Thailand's Constitution Supports Gay Rights

[howeird]

Thailand's military dictatorship is following through with their promise of a return to democracy by appointing a committee to draft a new constitution. The committee is in the final stages of the process, and today made two major decisions:

1. There will be no state religion (despite a very strong movement among monks and conservatives to establish Buddhism as the state religion)
2. A clause banning discrimination based on sexual orientation will be included in the constitution

From The Nation newspaper:

...Natee Theerarojnapong, president of the Gay Political Group of Thailand, burst into tears on being told that the CDA had agreed to recognise the rights of gays and lesbians by stating in Article 30 of the charter that differences in "sexual identity" could not be grounds for discrimination.

"This is what we have fought for for decades," he said.

Natee said he believed that Sutthirat Simsiriwong's case had prompted the assembly to recognise gay rights [page 2].

"His case was concrete evidence that discrimination against gays does exist in this country," he said.

Comments

[howeird]

Unless you're a poor, working class farmer, construction worker, taxi driver, or maid from the North or Issan
I don't understand how you can say that. Do they not have a vote?

As for the south, Thailand was awarded three Malaysian provinces after one of the world wars, and those provinces (Yala, Narathiwat and Patthani) have been Muslim since the Arab invasions 1500 years ago. I worked for a year with owners of small rubber plantations throughout the south, and they were all Muslim, and they all wrote Malay in Arabic script. I don't understand why Thailand hasn't given that territory and its citizens back to Malaysia, where they belong. I don't know where you get the idea Malaysia was ever a "multi-ethnic state". Since about the year 800, with a short hiatus just after WWII under British rule, it has been a collection of Islamic states. They have never treated their Indian or Chinese populations as first class citizens.

[howeird]

You need to read up on your Malay history, dude. Malaysia went Islamic in 878 AD. I don't know where you get 1401 from. By 1401 the Arabs were a faded memory outside of the Middle East.

So yeah, it wasn't 1500 years it was 1129 years, but that doesn't change the point that compared to 75 years of Thai rule, it's pretty overwhelming. And yes, I do think it's feasible to give Malaysia back what was stolen from her by the British within living memory. Thailand should have done so when Britain gave Malaysia its independence, and it's not too late.

There is only a small group (including the terrorists) who want an independent sultanate. Most say they want the three sultanates to be part of the Malaysian federation.

As for why the Malaysians have never treated the Chinese and Indians as full citizens, it's because they are not Malays. Unlike the melting pot the USA was set up to be, most countries want to maintain their native population's domninance.

Your Chinese demographics after WW2 were made moot by Singapore's secession from Malaysia, and I question your Indian population numbers - they sound way too high. I've heard 7-10% for WW2-era.

[howeird]

I'm going to blame the drugs. All your sources look excellent and say 523 years later than my sources.

http://members.tripod.com/worldupdates/islamintheworld/id20.htm
Islam in Malaysia
by
Hj. Ahmad Kamar
Introduction
The recognition of Islam in this part of the world has been a fact since C.E. 674 (forty-two years after the death of Prophet Muhammad, pbuh) when the Umayyad ruler Muawiyah was in power at Damascus. Two hundred years later in C.E. 878 Islam was embraced by people along the coast of Peninsular Malaysia including the port of Kelang which was a well-known trading centre.

http://mnlf.net/History/How%20Islam%20Came%20to%20Mindanao.htm
This trade led to the Islamization of Malaysia, which gained momentum sometime after 878 C.E. when the Chinese rebel leader Huang Ch’ao drove out foreign merchants in Canton, China at a time when the Tang Dynasty was racked by a general political deterioration that led to its downfall. As a result, the Arab merchants were forced to settle in Kalah in the Malay Peninsula. This seaport then became the major intrepot of the Arab trade. It is this event of 878 that led the merchants to trade with other parts of Southeast Asia like Java, Borneo, Sulu and other parts of the Philippine archipelago.

---

But the point remains, whether Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala had been Muslim since 878 or 1401, the fact remains that a mere 75 years under a gerrymandered-by-Britain Thai rule is infintesimal compared to their history as part of the Malay states. Ethnically, linguistically, socially and morally they belong to Malaysia.

---

And yes, we differ in our outlook on how a country should treat outsiders. As an American, I am happy to live in a country which was set up as a melting pot, but sad that its founders committed genocide to achieve that goal. They were not my ancestors - mine came on the boat from Eastern Europe in the 1890's, fleeing from similar genocide.

However, I believe that a nation has a right to make its own rules about who gets to live there, and whether or not they will accept outsiders as full citizens. Despite the USA's melting pot reputation, it is still not possible for someone not born here to become President. Fine with me.