We are the world

Re: “Right to speak”, (PostBag, March 13).

For once, I fully agree with Eric Bahrt: “A Thai criticising the US, or an expat complaining about the Thai junta, has a right to give his opinion. And if you don’t like those opinions, then attack the arguments of the writer, not his nationality.”

When our foreign friends point out inconvenient truths, instead of arguing their points, we Thais tend to say, “It’s none of your business.” That’s the exclusionary approach used by African countries seeking to prevent Chulalongkorn law professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN’s first independent investigator into violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, from working on their cases.

But unlike the Africans, Thailand seeks to achieve international standards in various areas and help others do likewise. Thus, for example, we lobbied for and were elected to the presidency of the UN Human Rights Council (2010-2011) — and just as a doctor advising cancer patients must not himself smoke cigarettes, so we, too, must be role models in areas we chose.

Only close friends will dare to risk your wrath by telling you where you err, for they love you enough to want you to do what is right. If those friends are non-Thai, all so much the better, so that we may know how we look to the world, not just to ourselves.

Following this policy, when I studied in the US Deep South during the segregationist years, I regularly wrote against racial segregation, always identifying myself as being from Thailand — and not once was I accused of being an intruder, for the Americans realised the value of an outsider’s view.

Thus, when our foreign friends speak in love, constructively and discreetly, instead of bristling, we should listen very carefully and sincerely thank them. If we disagree, we should point out what they may have overlooked, not tell them to go home.

BURIN KANTABUTRA