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.
The Church lacks action in dealing with existing social structures. This is because we fear being involved in politics. We create projects for communities, but when we stop supporting the projects, the communities can't continue with them and solve their own problems. They lack awareness of their rights and knowledge of sustainable development.
In the three southernmost provinces, I have found that the Muslim community there has several good practices in promoting democracy and peace that we can learn from.
For example, the Muslims are very serious about the issue of "receiving money" - what kind of money can be received and what cannot, what is permissible and what is forbidden. During discussions, there are differing ideas but in the end they reach an agreement.
Using religious teaching and values in community management is very interesting. If all people live by their religious teachings and values, our society would be free of injustice.
In the current volatile situation, we have to create a space for the poor so that they can determine their own future. If we do not seriously wipe out inequality in society, this kind of violence will occur again and again.
People need to have a true understanding of their rights and freedoms. Just going for elections is not enough. We have to reform the political structure to ensure justice and equality for poor and disadvantaged people. We have to give power back to the people to determine their own development and to monitor politicians and their work.
In this endeavor, the Church has to collaborate with other religions to deal with injustices in society and build peace and reconciliation among people of different political persuasions.
We also have to use the media skillfully to disseminate our work, so that people will see that religion has the power to build a just and peaceful society.