Church Has a Role in Solving Red Shirt Crisis

The recent violence in Bangkok is a result of the injustice and disenfranchisement suffered by a large section of Thai society for decades, says a lay Catholic social activist.

Rungtip Imrungruang, who works with ActionAid Thailand says that in such a scenario, the Church has a role to play beyond merely doing charity work.

Rungtip is also the former coordinator of the Thai bishops' Justice and Peace Commission as well as of the International Young Christian Students (IYCS) Asia.

Her commentary follows:

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Many of the people who joined in the recent red shirt protests in Bangkok that ended in tragedy are grassroots people who suffer from inequality, injustice and poverty. What they are up against are structural problems of the country that go back a long time.

For example, there are many cases of capitalists taking over villagers' community land. Even though the communities often stand up and fight for their land rights, they always lose because they don't have legal support.

The capitalists have the money and power, and are able to use the law to their advantage. Villagers get sued and arrested, but we don't hear of capitalists or politicians getting arrested.

Many government development projects violate community rights. Villagers lose their source of livelihood and become cheap labor in the cities. They cannot determine their own future. The problems faced by the poor have remained for the past 40 years. No government has ever tried to solve the problems in a sincere manner.

In the latest crisis that has shockingly claimed so many lives, the Church has played a very low profile. The Church has participated in some events and has issued statements from time to time calling for prayers and peace. This is good, but it is not good enough in that kind of situation.

The Church should have played a greater role in leading society out of conflict and violence.

The Church's social work has always focused on charitable activities. This is very good, but we also need to actively participate in solving the problems of the grassroots people in a sustainable way.

The Church does a lot of development work in various places but this development work often creates dependency, not sustainability. It does not tackle the root causes of the problems faced by the poor. We need to take action to empower communities.

It is inevitable that development work involves politics. Actually community development is the responsibility of the state. But we can support the communities by monitoring the state on its accountability and by empowering communities to monitor the state and claim their rights.