’s GoingtoBeaThaiCivilWar, IsaanWillBeItsFrontLine,” Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 96 Isan people are proud to be Thai, and they imagine 97 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 No. 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 province Home Surin Thani Udorn Kaen Khon Thani Udorn rakham Mahasa- Kaen Khon Khai Nong Kalasin Kaen Khon Kaen Khon Kaen Khon Kalasin Kaen Khon Ubon Roi Et rakham Mahasa- Sisaket Sex M M M M M M M M M M F F F F F F F Age Demographic informationof interviewees 21 21 22 42 42 39 33 35 53 28 21 40 38 55 20 35 * Appendix: Proud tobeThai employment Primary Student part time Student/ Student Mechanic employee Farmer/ worker Office employed Un- manager Financial Taxi driver teacher school Public Student assistant Nurse’s owner Restaurant vendor Street vendor Street street vendor Farmer/ preneur Entre- Appendix Item1 level education Highest High school High school High school school Primary High school MA degree BA degree MA degree school Technical BA degree High school school Technical school Primary school Technical High school school Primary MA degree (in baht) range income Annual < 150k < 150k < 150k < 150k < 150k 300-500 k 150-300 k >1 million < 150k 150-300 k < 150k 150-300 k 150-300 k 150-300 k < 150k < 150k 500-750 k location date and Interview Khon Kaen 19 July2017, Khon Kaen 19 July2017, Khon Kaen 19 July2017, Khon Kaen 6 April2017, Khon Kaen 6 April2017, Khon Kaen 5 April2017, Khon Kaen 5 April2017, Bangkok 2016, 16 December Bangkok 2016, 15 December Bangkok 2016, 14 December Khon Kaen 19 July2017, Khon Kaen 6 April2017, Khon Kaen 6 April2017, Khon Kaen 5 April2017, Khon Kaen 5 April2017, Khon Kaen 5 April2017, Bangkok 2016, 16 December 279 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 No. 280 AB wave3and4. was positivelycorrelatedwithhigherscoresinthecomposite variableacrossboth model, withtheresultsreportedbelow, whichshowsthatspeakingIsanathome feelings ofnationalidentity. Oncethiswascompleted,Iranasimpleregression As mentioned in footnotes 66 and 67, I created a composite variable measuring completed Highest educationlevel Age Gender Speaking Isanathome 18 * Notreported 23 22 21 20 19 province Home Kaen Khon Phanom Nakhorn Phanom Nakhorn Nakhorn Sakon Loei phum Chaiya- Sex Regression results forfeelings ofnationalidentity M M M Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 F F F Demographic informationof interviewees Age 38 47 40 30 24 21 Appendix Item1-Continued employment Primary vendor Street vendor Street preneur Entre- Civil servant part time Student/ Student Appendix Item2 AB wave3 (0.014) -0.012 (0.002) 0.008*** (0.052) 0.146** (0.059) 0.159** level education Highest school Primary school High BA degree MA degree BA degree school High (in baht) range income Annual < 150k < 150k * 300-500 k < 150k < 150k AB wave4 (0.018) -0.096*** (0.003) 0.005 (0.061) 0.097 (0.066) 0.374*** and location date Interview Sakon Nakhon 24 July2017, Sakon Nakhon 24 July2017, Sakon Nakhon 24 July2017, Khon Kaen 19 July2017, Khon Kaen 19 July2017, Khon Kaen 19 July2017, Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 20.509, p=0.0001. differences betweenthegroupswerestatisticallysignificant, Chi-squared(3)= speakers (n=449);and(4)Paktay155). Thetestshowedthat central Thaispeakers(n=766);(2)Khammuang (n=63);(3)Isan “How proudareyoutobeacitizenofThailand?”across fourpopulations:(1) The Kruskal-Wallis Htestcomparedthe differencesinresponsestothequestion Asian Barometer wave3 language groupsratherthananANOVA test.Resultsaredisplayed below. H testwiththepost-hocDunn’s comparisonsbetween testtoanalyzethepairwise As thedependentvariable(prideinnation)isordinal,Iused theKruskal-Wallis *** p<0.001 ** p<0.01 * p<0.05 Robust standarderrorsinparentheses. Income quintile Adjusted R-squared Observations Constant Urban Kruskal-Wallis Htest results Appendix: Proud tobeThai Appendix Item3 (0.031) 0.103** 0.098 1,303 (0.156) -0.507 (0.089) -0.617 (0.027) 0.136*** 0.114 933 (0.194) -0.271 (0.076) 0.126 281 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 282 low feelingsofnationalpride(3or4). national prideweresmallernumbers(1or2),whilelargerindicate second groupaverage,andviceversa.Ordinalrankingsforhigherfeelingsof difference ofmeansindicatethatthefirstgroupaveragewaslargerthan comparison statistics(basedondifferenceofmeans). Positive valuesforthe This testwasfollowedbyaDunn’s comparisonresultinginthefollowing pairwise Paktay Khammuang– Isan–Paktay Khammuang Isan– Thai–Paktay Central Khammuang Thai– Central Thai–Isan Central comparison Pairwise Pairwise difference Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 Sign of + + - - - - Z-test statistic -5.514449 -9.828343 -0.681381 -8.519631 0.561365 2.780248 0.0000 0.0000 0.2478 0.0000 0.2873 0.0027 P value Paktay speakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride on average,rankedtheir Khammuang speakers, Paktay speakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Isan speakers,on speakers. and Khammuang between Isanspeakers significant difference There wasnostatistically central Thaispeakers. significantly lowerthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Paktay speakers,on Khammuang speakers. speakers and between centralThai significant difference There wasnostatistically central Thaispeakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Isan speakers,on Interpretation Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 were largernumbers(3or4). pride weresmallernumbers(e.g.1or2),whilelowfeelingsofnational negative numbers are the reverse. Ordinal rankings for higher feelings of national that thefirstgroupaveragewaslargerthansecondaverage,while comparison statistics(basedondifferenceofmeans). Positive numbersmean This testwasfollowedbyaDunn’s comparisonresultinginthefollowing pairwise 33.038, p=0.0001. differences betweenthegroupswerestatisticallysignificant,Chi-squared(3)= speakers (n = 411); and (4) Paktay speakers (n = 84). The test showed that central Thaispeakers(n=512);(2)Khammuang116);(3)Isan “How proudareyoutobeacitizenofThailand?”acrossfourpopulations:(1) The Kruskal-Wallis Htestcomparedthedifferencesinresponsestoquestion Asian Barometer wave4 Paktay Khammuang– Isan–Paktay Khammuang Isan– Thai–Paktay Central Khammuang Thai– Central Thai–Isan Central comparison Pairwise Pairwise difference Sign of + - - - - - Appendix: Proud tobeThai Z-test statistic -3.424747 -4.230334 -6.077639 -2.186185 9.828343 3.321245 P value 0.0003 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0144 0.0004 Paktay speakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Khammuang speakers,on higher thanPaktayspeakers. national pridesignificantly ranked theirfeelingsof Isan speakers,onaverage, speakers. higher thanKhammuang national pridesignificantly ranked theirfeelingsof Isan speakers,onaverage, central Thaispeakers. significantly lowerthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Paktay speakers,on Khammuang speakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Central Thaispeakers,on speakers. higher thancentralThai national pridesignificantly ranked theirfeelingsof Isan speakers,onaverage, Interpretation 283 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 were largernumbers(3or4). pride weresmallernumbers(e.g.1or2),whilelowfeelingsofnational negative numbersarethereverse.Ordinalrankingsforhigherfeelingsofnational that thefirstgroupaveragewaslargerthansecondaverage,while comparison statistics(basedondifferenceofmeans). Positive numbersmean This testwasfollowedbyaDunn’s comparisonresultinginthefollowing pairwise the groupswerestatisticallysignificant,Chi-squared(3)=19.152,p0.0003. 494); and(4)Paktayspeakers(n=174).Thetestshowedthatdifferencesbetween speakers (n = 639); (2) Khammuang speakers (n = 105); (3) Isan speakers (n = “How proudareyoutobeThai?”acrossfourpopulations:(1)centralThai The Kruskal-Wallis Htestcomparedthedifferencesinresponsestoquestion World Values wave5 Survey 284 comparison Pairwise Paktay Khammuang– Isan–Paktay Khammuang Isan– Thai–Paktay Central Khammuang Thai– Central Thai–Isan Central difference Pacific Affairs: Volume92,No.2–June2019 Sign of + + + + - - Z-test statistic -3.424747 -0.273399 1.292127 4.368903 4.637475 5.833495 P value 0.0003 0.3923 0.0982 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 Interpretation speakers. speakers andPaktay between Khammuang significant difference There wasnostatistically and Paktayspeakers. between Isanspeakers significant difference There wasnostatistically speakers. and Khammuang between Isanspeakers significant difference There wasnostatistically central Thaispeakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Paktay speakers,on central Thaispeakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Khammuang speakers,on central Thaispeakers. significantly higherthan national pride ranked theirfeelingsof Isan speakers,onaverage, Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.151 on: Sat, 25 Sep 2021 22:54:19 were largernumbers(3or4). pride weresmallernumbers(e.g.1or2),whilelowfeelingsofnational negative numbersarethereverse.Ordinalrankingsforhigherfeelingsofnational that thefirstgroupaveragewaslargerthansecondaverage,while comparison statistics(basedondifferenceofmeans). Positive numbersmean This testwasfollowedbyaDunn’s comparisonresultinginthefollowing pairwise the groupswerestatisticallysignificant,Chi-squared(3)=50.234,p0.0001. 403); and(4)Paktayspeakers(n=106).Thetestshowedthatdifferencesbetween speakers (n=558);(2)Khammuang81);(3)Isan “How proudareyoutobeThai?”acrossfourpopulations:(1)centralThai The Kruskal-Wallis Htestcomparedthedifferencesinresponsestoquestion World Values wave6 Survey Paktay Khammuang– Isan–Paktay Khammuang Isan– Thai–Paktay Central Khammuang Thai– Central Thai–Isan Central comparison Pairwise Pairwise difference Sign of + + + - - - Appendix: Proud tobeThai z-test statistic 10.244830 -3.200807 -4.491112 0.146720 1.694022 5.482308 p value 0.0007 0.0000 0.4417 0.0451 0.0000 0.0000 Paktay speakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Khammuang speakers,on Paktay speakers. significantly higherthan national pride ranked theirfeelingsof Isan speakers,onaverage, Khammuang speakers. tween Isanspeakersand significant differencebe- There wasnostatistically central Thaispeakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Paktay speakers,on central Thaispeakers. significantly higherthan feelings ofnationalpride average, rankedtheir Khammuang speakers,on central Thaispeakers. significantly higherthan national pride ranked theirfeelingsof Isan speakers,onaverage, Interpretation 285