By Dan Waites
An amusing squabble broke out on Facebook over the weekend between Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij and red-shirt leader Natthawut Saikua. It concerned dinner.
On Saturday night, Korn posted the following on his Facebook page (my translation):
Just now I ate with my wife at a restaurant in the Thong Lor area. Someone sitting at the table next to mine said that Natthawut Saikua and his family had just got up from the table I was sitting at, only five minutes ago. We couldn’t help but be amused that a person who calls himself “Prai” wasn’t living a very different life from people he called “Amart”.
(Bit of explanation. Natthawut and other red leaders famously revived the words “Prai” (ไพร่) meaning “serf” and “Amart” (อำมาตย์) meaning “elite, lord” used in old Thai feudal society in their rhetoric. In doing this, they cast the red shirted “Prai” as victims of oppression by the Bangkok-based “Amart”. See Bangkok Pundit here or academic Thongchai Winichakul here.)
Clearly, it was Amart 1, Prai 0. Annoyingly, the name of the restaurant hasn’t been reported – but I think it’s safe to say it wasn’t Burger King.
According to a report in Khao Sod today, not long afterwards Natthawut responded with a Facebook post of his own:
In the evening I took Kam [Natthawut's wife] to eat at a restaurant that she likes. Chang Noi [the nickname of Nabok, Natthawut's son] went with us. I didn’t expect that Korn Chatikavanij would make this into an issue and say that he didn’t think someone who called himself Prai would have a way of life similar to his. Listen to us, Korn. Because this country has people who think like you, oppression persists. Why do you say a Prai has to be poor, has to be stupid, has to bend forward and be repeatedly trampled on? Why can’t Prai eat at the same restaurant as capitalists? Long live the people.
Amart 1, Prai 1. But it didn’t end there. Clearly too excited to sleep, Korn posted the following at 12.33am:
I’ll explain the thing that I posted a little bit. If you read it properly, you’ll see that my point is: why do you agitate to create divisions in society? When everyone has a way of life that is no different? I myself have never looked at Thai people as different to each other and that is the important point.
It was Amart 2, Prai 1, and things got worse for the Prai when Korn’s wife, Worakorn, joined in on her own Facebook page:
At a restaurant in Soi Thong Lor today. The “Amart” and “Mrs Amart” shared one bottle of Thai beer. As for the Prai and his wife, they had expensive wine and had a nurse in tow to look after their child.
And there, things seemed to rest: Amart 3, Prai 1. The scoreline was clear. But who really got the best of it?
This piece was edited on May 9 to add the word “Thai” into the translation of Worakorn’s comments. Thanks to @arabianrus for pointing this out.
Dan Waites can be contacted at jamesdanielwaites@gmail.com or followed on Twitter:www.twitter.com/danwaites.