While countries around the world made headlines for moving heaven and earth to repatriate their citizens living abroad and affected by the coronavirus outbreak, Thailand has chosen a decidedly different route and have asked Thais living overseas not to come home.
Thailand’s government said on Thursday that over 15,000 Thais were waiting to be repatriated after the country shut down its borders, leaving its citizens stranded overseas. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha told Thais waiting to be repatriated that it may be better for them to ‘shelter-in-place’ in their countries of residence than risk coming back and spreading the disease at home.
While the government made pains to stress that all Thais were welcomed back, their actions speak louder than their words.
The government says that the moves they are making are necessary to safeguard the majority of the 60 million people that live in Thailand.
By extension, that means the people that live abroad are expendable, left to fend for themselves despite their birthright as citizens of this country.
But should we really be surprised that this is the government’s stance given their genesis? Make no mistake that this government is the cancerous vestiges of a military coup, one launched by the army’s misguided values and enshrined by a sense of superiority.
The government cares not for liberties and rights, only end-goals and self-preservation. Citizenship and the rights that go along with citizenship mean nothing to them; they will willfully ignore it if it means maintaining their hold on power.
Right now, it so happens that the utilitarian preservation of the country from coronavirus is necessary for Prayut and his cronies to survive and see through their term.
But do not be fooled, if the government finds it convenient to deprive you of your voice, your liberty, and your rights as a citizen to ensure its continued rule, it will do so.
The amending of the constitution that ensures that the army appoints senators proves that, the suspension of the habeas corpus under military rule proves that, the muzzling of the free press proves that, the ban on political gathering proves that, the Election Day escapades of the election commission proves that, the dismemberment of the Future Forward Party proves that, just as the abandonment of Thai citizens living abroad now proves that.
The government regards its citizens not as their paymasters nor as the people they are most responsible to but as a cumbersome nuisance. If anything, their callous disregard for the rights of our fellow citizens to return home shows that we are just pawns, specks of dust to be tossed aside when convenient.
A time of national emergency like the coronavirus outbreak should be a time for unity and solidarity. It is a time to gather all Thais to protect them, cure them and help them get better. This government can’t even get that right.
