LOKATAS is a Thai word, meaning worldview in English. The pronunciation is quite simple: lo-ka-tat (a as in card).

In April 2007, the news about a Swiss man being jailed for violating lèse majesté law in Thailand broke out. He was arrested in Chiang Mai for vandalising King Rama VIIII’s portrait during a drunken spree. As a respond, a person made a video mocking the king, calling him a monkey and a murderer of his brother King Rama VIII. Because the Thai government called for a ban on the video by Youtube, many more videos of the same kind sprung up. At that time, Thailand was undergoing a severe political crisis. The country was divided into two sides: the King’s supporter or Thaksin‘s supporter. Although this is largely a generalization, many Thais became more critical of the king and started criticizing him through the Internet.

Google wouldn’t comply to the Thai government’s request on pulling off the video. Things went crazy on Youtube. It was finally blocked from access in Thailand. If you were to use Thai internet, you wouldn’t be able to get on the Site. However, I was in the United States at that time. I was watching all the videos. And they broke my heart. Even worse were the comments on the videos. Some were plainly hateful. Many claimed they had the right to say what they wanted due to the right to free speech.

“stupid thai laws” “am surprised that a third world shit hole has one of the most modern airports of the world.Skytrain and subway looks really high-tech, the shopping malls in Bangkok are one of the most modern and high-tech in the world am also surprised that the skyline of Bangkok looks so modern and cool with all those thousands of glass skyscrapers shinning in the sun.”

“Thailand needs to be Liberate.”

“Since you got no ears, Internation Community had to invade your land by force and re-establish Democracy and releasing poor old Swiss man.”

“A: don’t you get it. this is not about Thailand … it’s about islam. The King is a sarogate for Mohammed. the silliness of religion aped by monarchy. wake up and smell the coffee!
B: Fuck you bitch! Thais and Islam have nothing to do with one another!
A: monarchy and religion are both about faith, loyalty. cant’t you see that? are you blind?
B: The dominant religion in Thailand is buddhism dumbass!”

One thing was clear to me at that time: none of these people know about Thailand. Knowing involves more than being able to point out the country on the map (and I doubt these people can do that). It also includes the knowledge of its culture, whether it be social culture, political culture, economic culture, etc. These are important for people to know, otherwise they are just going to continue making hateful-but-uninformed speech that does nothing but stir up conflicts.

I realized back then the importance of cultural relativity and the danger of ethnocentrism. No one should judge others using one’s own standard. It is unfair. And it has cost so much problems. Think war of democracy. How many times has democracy been pushed onto other countries and all it does is create unmanageable chaos? The Iraq War, for starter.

Therefore, I believe that every one should adhere to the principle of cultural relativism, with a basic understanding that the “truth” or “right” is socially constructed. Which means its meaning varies across cultures – also vary are the essence of what is true or right. Before you criticise a specific practice of one culture, you should know the origin and the rationale behind that practice. Knowing that would prevent you from making the above “uninformed” speech and ridicule yourself.

Hence, LOKATAS is created to foster the concept of cultural relativism and perhaps lessen the cases of ethnocentrism, prejudice, and stereotype in the world.

สันติภาพคือเส้นชัย
World Peace is the Goal.

- Sam

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