The advantage of Thai folk thinking is that the duty
to participate, and the responsibility for environmentally friendly
or unfriendly actions can be imposed independently from positive law.
In fact, the Thai folk idea is common to what is called natural law
tradition and is reflected well in other ethical systems. It is a common
stereotype to think of the West and the East as based on completely
different moral and religious principles. In Thailand, it is commonly
asserted that it is based on the Buddhist tradition, while the West
is rooted in the Christian tradition. At least in relation to the moral
duty to protect one’s environment, this presumption does not work;
however, the cultural expressions of that duty can be different. For
example, the Christian idea (shared to a significant degree by the Muslim
world) of a human being as a co-creature and as the one to whom God
has entrusted care for the rest of the earth, may find a different expression
in the Buddhist mentality which is predominant in Thailand. The Buddhist
ideal of ahimsa – not doing harm to any living organism, flows
from the sense of kinship with other living beings implicit in the doctrine
of rebirth. In other words, the duty of every individual to protect
the environment transcends any cultural, religious and ethical differences.
The idea of personal and social responsibility as expressed
in Thai folktales allows us to set public participation on a strong
moral basis, which can and should find its expression and support in
legislative acts. It must be stressed that public participation becomes
not only a matter of individual rights, but of a duty of the individual
and the whole community, or the public. In other words, the concept
of “the public” can be presented as a circle of all who
are able to participate in making environmentally significant decisions.
This idea is reflected in the Thai Constitution:
“Every person shall have a duty to defend the country,
serve in armed forces, pay taxes and duties, render assistance to
the official service, receive education and training, protect and
pass on to conserve and the national arts and culture and local
knowledge and conserve natural resources and the environment, as
provided by law.(9)”
The fact that the protection of the environment is
a duty of every person according to the Thai Constitution leads to a principle,
that public participation is a duty, which the country must promote and
encourage. This principle is clearly reflected in Section 79 of the Thai
Constitution quoted above. Thus, both Thai folk wisdom and the Thai Constitution
agree that the state must promote public participation.
Part 6
(9) http://www.krisdika.go.th/law/text/lawpub/e11102540/text.htm
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