Pheu Thai Party leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra says she is concerned by the rising levels of hate speech in society and vicious political infighting — issues she intends to confront head-on for a more peaceful and prosperous nation.
“There is one thing I’d like to change the most. However, the issue is complicated and universally unsolved among nations, regardless of the country’s economic growth or extent of freedom. The issue is hatred in people’s hearts,” she said in her keynote speech at the Bangkok Post Women Vision Forum 2024 on Thursday.
Addressing the topic of “Female Leadership in Social and Political Transformation”, Ms Paetongtarn said she has witnessed the highs and lows of human nature as the daughter of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and the leader of a political party.
She said venomous and personal attacks are rife in politics, something she first experienced at the age of 8 when her father made his first foray into the political arena.
Ms Paetongtarn said she and her family had to constantly deal with hatred and criticism levelled against her father by his political opponents and their supporters.
This continued while she was at university — with defaced photos of Thaksin often left lying around and people making unpleasant comments about her father’s character and politics.
She said the situation deteriorated when Thaksin was charged with breaking the law, but all she could do was stay silent and remain patient until the court cleared his name.
Thaksin returned to Thailand last year after 15 years of self-imposed exile to face more charges and was recently paroled after spending almost all of his sentence in the Police General Hospital in Bangkok.
Ms Paetongtarn said there was such a backlash against her family while growing up due to the nation’s divisive politics — the flames of which were stoked by unbridled hatred — that she was even accused of cheating to pass her university admission test, despite the claims being untrue with no evidence to back them up.
“It came to the point that this political bias resulted in an unfair evaluation of my academic performance,” she said.
“Although I could fight such hatred with my own strength, it affected my emotions. All of this because I am a daughter of a former prime minister who some people disliked,” she added.
“It left marks on my young self and I kept asking, what I did wrong? And why did I have to face this?”
Fortunately, she said, she had a loving family who supported her and empowered her to be resilient in the face of the relentless criticism and personal attacks.
A supportive family is the key to imbuing people with strength and resilience but many households in Thailand are divided by a multiplicity of factors including the economic imperative, she noted.
This is why the Pheu Thai Party-led government has been promoting a policy called “One Family, One Soft Power,” Ms Paetongtarn said.
The aim is to enhance people’s technical or vocational skills so they can earn a living while staying with their families instead of being compelled to look for jobs elsewhere.
Ms Paetongtarn also said people need to be aware that hatred begets hatred, its repercussions can boomerang back on them, and freedom of speech requires the application of good conscience.
“People tend to forget that they have to be held accountable for their criticism,” she said. “We cannot control hatred but we can control the way we express things, so as not to hurt others without good reason.
“Do not let their (hateful) words define you.”