วิจารณ์คำพูดของ ศาสตราจารย์ ธงชัย วินิจจะกูล
Professor
of Southeast Asian History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
-An
Open Letter to President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, History Department Chair of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, and Mr. Donald Trump
Dear sirs:
The following is the quote and its English translation by the critic,
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“คนที่มีความสามารถ
ถูกกดไว้ ซ้ำร้าย กลับ worse still,hengsuai-hengsuai
ทำให้คนที่ เฮงซวย ๆ brainless people are made
ไม่มีสติปัญญาขึ้นมามี to lead among academics,
บทบาทนำ ในแวดวง journalists, thinkers,
วิชาการ หนังสือพิมพ์ and writers.”
นักคิด นักเขียน”
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ธงชัย
วินิจจะกูล Thongchai Winichakul,
มติชน,
12 ตุลาคม 2558
Matichon newspaper, October 12, B.E. 2558
พิมพ์ซ้ำ
มติชนสุดสัปดาห์,
reprinted in Matichon Weekly
magazine,
23-29
ตุลาคม 2558 October
23-29, B.E. 2558
Note:
hengsuai-hengsuai – a colloquial expression, with Chinese origin (from พจนานุกรม ฉบับราชบัณฑิตยสถาน 2542)
The
use of foreign expression, “hengsuai-hengsuai” , a colloquial, pejorative,
local Chinese loan word by Professor Thongchai Winichakul intrigues me. The
word is understandable to most Thai speakers in Bangkok, however it does not
belong to the standard, academic, polite usage. Its English equivalent would be
“a bunch full of sh_t”.
My
current update yields the same old classic case of using foreign words in
speech and writing:
He
committed a terrible faux pas
when
he called the Queen “My dear”.
Could
it be possible that we substitute faux pas with hengsuai-hengsuai?
Obviously we cannot, with good reason. Hengsuai-hengsuai has intrinsically incorporated
something “terrible”. Therefore, it will not fit in with the adjectival phrase that
already contains the adjective “terrible”, lest we risk glaring redundancy.
In
depth research reveals some arguments why people use foreign expressions:
1) to
express a better concept that would require otherwise a long sentence,
2) to
look more international, more literate,
3) to
engage in educated dialogue,
4) to
sound smart.
First,
do we need a foreign, slangy, loan word to express a better concept that would
require otherwise a long sentence in the above quote? The concise phrase,
“incompetent people” or “คนไม่มีความสามารถ” is perfectly grammatical.
Or, “incompetent, brainless people” would also suffice.
Second,
does not “hengsuai-hengsuai” appear less international, less literate,
does it? On the contrary, is it undeniably local, even by Chinese standard? Does
the inappropriate use of slangy word hint inadequate upbringing, being
uncultured and rude, not to mention being illiterate to some degree?
Third,
to engage in educated dialogue, which in this case we have to ask Professor
Thongchai Winichakul with which intellectual community he intends to engage
dialogue.
An
anecdote could help clarify this deceptively complicated argument. After
leaving the south to go to school in Bangkok, I used to go to a neighborhood barber
shop in the capital where the barber was a middle age Chinese man. Having a
Chinese ancestor myself, I politely called him “อาเจ็ก” or
“Chinese uncle”.
My
Bangkok Chinese uncle barber had all the information of world politics, which I
had no knowledge of. In those days, in urban popular
milieu, Chinese persons – many had migrated to Thailand as part of war
reparation agreed to the then Nationalist Chinese government after the WW II
since Thailand sided with Japan during the war -- having a command of some
Chinese characters, approximatively less than twenty-five, was regarded with
awe. I did not think the supposedly well-informed barber knew more than twenty,
but he could have engaged in “educated dialogue” with some customers who were
able to read Chinese newspapers. In that period of Cultural Revolution on
mainland China, my Bangkok Chinese uncle barber did have an aura of the
intelligentsia, which if he had lived on mainland China, he would have been targetted
for persecution by Redguards.
One
day, my Chinese uncle barber told me while clipping my hair that in the future
there would be a big war between “black eyes” and “pale eyes”. While sitting on
the barber chair, I had engaged dialogue, mostly by listening without intent,
with the first de facto faux intellectual I had encountered, and I have
met several ever since.
Fourth,
to sound smart, which in this respect foreign language quotation seems to be
one of the killer applications, if properly executed, e.g.:
He
committed a terrible faux pas
when
he called the Queen “My dear”.
But,
certainly not this one:
Competent
people are oppressed, worse still,
hengsuai-hengsuai
brainless people are made to lead among academics,
journalists, thinkers, and writers.”
To
conclude my critical comment, I think of the Chinese uncle barber whose
simplisticity of prophecy on warring states lies on the dichotomy “black eyes”
and “pale eyes” resonates well with Professor Thongchai Winichakul’s two
contradictory classes: “competent people” and “hengsuai-hengsuai people”.
However,
in both cases, the dichotomy reasoning can be misleading because there are, in
our imperfect world, more to the human’s eyes’ colors and to the variety of
academics, journalists, thinkers, and writers. These later four groups of
professionals are complicated in most contemporary societies. Glossing over
their diverse qualifications/characters by dividing them into two mutually
exclusive classes, is useless, non-sense, and absurd. The best example is
Professor Thongchai Winichakul himself who is an academic, a journalist, a
thinker, and a writer, all at the same time and in the same person. With such
an entanglement of qualifications, if he fell overboard a crowded pier along the
Chao Phraya river, he would be drowned.
Professor
Thongchai Winichakul’s argument has made him guilty of false dilemma, a fallacy
of presumption, revealing sloth in tackling complex issues. Or, worse still, ซ้ำร้าย, it shows his symptomatic intellectual faculties
fatique, if you know what I mean.
Finally,
a direct semi-personal question to Professor Thongchai Wanichakul: sir, what
false sense of entitlement makes you lecture so pretentiously haughty?
Yours faithfully,
ปรีชา ทิวะหุต
Langsuan district,
Chumphon province,
Thailand.
June 17, 2559
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