Thai king’s call for earnest economy
Thais pledged to ‘serve under Your Majesty’s feet in every life’ but it was always he who did the serving, focusing on his vision for simple self-sufficiency.
THE world knows that King Rama IX of Thailand was a very hard-working, multitalented king, who devoted himself to helping Thais secure a better life, who rebuilt a monarchy that was facing a formidable test of time, and did so with maps, cameras, pens and pointers, not with a sword.
His integrity was unquestionable, and the much scrutinised laws that guarded him could be summed up by the words of a government official, who could have sounded belligerent, to reporters a couple of years ago: “Others don’t have what we have, so it’s up to us, not to them, when it comes to protecting it.”
It’s the king’s key philosophy, the Sufficiency Economy, that may still have puzzled many, including many Thais.
He preached it, gently and subtly, but the idea was set against a glaring backdrop of a conventional economy that has been in place for a long time and firmly supported and cocooned by superpower nations.
His Sufficiency Economy idea is, in fact, simple. It advocates getting back to basics and not biting off more than one can chew.
In elementary school terms, the existing mainstream economy, in its most complex but widespread form, goes like this: Village A bets on how many fish Village B will catch three years from now. In many cases, money is borrowed from Village C to place the bets.
Village D insures the debts, some of which are to be bought by Village E if they go bad. When the bad debts get worse, Village F becomes a rescuer by buying all.
King Rama XI’s idea advocates that you catch your own fish – just enough to put some on the table and sell the rest in the nearest market so you can buy additional healthy food. Simple?
Yes, but it’s hard to do, nonetheless. One may say he was a dreamer, but the six-village complexity a few years ago triggered the world’s biggest economic meltdown in recent memory, which came at a time when human beings were better equipped than at any point in history to put food in every mouth on the planet.
In other words, the near-collapse of the world economy has more to do with digital numbers whirling on computer screens at financial institutions across the globe than with genuine human abilities to create food, shelter or medicine.
Television footage in honour of the late monarch can be bland if one does not think about this. It all features the green of veggies and crops, the dark brown of soil, the translucence of water and the limited number of farm animals.
Nobility is in the details, in this case. The monarch’s idea is that if you can make good use of the soil, keep the veggies and the crops green, maintain the flow of water and raise an appropriate number of farm animals, you will really need little else. You will be happy, fulfilled and dignified.
Nobody ever heard King Rama XI criticise any economic system that he might have disagreed with. The “obligatory” TV footage carries absolutely no political message, with interviewees, in a matter-of-fact manner, only thanking him and talking about how to get enough water and keep the soil rich.
They never went out of their way to ask others to do the same. They only looked genuinely happy and sincerely grateful.
The economic status quo is omnipresent and deep-rooted, and King Rama XI was certainly well aware of that.
He also appreciated the fact that the Thai people are an unavoidable part of it, particularly because this is an era of “globalisation”.
His Majesty passed away in October last year, certainly realising that his Sufficiency Economy idea would take time to grow.
One of the biggest funerals the world has ever seen has come to pass.
If one concentrates too much on the “scale”, some very important things that King Rama XI has done or conceived could be overlooked.
To measure the monarch and how Thais feel towards him, the funeral ceremony last week was a key barometer, but it is just one of many.
He must have wanted his Sufficiency Economy philosophy to be up for judgment, though.
As an outgrowth of a system called “absolute”, challenged by something called “democracy”, King Rama XI espoused an idea that sought to create genuine dignity and equality.
He has sown the seeds, which can wait patiently underground, for as long as it takes.
The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.