Nationalism and the Radical Intelligentsia in Thailand

Abstract

The prominent Thai scholar, Chatthip Natsupha, has gone from being a Marxist intellectual in the 1970s to a cultural nationalist advocate of a genuine Thai essence which, he believes, is an antidote to the dominance of the Western neoliberal capitalism. His case is not an anomaly. The intellectual path from the Marxist left to the cultural nationalist right is well-trodden and reflects broader changes in nationalism in the country. The cultural nationalist Thai ex-left rejected what it called ‘bad’ nationalism and embraced a ‘good’ one. However, its ideas were significantly drawn from conservative nationalism. Such nationalism, which is widespread among the Thai intelligentsia, was an important factor in their support for the military coup which, in 2006, ousted an elected government on the dubious grounds that it was a proxy for global capitalism.

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