Sponsors: Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC), the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) and the New York Southeast Asia Network (NYSEAN)

Lecture Series: Thailand Social Science Seminar Series

Description:

Join Dr. Anwar Koma (Prince of Songkla University) as he investigates the links between Thai nationalism, discrimination and hate speech.

Examining the operation of hate speech in Thailand is not a new enterprise. Many studies on hate speech had previously focused on Thailand’s political polarization. Nevertheless, Patani Forum’s previous works have shown that the nationwide trend of Buddhist-Muslim relations in Thailand has been deteriorating since 2012. This new dynamic is due to both external and internal factors.

In order to understand the dynamics, Patani Forum started the Buddhist-Muslim Relations project in 2017 and produced two main reports: “Understanding Anti-Islam Sentiment in Thailand” in 2018 and “the Fragile Relationship between Buddhists and Muslims in Thailand” in 2019. Our ongoing project focuses on how has hate speech been operated in the Buddhist-Muslim conflict in Thailand. In doing so, we conducted in-depth interviews with experts and focus-group interviews with Buddhist and Muslim activists over 50 informants. Our preliminary findings show that the key actors of hate speech are religious-nationalist, politicians, and influencers. We also detect 3 levels of factors: ideational, organizational, and structural. The result shows that the concept of Thai nationalism has been seen as the foundation of discrimination and hate speech. Finally, we identify 3 gaps in countering hate speech effectively, which include the lack of collaboration between domain experts and data scientists, monitoring mechanisms, and active bystanders.

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