BANGKOK — A Thammasat University poll has revealed that more than 9 out of 10 citizens of Thailand prefer to not be informed about recent discoveries that the military has committed atrocities against Rohingya refugees. The poll, which surveyed 1,192 persons in the Bangkok Metropolitan area last week, asked a number of questions to gain a profile of the national attitude towards the growing international scandal. The results, according to poll manager Dr. Pornphanart Khuntodwang, shows “unprecedented national unity.”
“Normally we might expect a slight majority preferring to not know about uncomfortable facts,” he said, “but there’s almost always at least a 25% minority which wants to know the truth despite its possible consequences. To have 93% not wanting to know shows that we’ve made great progress as a nation beyond the politics of division.”
Other poll results showed that those surveyed favored accepting the official ISOC denial of any Rohingya contact by a 3 to 1 margin despite the recent retraction by ISOC officials. Among those who had seen the CNN report contradicting the denials with explicit video footage of Royhingas being taken out to sea, 68% preferred to pretend they hadn’t seen it. Additionally, the poll showed that 22% of Thais surveyed were unwilling to complete the poll itself, fearing that its questions might reveal more uncomfortable information that they preferred not to know.
Perhaps most surprising of all, a full 48% of Thais appeared capable of holding simultaneous contradictory opinions, such as believing that “Arriving Rohingyas are a danger to Thailand and must be taken to sea,” while at the same time maintaining that “No Rohingyas have ever been on Thai soil or in Thai waters, ever, since the beginning of time.” Dr. Pornphanart describes this condition as “Patriotic Denial Syndrome,” or PDS. “It’s actually a very widely diagnosed phenomenon,” he explained,” even in developed nations. For example, researchers found high incidence of PDS in the United States after September 11.” He attributes the surge in PDS in Thailand to a “new conservatism” that appears to be part of a larger movement towards traditional Thai values and a resistance to things that negatively affect desired perceptions.
“Right now, Thai people just want things to be stable,” said Pradesh Ghitapittel, a social psychologist who co-authored the poll. “After a terrible couple of years of political division, civil unrest, and the degradation of the image of Thais as peaceful and Thailand as a land of smiles, Thai people want the new government to succeed. They want everything to be good again, even if it requires sweeping facts under the rug.” According to Pradesh, this desire explains the poll’s findings which contradict obvious reality, such as 78% believing that Thaksin brought corruption to Thai culture, 61% believing that Southern Thai Muslims are not actually Thai people, and 99% saying that Abhisit is the democratically elected leader of the nation.
