From: kamol@ipied.tu.ac.TH (Kamol Hengkietisak)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: Bangkok Post Dec 16: Sulak fears for his life
Date: 17 Dec 1992 13:53:15 +1100
Organization: Mail/News gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: munnari.oz.au

 
"I'D be dead if I had stayed," says social critic Sulak Sivaraksa,
asked why he fled the country.
 
Informed sources at the Police Department told his family that had he
stayed, he would have disappeared like union leader Thanong Pho-arn,
who went missing without a trace about two years ago.
 
"I didn't believe it at first. Compared to me, Thanong is less
well-known. I didn't think they'd dare kill me," he recalls.
 
Everybody feared for his safety and convinced him to leave. He first
went to Sweden, simply because "there's no need for a visa" there. He
then became a "gypsy lecturer", constantly travelling: Germany,
Britain, France, Ireland, Norway.
 
"I was at the Nobel Prize Presentation Ceremony for Aung San Suu Kyi.
I was probably the only Thai there. I was invited to give a talk
there," he says.
 
He spent some time in the US, Canada and Japan, mainly giving lectures
on Buddhism and society, Thai politics, and Southeast Asia. He was
welcomed in most places, sometimes by people he didn't even know.
 
"I was touched by the generosity of these people, not only Thais but
also foreigners."
 
One of his close aides recalls some of the early letters from
Professor Sulak when he was in exile.
 
"It was very sad. I cried when I read them. I'm sure he must have been
homesick," the aide says.
 
Says Sulak: "One reason I decided to come back was these symptoms: my
eyes and limbs twitch, both sides, but mainly on the left.
 
"A personal doctor of the Dalai Lama, whom I met at a meeting in
Austria recently, told me I have too much gas and stress that I myself
don't realise. But don't worry, he's prescribed for me traditional
Tibetan medicine to cure this illness."
 
After 14 months of self-imposed exile, Sulak decided to return to
fight the lese majeste and defamation charges which Gen Suchinda
Kraprayoon, then deputy chief of the National Peace-keeping Council,
brought against him on August 22 last year following his political
remarks at Thammasat University.
 
Looking happy and healthy, Sulak says that during the time he was away
from home he learned the dhamma of compassion and friendliness towards
Gen Suchinda and his men.
 
"If I'm not kind to them and (instead) full of hatred, I'll feel the
stress myself. It helps me and hopefully helps them too, so that they
feel less suffering. I've learned it from the Dalai Lama, who always
teaches his people not to hate the Chinese. He says our best friend is
our enemy."
 
Sulak says what the NPKC did to him teaches him to forgive its
ignorance. When the NPKC toppled the Chatichai Choonhavan government
and seized power to control the country, nobody dared criticise them
except Sulak.
 
Eight months after this criticism, Gen Suchinda, then the prime
minister, ordered troops to crush pro-democracy protesters, which
resulted in many dead, wounded and missing.
 
"People said I was crazy then. But what they did gradually became
quite obvious. People just did not realise at the beginning."
 
"It's not that I had a magic vision or whatever. It's nothing new.
Naturally when people are pushed into a corner they will turn around
and fight. History shows us that people like Ne Win, Deng Xiaoping,
Thanom (Kittikachorn, a former premier), Prapass (Charusathiara, a
former deputy premier) -- they all reacted the same. They never valued
the lives of other people. If they had, problems like prostitution and
child labour would not exist."
 
After all his trouble, will he be the same Sulak of the quick tongue?
 
"People around me force me to soften my speech. They want to come
home. I have to listen to them because they all have good intentions.
But whether I can do it or not, that's another story."
 
He says Thailand is now at a crossroads. Though the country is leaning
towards democracy and people have become more aware and the Government
tends to listen to the people more, danger is still looming unless
people use Buddhism to limit their greed.
 
"Thai people are too pragmatic, but pragmatism does not work when
society gets larger and more sophisticated. We can no longer solve the
problem day by day, unless the basic problem is solved."
 
If there's any benefit from the May incident, Sulak says he's glad to
see more people, conservatives and professionals and those interested
in social justice, becoming more outspoken to actively remind the
Government to be on the people's side.
 
"This government, theoretically and practically, came from the people.
But if it's not careful it will become a government which is ever
compromising with the capitalists and the rich. It may not intend to
be so, but indeed it's not easy to be with the people. That's why we
need always to remind the Government of its role."
 
The hearing of Sulak's case is set for December 24. Meanwhile, he is
working on a memoir of his 14 months of exile abroad and a book on the
latter part of his life, which is expected to be completed in time for
his 60th birthday anniversary in March next year.