Educated urban and middle-class Thais should stop stereotyping the rural poor as ignorant, and recognise the tremendous changes in rural Thailand in order to help solve the current political conflict, said William J Klausner, one of the most senior and best-known observers of rural Thailand.
Klausner said the continued rural-urban divide was "probably the most burning issue that needs to be addressed" in order for the country to successfully transform into a democratic and less hierarchical society that adheres to the rule of law.
The Kingdom, he said was "in transition - hopefully there will be accommodation and a new Thai identity emerging," he said in an interview with The Nation.
Klausner, 81, born in New York City and is a graduate of Yale in anthropology and law. He first conducted intensive fieldwork in Ubon Ratchathani in the Northeast back in 1955 and ended up marrying a local woman. He is currently a senior fellow at Chulalongkorn University's Institute of Security and International Studies.
Klausner said rural Thailand, especially the Northeast and North, had changed dramatically, while urbanites continued to hang on to stereotyped views about rural people as "uneducated" and "provincial".
Equally crucial was the fact that rural folk "realised they have been looked down upon for so long".
"The villagers want respect. They want others to recognise their dignity and not to be looked down upon and stereotyped as uneducated water buffaloes.
"The villagers are no longer uneducated and they're no longer provincial. They are connected, aware and understanding of the world outside," Klausner said. Five decades ago, rural villagers got information in the form of tales and news from Isaan folk performers such as 'mor lam' singers, or from visiting relatives who returned from Bangkok. Today they have mobile phones, televisions, satellite dishes and "even the odd computer in the village".
Many people had also worked abroad, in Korea, Taiwan or Saudi Arabia, while four or five decades ago, only one or two people may have left the village. This was "a tremendous difference", he stressed.
Barter trade had been replaced by a cash economy and days when villagers help each other to plant rice or harvest were no more. The latest daily rate to get a neighbour to do agricultural work was Bt220 a day, plus a proper lunch break. They also had to follow the official number of working hours.
"Everything is hired labour. Either hiring or being hired. We [also] know that off farming income is greater than on farm's, speaking generally," he said, adding that debt had become a widespread problem. Although a good number of Bangkokians did visit rural parts of the country for vacations, Klausner, who speaks Thai as well as the Isaan dialect, said many failed to "go into the villages".
"Well, they may be interested in buying some [hand-woven] clothes. But they are not interested in how [rural folks] live, what their aspirations are."
Klausner argued that the rural poor did not necessarily hate the urban middle class and other well-to-do Thais, but simply wanted a better livelihood and things that their richer peers enjoyed. And they were now more assertive and willing to confront the authorities to defend their rights and interests. "Fifty years ago, the idea of protesting was almost unheard of."
Klausner attributed the change to the end of the "new land" frontier. In the past, there was always new land for the oppressed to seek if they were pushed off existing plots. What's more, traditional mechanisms to control behaviour, such as superstition and Buddhism, were becoming redundant, except for a few of "development monks" active in the Northeast.
"Not everything is about red and yellow. One must be willing to have some sense of empathy. This will serve the Thai body politic well and will not be a zero-sum game," he said, making a plea that both rural and urban Thais try to understand each other. Klausner feared, however, that would take a generation to materialise.
"Why will it take a generation? Because you're going to change the value system and make inroads into a very hierarchical structure and change institutional mechanisms … checks and balances, rule of law, participation, in order to move toward a democratic society.
"There has to be change in education. There has to be change in administration, in governance, [guided by] referendums and public hearings. All this is going to take time."
He ended on a rather pessimistic note fearful about the country's future. "I am concerned that the spirit of reconciliation and compromise seems be in short supply and that 'third-force' civil society views are muted," he said.