Thai Ethnicity
Modern Thailand makes a distinction between legal citizenship /san /chiachat/.2 This is somewhat parallel chaat/ and ethnic background o the distinction made i the West between 'state" and "nation. Le- unambiguous, a by law anyone is gal citizenship is theoretically either a Thai citizen or not a Thai citizen. The citizenship of many people whose ethnic background is not one of the Tai peoples is ac y unclear, however. If a person is a citizen the fact is supposed to be officially recorded as such, but some who were born in Thailand, and are therefore theoretically citizens, do not have the papers to
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prove it. Their parents did not register them because they did not know enough to do so, did not care, were intimidated, could not pay a bribe, or for some other reason. Ethnic background is also registered, along with citizenship, on an individual's identification card. But deciding when someone should be registered as ethnically "Thai as against their parents "Chinese ethnicity, for example, is often arbitrary, if not capricious. One mil lion Northern people are counted as ethnically Khmer-speaking "Thai," but nearly a million Pattani people are ethni Malay-speaking cally "Muslim" in the official view and ethnically Khaek /kheekl person of South Asian, Middle Eastern, or Muslim ethnic back- ground') in the popular view And, as we have seen, "Thai" includes speakers of many language varieties such that some cannot understand others. Furthunore, Lao speaking people south and west of the Mekong River are ethnically "Thai," while those north and east of the river are ethnically "Lao" in the official position, although citizenship clearly overrides ethnic judgment here. People who are perceived as unambiguously "Thai" fron the Thai point of view are often referred to as "real fnai" /thaythéel. In an interview, former Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj commented on the recognizability of such Thai A Thai is not a person who is born by blood if you do something to yourself then you become a Thai. [This] means you accept Thai values. Thai ideals, mostly you become a Buddhist. You worship the Lord Buddha, his teaching and the holy order of monks. And you respect your parents, to the you are loyal to the king and you respect your teachers, Thai nation, and you accept all kinds of ceremonies, you wear amulets around your neck, figures of the Lord Buddha, you get ordained as a Buddhist monk, you add the Thai ceremonies at home whether wedding or anniversary or things like that. You enjoy life in the Thai way and you ha the same sort of Thai escape mechanisms when trouble arises (Vilas and Van Beek feds.] 1983:203) apparently unaware of the con But in the very next paragraph, tradiction, Kukrit changed to a different position on religion, counting people of other religions as true Thai: The Thais know each other. [We know] whether or not another person is regardless of skin color or religious belief. Because the vari Tha ous religions like Christianity and Islam have been established in this