The art of talking and of listening
Written by Writer on Friday, October 31st, 2008
COMMENTARY
The art of talking and of listening
This is a plea to ex-PM Thaksin: “Don’t speak from a one-sided perspective, the way you did when you were in power. For the consequences could be calamitous - for yourself as well as for the rest of the country.”
If things go as earlier announced, tomorrow our man in London will make a phone call to address the mass gathering at Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok.
Due to strong protests, the original plan to broadcast the event live on state-owned channel NBT has been scrapped.
Instead, People Power party member Jatuporn Prompan said the fugitive leader’s speech will be later posted on a website and will go on air some time after Saturday.
Certainly, it is not unexpected that on this particular day, the whole floor of Rajamangkala will go into a frenzy. Thaksin does have his fans, lots of them. During his premiership, his one-man marathon talk show series was rated a hit among the crowds, who went into raptures listening to him every Saturday morning.
But he also has his fair share of detractors. Despite their grudge, they too will be transfixed by the screen, seeking every opportunity to jab and sneer and to cut in pieces the innards and logic, if any, of his remarks.
A recent lesson from Italy, whose Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has uncannily been compared to Thaksin on several fronts, offers some food for thought.
During the closing ceremony of the Slow Food Fair on Sunday, an Italian cabinet minister unknowingly put himself in an unenviable state. Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini had sent a so-called 1,000-second-long videotape of himself congratulating the unique global conference where about 6-7,000 delegates from around the world had come to exchange their experiences in promoting eco-friendly agriculture, culinary art, and how to live a slower, less consumeristic way of life.
In the beginning, the audience just took it in stride, although perhaps a bit disappointed by the physical absence of Mr Frattini. But then the Italian politician droned on and on… there seemed to be no end in sight.
All of a sudden the masses decided, intriguingly unanimously, to give a hoot to the giant projector. From every corner came the boo’s. Some stood up and turned their backs to the minister on the screen, as a symbolic gesture of their disapproval. One of our Thai delegates took out his “clapping hand” toy to join in the impromptu chorus of dissent.
Then came the interesting part. Right after Frattini’s videotape, the guru of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, took over the microphone and shrewdly chastised the audience. A strong civilisation, he noted, is one in which the people are able to show their ability to listen. The stronger you are, the more patient you should be, he added. True, Petrini admitted, the foreign affairs minister talked for too long - it seems a perennial problem with every politician. But he quickly added that we must also have the strength to put up with them, no matter whether we agree or disagree with the person. And Petrini himself tried to set a precedent by keeping his speech succinct, to the point, and free of hate-imbued rhetoric.
Finally, it was time for music; the congregation of colourful ethnic bands from places as far apart as Russia and Brazil, wrapped up the event in a more amicable fashion.
What did the Italian experience tell us vis-a-vis current Thai politics? As Petrini suggested, the significance of restraint as a virtue. It seems to be fast disappearing in our country, though. We have progressed, perhaps too well, from throwing glass bottles to bags of excrement and homemade bombs. It is too disheartening to guess the next choice of material to be used by incited mobs - on either side.
But another important lesson is how one-sided expressions of views have bred violence - in the minds of both speaker(s) and audience. Thaksin has mastered the monologue skills of which ex-premier Samak Sundaravej, among others, was once famous (or notorious) for. So have his former friends-turned-foes such as Sondhi Limthongkul and Co. The contagion has become a national habit, a collective karma, against which few have developed immunity.
Tomorrow’s speech, if it transpires, will add more fodder to the virus.
Vasana Chinvarakorn is a senior writer for Outlook, Bangkok Post.
Bangkok Post
Friday October 31, 2008
