Authors Paul & Yuangrat Wedel Discuss the History of Radicalism in Thailand - Part 1 [S6.E31]

Greg and Ed interview a fascinating and very erudite couple, Paul
and Yuangrat Wedel. Paul, a native of New Jersey, met Yuangrat, a
native of Nakhon Si Thammarat, in Bangkok in the late 1970s and
through various twists and turns ended up both getting advanced
degrees in the States and carrying on a romance and eventually
getting married. (Their daughter, documentary filmmaker Pailin
Wedel, is a former guest of the show, as is Pailin's husband
Patrick). 


After setting up their life in Thailand, with Yuangrat working as
a professor at Thammasat University and Paul doing NGO work, they
decided to use Yuangrat's PhD dissertation as the basis for a
book about radical politics in Thai history. Greg and Ed query
Paul and Yuangrat about the fascinating story of Marxism and
socialism in Thai history, something many Thais are entirely
ignorant of. Yuangrat traces its origins back to the 'sakdina'
system, a complex social hierarchy imported into Thai culture
through the influence of Hinduism based on land owndership. This
system created a clear separation between social classes,
providing a fertile breeding ground for later far left politics
that sought to free the lower working classes from the higher
privileged classes.


This leads to an engrossing discussion of the rise of Chinese
merchants in Thai society, the effect foreign radical thought had
on a groundbreaking Thai journalist, and eventually to the
movement for constitutional monarchy in Thailand. 


Listen in if you are curious to hear a discussion on an often
forgotten but truly interesting part of Thai history, and check
back for part 2 next week.


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