Thammarat: Five Meanings and the Politics of Good Governance

Background and Context

  • In the summer of 19971997, after the most severe financial crisis in Thai history, the IMF’s phrase “good governance” was reintroduced in Thai as the word “thammarat.”
    • The Thai coinage was created by Professor Chaiwat Satha-anand (Thammasat University) and Thirayuth Boonmi to carve out a space for interpreting good governance in Thai cultural politics autonomous from IMF meanings and policy imperatives.
    • The author tracks how various Thai political actors (the authoritarian military, liberal corporate elites, and communitarian public intellectuals/activists) used the term to negotiate the state, the market, and society during a period of intense critique of these concepts.
  • The broader context of Thailand’s political culture involves explicit debates about translating foreign concepts, given the country’s state-nationalized language, scripts, and sounds.
    • Thai intellectuals across the spectrum sought to screen, translate, retranslate, or domesticate Western modern ideas to fit Thai lexical ecosystems and aural aesthetics, particularly rhyming patterns intrinsic to Thai popular speech and literature.
    • Translation-as-transformation describes how foreign political terms are scrutinized, mediated, negotiated, and recast as they move across linguistic and cultural borders, shaping political meaning.
  • A Nation of Rhymers
    • Rhymes are central to Thai political culture: they allow lengthy, memorable, and performative expression in public discourse, including mobilization of mass action.
    • No.Mo.So. (Phitthayalongkorn) argued that Thailand is a nation of rhymers, where Thais modify foreign verses to fit Thai rhyming patterns, thereby embedding politics into poetic forms.
    • Intharayut (Atsani Phonlajan) echoed that Thais are rhymers by habit, noting the ease with which translated words can be rhymed with Thai words, facilitating political adaptation.
    • Translated terms become convenient candidates for Thai poetry and politics because they can be molded to fit genres and to serve the translator’s political aims.
  • Official Neologisms: Translation as Politics
    • About six months after the 1932 overthrow of the absolute monarchy, Prince Narathipphongpraphan (Wan Wai-thayakon Worawan) became a key figure in Thai coinage at the Royal Institute.
    • He articulated the principle that Thai language can secure the nation by forcing deliberate coinage rather than direct transliteration of Western ideas.
    • Wan’s coinages of key political terms (e.g., sangkhom, setthakij, nayobai, rabob, raborb, phatthana, patiwat, patiroop, wiwat, kammachip, kradumphi, mualchon, sangkhomniyom, ongkan, sahaphap, watthanatham, wiphak, judyeun, pratya, atthaniyom, jintaniyom) became foundational across Thai political discourse.
    • Examples of translating specific Western concepts:
    • revolution: Wan used the coinage patiwat (literally “turning or rolling back”), with a conservative undertone of restoration rather than radical change.
    • communism: Early coinages include Latthi niyom mualchon and Sapsatharananiyom, but the transliterated form Khommunist dominates today; some radicals tried to coin alternatives (e.g., Atsani Phonlajan’s Latthi sahachip), but these failed to gain traction.
    • democracy: The Thai equivalent is prachathipatai, originally coined by King Rama VI in 1912 to mean a republic; its meaning shifted to democracy after the 1932 revolution as part of a constitutional monarchy compromise.
    • bourgeoisie: Wan’s neutral rendering kradumphi (“the well-off” or “a householder”); an alternative by Atsani Phonlajan, phaessaya (Sanskrit-derived, with a double sense of “merchant class” or a crude term for a woman/witch) did not endure.
    • worker: Early activists used kammakorn (a Thai term with residual negative connotations of slavery or punishment).
      • Official dictionaries noted that kammakorn did not mean a slave but a laboring class; it faced political pushback when used for May Day (Day of Labor) rebranding to Wan raengngan (Labor Day).
    • proletariat: Wan rendered as kammachip (“those who earn their living from laboring”); debates persisted about whether state employees and pedicab drivers counted as part of the proletariat.
    • globalization: The term lokanuwat (“to turn with the globe”) was coined by ChaiAnan Samudavanija and spread by media and think tanks; the Royal Institute later adopted a new official coinage, lokaphiwat (“to turn the globe”), signaling a state-driven form of globalization.
    • The globalization rhetoric in Thai discourse also intersected with nationalist projects and the liberalization of the economy in the 1990s.
  • From Good Governance to Thammarat
    • IMF’s own description (mid-1990s) framed good governance as including rule of law, public-sector efficiency, accountability, and anti-corruption.
    • The IMF’s governance framework was used to condition rescue loans during crises, including Thailand’s 1997 bailout, which amplified debates about governance in Thai public life.
    • The crisis context: the Tom Yam Kung crisis, a currency crisis with the baht devaluing sharply after the July 1997 decision to abandon the fixed exchange rate; capital outflows and a severe impact on banks and industry.
    • Financial impacts: 42.3%42.3\% of GDP in restructuring costs; around 1,000,0001{,}000{,}000 workers lost jobs; about 3,000,0003{,}000{,}000 more Thais fell below the poverty line; vast corporate distress and bank failures.
    • Public intellectuals responded by reimagining governance in terms of Thai cultural and moral idioms. Chaiwat convened a faculty meeting at Thammasat to interpret the crisis and IMF conditionalities, coining thammarat as the Thai equivalent of good governance.
    • The Thammasat faculty’s three main expectations for a good governance state: (1) concern and care for the poor, unemployed, and disadvantaged during crisis; (2) rejection of any government installed by unconstitutional powers; (3) public administration grounded in justice, fairness, and righteousness.
    • After the faculty statement, the term Thammarat began to travel through popular rhymes and political discourse, demonstrating its potential to mobilize and shape reform agendas.
    • The first rhyming dictionary shows that 685 words rhyme with the Thai translation thammarat, compared to only 1 word that rhymes with a direct transliteration of good governance, kraen (a dwarf). This underscores the phonetic/political leverage of rhyming in Thai discourse.
  • The Thammarat Movement: Thirayuth and Others
    • In January 19981998, Thirayuth Boonmi (a pluralist activist and strategist) reframed the word for broad democratic reform as a tripartite self-reform of state, business, and civil society for efficient and just public administration; this definition aligned with IMF-derived governance ideals but was reinterpreted in a distinctly Thai liberal frame.
    • Thirayuth launched Khrongkan thammarat haeng chat forum (the Forum on Good Governance of Thailand Project) and Kanprachum haeng chat pheua thammarat haeng chat (National Convention for Good Governance of Thailand) and brought in high-profile figures like Anand Panyarachun and Prawase Wasi to build broad consensus.
    • The term thammarat thereby spread into public meetings, policy agendas, regulatory bodies, and corporate and NGO initiatives, becoming a broad, contested banner for reform—with various actors pushing different interpretations.
  • The Five Meanings of Thammarat (Table 1, summarized)
  • State-Civilizing Thammarat
    • Central idea: the use of thamma to control, regulate, and discipline the state, providing a legitimate ground for civil disobedience.
    • Proponent: Chaiwat Satha-anand et al. (academic community).
  • National-Consensus Thammarat
    • A tripartite self-reform of state, business, and society—not just the state—for efficient and just public administration.
    • Proponent: Thirayuth Boonmi (pluralist political activist and strategist).
  • Authoritarian Thammarat
    • The state imposes thamma on the people in a top-down manner; emphasizes unity, Thai-ness, and a disciplined state; a vision aligned with a militarized or security-state orientation.
    • Proponent: General Bunsak Kamhaengritthirong (military/National Security Council).
  • Liberal Thammarat
    • Open, diverse, and transparent governance that depoliticizes governance; emphasizes administrative process and efficiency rather than power relations; follows market-based norms.
    • Proponent: Anand Panyarachun (business leader and former prime minister).
  • Communitarian Thammarat
    • Weaving social fabric to generate social energy and bottom-up reform through networks; aims to build a santi prachatham society (a peaceful democracy within the moral framework of thamma).
    • Proponents: Dr. Prawase Wasi and allied civic groups.
  • The Five Meanings summarized in Table 1 also imply that the meanings reflect different moral grammars, not simply different political programs.
  • The Three Different Meanings of Thammarat (Table 2, summarized)
  • Authoritarian Version
    • Power: State-centralized power over a monolithic, harmonious nation.
    • Market: Compliance with market forces; no new economic platform.
    • Democracy: Thai-style democracy; tends to see thammarat and democracy as separate (e.g., Singapore).
  • Liberal Version
    • Power: Checks and balances; conflict allowed in public life.
    • Market: Acceptance of free-market capitalism as reality to adapt to.
    • Democracy: Thammarat and democracy can be separated; governance through administrative processes.
  • Communitarian Version
    • Power: Decentralization of power to local communities; fosters social energy.
    • Market: Rejects unfettered free-market capitalism; supports a sufficiency economy to address crisis.
    • Democracy: Thammarat and democracy are inseparable; governance relies on social networks and local participation.
  • The Three Meanings (Table 2) reflect tensions among power, market, and democracy across authoritarian, liberal, and communitarian strands.
  • The Enlightenment question: universality of reason has been challenged by cross-cultural linguistic motion, but universal reason remains a noble aim.
    • The author argues that it is impossible to transport a fixed signifier with definite signifieds across cultures unchanged; good governance tends to disintegrate into semantic instability when transposed without local adaptation.
    • A sustainable form of good governance emerges only when people locally educate, adapt, and reinvent thammarat; there may be many good governances rather than a single universal definition.
    • The ultimate aim is open-ended dialogue; differences among thammarat and global good governance can be opportunities for learning and mutual improvement.
  • The concluding message emphasizes that thammarat falls short of perfection, and ongoing reform is needed. Differences with IMF and other global models are as important as common ground, inviting ongoing comparison, contrast, and learning.
  • Notes and context (selected highlights)
    • The term body cultural (Prasenjit Duara) is used to discuss nation-building and identity; Thamil and global discourses are connected to this concept in this chapter.
    • The IMF’s official stance on good governance and the global governance agenda (as of 2008) is cited to contextualize the Thai debate.
    • A set of footnote references (not exhaustively listed here) documents the linguistic, political, and historical developments around the concept of thammarat and related coinages.
  • Key numerical anchors to remember:
    • The 1997 crisis and IMF bailout context—and the adoption of governance conditions as a condition of loan packages: 19971997, with the baht devaluation occurring in the same year.
    • Estimated structural costs after the crisis: 42.3%42.3\% of GDP in banking/financial-sector restructuring.
    • Labor-market impacts: roughly 1,000,0001{,}000{,}000 workers lost jobs; about 3,000,0003{,}000{,}000 more Thais fell below the poverty line.
    • The 1996 IMF governance framework and its broad influence on Thai reform programs.
    • The number of rhyming words that rhyme with thammarat: 685685 (versus only 1 rhyming term with a direct transliteration of “good governance”).
  • Connections to broader debates:
    • The Thai experience shows how translation can be a site of political intervention, where official translators (and political actors) negotiate with popular culture (rhymes, poetry) to give legitimacy to reform programs.
    • The emergence of multiple versions of thammarat illustrates how global concepts can be domesticated in multiple, sometimes competing, moral imaginaries that shape policy, institutions, and social life.
  • Ethical and practical implications:
    • The debate over thammarat highlights how governance concepts are tied to legitimacy, authority, and civil rights; the notion of civil disobedience grounded in moral law (thamma) raises questions about the state’s limits and duties toward the poor.
    • The tension between market-oriented reform and social equity remains central to Thai governance discourse, with the sufficiency economy representing a locally grounded alternative to purely liberal globalization.
  • Final takeaway:
    • There is no single universal definition of good governance; the Thai case shows a dynamic process of translation, reinvention, and contestation that yields multiple, context-dependent forms of governance. The important objective is to foster open dialogue and adaptive learning across different visions of governance rather than impose a single global standard.

Key Terms and Concepts (summary)

  • thammarat: Thai term coined to translate and reinterpret “good governance”; combines thamma (moral law, righteousness) and rat (state).
  • thamma: moral righteousness, truth, law, and cosmic order in Thai Buddhist thought.
  • rat: state or government in Thai.
  • translation-as-transformation: process by which foreign terms are translated, adapted, and reinterpreted within local linguistic and political frameworks.
  • rhyming polity: Thai linguistic and poetic tradition where rhyming forms influence political discourse and memory.
  • official neologisms (Prince Wan’s coinages): Thai equivalents for Western political terms (e.g., sangkhom, setthakij, rabob, patiwat, wiwat, kammachip, kradumphi, sangkhomniyom, ongkan, sahaphap, watthanantham, wiphak, pratya, atthaniyom, jintaniyom).
  • lokanuwat vs lokaphiwat: two terms for globalization in Thai discourse; the Royal Institute later adopted lokaphiwat as the official coinage, signaling a domesticated form of globalization.
  • five meanings of thammarat (Table 1): State-Civilizing, National-Consensus, Authoritarian, Liberal, Communitarian.
  • three meanings of thammarat (Table 2): distinctions across power, market, and democracy in Authoritarian, Liberal, and Communitarian variants.
  • santi prachatham: a peaceful democracy within the rules of thamma.
  • Tom Yam Kung: metaphor used to describe the Thai economic crisis in global media.

Table 1 (Five Meanings) — Quick Reference

  • State-Civilizing Thammarat: use of thamma to regulate the state to enable civil disobedience grounded in moral governance.
  • National-Consensus Thammarat: a broad reform of state, business, and society for efficient, just administration.
  • Authoritarian Thammarat: top-down imposition of thamma by the state; unity and Thai-ness emphasized; potential for force.
  • Liberal Thammarat: depoliticized governance focused on administration, efficiency, transparency, and the market.
  • Communitarian Thammarat: networked social fabric to generate energy and build an ideal santi prachatham society.

Table 2 (Three Meanings) — Quick Reference

  • Authoritarian Version:
    • Power: State-centered, monolithic harmony.
    • Market: Compliance with market forces; no new platform.
    • Democracy: Thai-style; may see thammarat and democracy as separate (e.g., Singapore).
  • Liberal Version:
    • Power: Checks and balances; public conflict tolerated.
    • Market: Acceptance of free-market capitalism as the reality to adapt to.
    • Democracy: Thammarat and democracy can be separated; governance through process.
  • Communitarian Version:
    • Power: Decentralization to local communities.
    • Market: Critique of free-market capitalism; supports a sufficiency economy.
    • Democracy: Thammarat and democracy inseparable; builds on social networks and local agency.

Epilogue: Open-Ended Dialogue and the Path Forward

  • Universality versus relativity: universal definitions of good governance are unlikely; local reinvention and political negotiation are essential.
  • The Thai case illustrates that governance concepts travel, mutate, and must be lived, tested, and redefined within each society’s moral, cultural, and economic terrain.
  • The search for good governance is ongoing and plural; different thammarats may contribute to a more just and functional political order in Thailand and beyond.