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Global Culture, Local Cultures, and the Internet 313

Released from the fear of criticizing the authorities, Thais began to
view the government not as something from far above, but as an
institution of their own. Once they feel that criticizing the govern-
ment incurs no real threat to their safety and liberty, Thais enjoy
this freedom a lot, and sometimes it may seem that the criticisms
serve merely to release pent-up emotions and frustrations rather
than to offer constructive viewpoints toward solving the country’s
problems. What is rather surprising in this phenomenon is that
not only highly-educated, middle-class Thais are joining in this
bashing frenzy, but the poor farmers in the countryside are joining
the fray, too. Traditionally these poor farmers, who form the ma-
jority of the Thai population, have a very high respect and awe for
their rulers, including political leaders and bureaucrats. But they
are beginning to feel, in the more democratic and liberal climate,
that the leaders are merely humans, and most importantly that
they themselves do have real power and leverage against them.
Since these leaders do come to power only through their votes, the
villagers are getting more involved in politics; they are trying to
wrench back power to take care of their own affairs from the bu-
reaucrats. A new community is emerging that is bound by a sense
of independence and increasing responsibility in dealing with one’s
own affairs. 6
Another thread in the newsgroup from which we can see cul-
tural implications concerns the use of language in postings. Kritchai
Quanchairat, a regular contributor to the newsgroup, is a Thai com-
puter scientist specializing in localizing certain Internet softwares.
He is known for his campaign for more postings in Thai language.
Naturally his campaign provoked a fair number of replies. In a post
replying to Kritchai’s, “Conrad” writes:
In article <199709122354.SAA27681@phil.digitaladvan-
tage.net>, kritchai
Quanchairut <kritchai@usa.net> writes
>[You may use Thai or English as you prefer on SCT/TMG]

>
>I linked posts from TMG to Soc.culture.thai.
>I beleive posts in Thai will help most of soc.culture.thai

>readers ( who are the majority behind the scence in
Thailand )