Political Demonology, Dehumanization, and Contemporary Thai Politics
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Asia-Pacific Social Science Review 19(2) 2019, pp. 115–130 RESEARCH ARTICLE Political Demonology, Dehumanization, and Contemporary Thai Politics Siwach Sripokangkul1* and Mark S. Cogan2 1Khon Kaen University, Thailand 2Kansai Gaidai University, Japan [email protected] Abstract: The employment of acts of political demonology has become common among power holders in Thai society. Demonization campaigns trace back to the early 1970s when Thai nationalists deemed Communists to be “beasts in human clothing.” This paper reviews demonization strategies employed by power holders (countersubversives) to undermine, marginalize, and repress anti-government protesters (subversives), beginning with the formative 1970s student movements, and continuing through the 2014 military coup d’état. We argue through a series of vignettes that the Thai elites have conveniently labeled anti-government protesters and their mobilization networks as demons, trolls, or animals due to their supposed threats to the Thai state, its monarchy, or national religion. Keywords: political demonology, Thailand, dehumanization, state violence, repression Demonology, or regarding others as non-human Although demonology has been accredited with or as being unwelcome, is a phenomenon that has origins in the United States because of Rogin’s been around as long as political society itself. The work, there are oft-cited examples elsewhere, such political variety is primarily derived from Michael as the Nazi dissemination of a massive ideological Rogin’s (1987) book, “Ronald Reagan, The Movie dehumanization of a host of other groups of people, and Other Episodes in Political Demonology, which devaluing these groups as lower forms of life, called to the attention the creation of monsters as a commonly associated with animals (Steizinger, 2018). feature of politics, by the “inflation, stigmatization, Using animal similarities, they redefined humanity and and dehumanization of political foes” (p. xiii). In the reclassified Jewish people as inferior animals. Terms book, Rogin described the demonologist splitting the like the “Jewish parasite” were an essential part of Nazi globe in two, “attributing magical, pervasive power propaganda, which flowed from racist anthropology. to a conspiratorial center of evil” (p. xiii). Fearing the In that same century, the labeling of opponents as destruction and chaos, the countersubversive (good) disgusting things or inhuman to accommodate the use interprets local initiatives as signs of alien power, and of violence against them has become widespread, often individuals and groups become members of a single with an end result that the perpetrator of violence bears political body directed by its head. no remorse for their crimes or displays no feelings Copyright © 2019 by De La Salle University 116 S. Sripokangkul & M. S. Cogan of guilt. This process has been applied in several repression or unspeakable forms of violence perpetrated countries amid extreme violence. Demonization and in the name of self-preservation. Characterizing dehumanization played an essential role in facilitating something or a subgroup of people as demonic or evil violence during the Rwandan Genocide, which saw helps establish or solidify certain beliefs, values, or more than 850,000 Tutsis slaughtered by the majority attitudes in relation to prevailing social, religious, or Hutus. Dehumanizing rhetoric and language were used political norms. In the Thai context, the preservation by the local radio stations and by the Hutu government of the state ideology is a common theme. Modern to convince the population to rise against the Tutsis Thai history is replete with stories of subversive (Higiro, 2007). One of the first actions taken by elements of Thai society, whether communist antagonists was to place the Tutsis into an undesirable insurgents, pro-democracy students, supporters of outgroup, labeling them as traitors and cockroaches, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, or the or inyenzi in Kinyarwanda. now-iconic band of Red Shirts who have claimed There are a number of instances where aggressors to support the preservation of liberal democracy in were involved with killing things that they did not the country. The discourse of the “other” in Thai regard as human. The Japanese “elevated the self,” politics, as Pavin Chachavalpongpun (2011) suggested, producing war films that focused on the admirable is a powerful narrative where propaganda “is frequently qualities of the protagonists, but the dehumanization of employed to attack opponents and at the same non-Japanese “outsiders” led to a war record of brutal time strengthen the legitimacy of power holders” behavior (Dower, 2012, p. 49). During World War II, (p.1022). The selection of enemies and the “evil” Japanese artists and propagandists routinely rendered otherness or people who are perceived to be criminal their Anglo-American counterparts as demons, such or extremely damaging to society (p.1023). This has as a 1944 popular magazine that urged all Japanese to been made clear as a theme of the monarchy’s attacks “Beat and kill these animals that have lost their human on Thaksin and his supporters, with the late monarch nature! That is the great mission that Heaven has given aiming at Thaksin back in 2006, questioning his mental to the Yamato race, for the eternal peace of the world!” competence. (Dower, 2012, p.56). Chachavalpongpun (2011) documented the role In the era of international terrorism and intrastate that enemies play in Thailand rather well, noting that conflicts after the September 11, 2001 attacks, U.S. “otherness,” whereas “dark and satanic,” is an essential President George W. Bush declared the conflict part of the social controls placed on rivals from within between radical groups and the United States as a (p.1024). Authors such as Chachavalpongpun have spiritual battle between good and evil. In his third also used the term “Thainess” (khwam pen thai) as television address after September 11, Bush declared a subtheme to describe otherness, but it has always that “thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, been a difficult term to define. When centered outside despicable acts of terror” (Gunn, 2004, p. 12). As Gunn the political arena, it can encompass geographical (2004) described, these speeches cast the President as boundaries, represent a people, cultural relations, and a “healing exorcist” and the radical groups as a kind give meaning to a national identity. It also has evolved of “negative force” that divided the American body as under rulers who have taught generations of subjects “evil or a “faceless coward” (p.12). This dichotomy and their children a message of harmony, unity, and of good versus evil in America’s war on terrorism discipline. Thainess is the process of assigning order. was seen in several other campaigns, notably Iraq. In For the demonologist, that order is defined as good and the Western view, there have been several attempts to evil, Thai and very un-Thai. Thainess has been used by portray Muslims as aggressive, half-demonic people. military strongmen and King Bhumibol to reinforce the In the words of Daniel Nalliah, the leader of the Rise national ideology of nation, monarchy, and religion. Up movement in Australia, “Tony Abbott, our prime Former premier Abhisit also defined it as a convenient minister called the ISIS [Islamic State] group in Iraq tool to define who is a unifying figure and who is not. and Syria a death cult. I go one step further. I call Islam It is the process of identifying what is and what is not the death cult” (Cook, 2014, par.12). Thai that is essential in the social construction of the The making of monsters or demons is not unique to “other.” A fortunate in-group cannot have their full any culture. The monsters of state creation help justify purpose without defining the marginalized out-group. Political Demonology, Dehumanization, and Contemporary Thai Politics 117 Thai historian Thongchai Winichakul (2004) identified Empowered by the influence they had acquired this process as “negative identification” (pp.5-6). during the Japanese labor protests, they expanded This paper reviews various demonization strategies to rail against Thanom, who staged a bloodless coup employed by power holders (countersubversives) to d’état against his own government. The NSCT later undermine, marginalize, and repress anti-government defended a student political organization after students protesters (subversives), beginning with the formative at Ramkhamhaeng published a magazine, A University 1970s student movements, and continuing through the Which Still has No Name, which was critical of 2014 military coup d’état. Our paper seeks to study the Thanom, citing his connection to individuals connected history of demonology in Thailand, particularly through to a wildlife refuge hunting scandal. (Rajaretnam, the cloudy lens of democratization. We examine 1974, p.309) The ire of the students put the government political demonology, tracing its historical usage in a corner. Riding a wave of public anger, the students through multiple case studies or vignettes. We argue forced the government to investigate, which revealed that the countersubversives have conveniently labeled the status of a “secret mission” to the Thung Yai anti-government protesters and their mobilization nature preserve (Darling, 1974, p.13). Around the mechanisms or organizations as enemies, as demons, same time, the government was placing pressure on trolls, or animals due to their