Hej
The New York Times uppmärksammar effekterna av juntans nyligen genomförda skolreform, före kuppen kunde eleverna välja fritt mellan flera olika historieböcker om Thailand men efter kuppen ska bara en som juntan har godkänt få användas, i denna historiebok kommer eleverna inte att kunna läsa någonting om Thaksin eftersom myndigheterna har raderat hans namn på alla ställen som det förekom i tidigare upplaga.
Enligt skribenten är detta helt klart ett fall av historieförfalskning i linje med Kinas där militärens övervåld på Himmelska Fridens torg inte nämns i historien, liksom i Nord Korea där en onkel till Kim Jong-un raderades på bilder i TV efter det att han avrättades förra året.
Den av juntan godkända historieboken innehåller också av för militären förklarliga skäl väldigt lite om statens förtryck och jakt på vänsteraktivister i Thailand på 1960 och 1970 talet.
Men skribenten tror att juntan kommer att få det svårt med sin historieförfalskning i denna tid med internet och sociala medier.
Loved and Hated, Former Premier of Thailand Is Erased From Textbook
Bangkok — His legacy is inseparable from the past decade of political tumult in Thailand, but high school students will not find the name Thaksin Shinawatra in the history textbooks that the country’s military junta recently ordered schools to use.
Mr. Thaksin’s name was scrubbed from the book by the Ministry of Education, said the textbook’s author, Thanom Anarmwat.
“The officials at the ministry just deleted it, cut it,” he said.
Mr. Thaksin (pronounced TAHK-sin) elicits love or hate in Thailand and not much in between.
To members of the Bangkok establishment who supported the May military coup, which ousted an elected government backed by Mr. Thaksin, he is seen as venal, corrupt and, perhaps most of all, a threat to their power.
To his supporters, Mr. Thaksin was the first politician in Thailand to focus on the needs of voters outside Bangkok and gain their allegiance by delivering universal health care, microloans and more efficient government services.
There are numerous examples, especially in Asia, of government deletions of undesirable facts and faces from official history. In China, history textbooks do not mention the military crackdown on the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, and many young people know little or nothing about it. In North Korea, the uncle of Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, was edited out of state television footage after the uncle was executed last year.
Thai history textbooks have very little coverage of the leftist movements of the 1960s and 1970s and the government’s efforts to suppress them.
But in today’s Thailand — plugged into the world, freewheeling and linked through social media technologies beyond the government’s control — it is unclear to what degree the military can erase the society’s deep divisions from the public’s consciousness.
Med vänlig hälsning isan lover
