Reference to farang in public discourse as a trope for focusing blame and resentment reached its apex in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 1997, the domestic causes of which were largely neglected in favour of external factors over which the government claimed to have little or no control – and, hence, little or no responsibility. The critique of ‘Western’ (i.e., capitalist) models of development from quarters as different as ngos and the throne has since became commonplace in Thai public discourse.
Such critique, articulated by academics and public intellectuals such as Sulak
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Siwarak and Thirayut Bunmi, who are themselves often foreigneducated, tends to restate the nineteenth-century dichotomy between a material realm, where farang hegemony is unchallenged, and a spiritual realm, in which Thais are superior.38