Karma, the Rhetoric of Wethana and the Politics of Compassion for People with Disabilities in Thailand
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Abstract
The research for this article examined the merger of cultural meanings related to disability in Thailand, and in particular, the influence of karma theory and the rhetoric of wethana (‘feelings of pity’) as part of institutional morality derived from Theravada Buddhism, the bio-politics created by Thai government policies and global political ideology as produced by global organizations in relation to human rights. All of these elements contribute to the creation a framework of a politics of compassion in Thailand that can be used to evaluate humanity and give specific values and meaning to the lives of people with disabilities in Thailand. Because of this politics of compassion, people living with disabilities are treated as political subjects and problematized as ‘moral objects’, who are simultaneously viewed as ‘objects of social charity’ – those who should be confined to government-run shelters in the name of humanitarianism – and as ‘pitiful objects’ – those to be hidden from view and confined to their homes in the name of wethana. The political and social movement that has emerged in Thailand to challenge this politics of compassion, a political framework that socially excludes those in Thailand who have disabilities and is based on the politics of identity, the social model of disability and the human rights approach, is also described. This framework is used to define disabled people’s citizenship status and legal rights, as well as to redefine the cultural meaning of disability derived from Theravada Buddhism, and in particular, karma ideology and the rhetoric related to wethana. Criticism is provided regarding how the movement seems to have had some qualified success in helping introduce a new definition of disability and disabled under Thai law, but such efforts appear to be ironic since they continue to reinforce a system of exclusion enforced upon persons with disabilities. While trying to free persons with disabilities from the limiting definitions of the past, the movement only reinforces the Thai government’s categorization of persons with disabilities based on a system of compulsory able-bodiedness.
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