CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART VI

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART VI

(THAILAND/RELIGION/DEMOCRACY)

AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

Back to Thailand

Let me summarize; The Kingdom of Thailand is based on these three institutions The Monarchy, The Sangha and the Bureaucracies (both military and civilian). It is a fact that both the Monarchy and Bureaucracy have always tried to shape the Sangha and turn it into organic to suit their political ambitions and the combination of Monarchy and Sangha always come in handy at times marked by social unrests, it is de facto the strongest controlling instrument for the Elite. Some scholars also touche on these issues for the Thais; The Royal Institution, the Patriotism and the Nationalism and at best the first mentioned is the most respected at the moment where as the two latter, as far as I can judge, are instruments masterly played by political parties and with limited connection to the real problems of the Kingdom.

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART V

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART V

(THAILAND/RELIGION/DEMOCRACY)

AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

This is then my final volume of my series about democracy, politics and religion. When I set out to spend time to look further into this important topic I wrote this  preamble in volume I: The majority of the last decades have offered the World an increasing number of wars, terrorism and violence initiated with backgrounds in extreme beliefs and escalating conflicts between religion, politics and social structures. In Denmark we have increasing problems with the integration of Muslims, often violent clashes and in Thailand we witnessed an amount not witnessed before of violence and escalating problems at the southern part of the Kingdom with the Muslims resulting in more than 4000 deaths. For many years I have wondered why did we get so far, what has happened? So I have started to dig into this question as stated above in order to try to understand at least the fundamentals and then express my conclusions in the form of essays on my blog.

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART IV/B THAILAND

THAILAND AND DEMOCRACY

THE KINGDOM WITH MANY CONFLICTS

INTRO

My first visit to the Kingdom of Thailand dates back to 1970. In 1996 I moved here from Singapore and in between 1970 and 1996 I have paid numerous visits mainly for business purposes working for Danish companies with subsidiaries in the Kingdom resulting  in a certain knowledge (in all modesty) about the region even from a distance. What I have done is to compare the developments between Malaysia, independent since 1963 and Singapore, which became independent in 1965. However it must be noticed that Singapore got partly independent from United Kingdom (British Commonwealth) in 1959 but along with Malaysia and then in 1963 it is on its own.

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART IV/A THAILAND

THAILAND AND DEMOCRACY PART I

THE KINGDOM WITH THE MANY CONFLICTS

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART III

DEMOCRACY/ABSTRACT

Before moving into my views on the subject; “Conflicts between Religion and Politics/Democracy” it will be necessary to establish the meaning of the word democracy since it comes in many versions. The original translation is that democracy is a political system or form of a government of a nation carried out by persons directly elected by the people or by elected representatives of the people. Actually the global break down of democracies looks like this; Representative Democracy, Parliamentary Democracy, Liberal Democracy, Constitutional Democracy, Direct Democracy and Social Democracy. These are the most relevant but there are more fractions. In consequence the conflicts I am talking about will be in tune with a specific kind of a political system.

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART II

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND POLITICS/DEMOCRACY PART II

SOME CONCLUSIONS

RELIGIONS

At a certain point in time most religions needed to get organized. Since I have lived the major part of my life in Europe I better use some examples from this continent.

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART I

CONFLICTS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY PART I

The majority of the last decades have offered the World an increasing number of wars, terrorism and violence initiated with backgrounds in extreme beliefs and escalating conflicts between religion, politics and social structures. Certain fractions are using religion as an instrument to get to power and to expand this into violence, terror and wars.

I agree to the facts that the history of the World has become multi polar and multi civilizational chancing almost all dimensions of our existence and carrying with them extreme potentials for pervasive and dangerous conflicts rooted in different cultural entities.