Letters from Thailand 2

In my last day in Vietnam, all I wanted was to be alone. I tried to meet no one so that I will be all by myself during the entire day. Except for the evening encounter with S. L. and her baby daughter at the garden of Huong Vuong 2, my plan went successful. I only talked with the bank teller in the bank (for the money transfer), with the real estate agent (for deposit) and the girl at Indian restaurant who took my order for dinner. But in the night, I had trouble in sleeping. My mind was not at ease so I kept rolling in the bed for long time. I don’t remember exactly what time I fell in sleep but I am pretty sure that I fell in sleep and woke up several times till morning. My mind was full of questions which come to haunt me whenever my feet are off the ground. I guess this must be a good time for those unanswerable life-threatening questions to come over me, to pass through me and leaving very little to me to breathe on. I slept, woke up, slept again, woke up again, slept again… Finally found the time 5:30, decided to get up.  

This is why at Bangkok airport, I felt sleepy all the time. When I enter the airplane, I sat on my seat only to realize that the guy across my seat was reading Bangkok Post. It is important for me to confess that B. P. has a special place in my personal history. It is the first English newspaper I started reading regularly and when I lived in Thailand, I kept reading it almost every day in order to get the glimpse of Thai nation and Thai people. It helped me to start writing some stories and also helped me to correct my thoughts about Thai people or Thai traditions. Some of my short stories are actually written after reading the news about ghosts hunting ceremonies in North-East temples or political turmoil in South Thailand. I somehow didn’t see the newspapers at the entrance of the airplane so I had to spend time with my kindle until the guy across from me finished with his paper. Then I asked him to hand me the paper if he has done with it. He gave me the paper and this is how I read Sanitsuda Ekachai’s column on Fethullah Gulen movement.

In the article which has a title of “Islamic Scholar gave Buddhist point to ponder”, she talks about her trip to Turkey. Apparently, along with many other Thai journalists, she has been invited to visit Turkey and many businesses/schools/media organizations belong to FG movement. I can imagine how and why these things are being done. As usual FG movement needs support from all over society and they start this with intellectual layer after covering some part of business and education areas. In Thailand, they have a school older than 10 years and they have a sort of chamber of commerce for Turkish and Thai business people. The next level should be then to win the hearts of Thai journalists, Thai intellectuals, make them admire the work of FG and enjoy presenting articles like Ms Ekachai’s to the opponents of FG movement in Turkey. The idea is to tell them “Look, even a Thai columnist admires our work, our way of re-organizing the entire society.

However, what she doesn’t see is the hidden agenda behind this colorful, modern-looking, post-modernly relativist pictures. She doesn’t know how the middle school students are forced to enroll in military schools so that one day military will obey to FG more than they obey to their generals. She doesn’t know how the students in the movement are guided through judiciary system clandestinely so that one day the judiciary system too will be in their hands.  She doesn’t see the hundreds of students and journalists are imprisoned for the most obtuse reasons… If she doesn’t know this, what kind of journalism is this? Why did she even go to Turkey if she doesn’t want to give voice to those who are suffering in an unnamed war against freedom and justice? She doesn’t know that the ultimate aim is to create a society with Islamic rules where freedom and justice will be in the hand of a few “wise” men. They never say it, never mention it, and never talk about it. However, you don’t need to be genius to see where Turkey is now heading towards if we just look at the political struggles we are having. The loyal disciples of FG movement do not shake hands with women (if they do, they do it with remorse), they are against education with girls and boys sit in the same classroom (if they allow it in their educational institutions now, it is because right time has not come yet), they are 100% against letting youth to choose their own future (they must be guided by their talented elder-brothers), they are against teaching evolution in schools (quite a large amount of FG-based literature is on denying evolution in the name of creationism), they are in favor of putting religion in laboratories so that scientists will never discover things against the religious dogmas (their popular science magazines like “Sizinti” and “The Fountain” are good examples for this.)

I don’t deny their achievements all around the world but this is nothing more than a missionary work and all is done on the shoulders of the young, energetic university students or graduates who are real devotees in this long lasting project of changing Turkey. Surely they don’t teach Islam in their schools but these schools are working for two purposes: Firstly they create a huge amount of advertisement for the movement. One should look at the International Turkish Language Olympics that they hold in Turkey every year. If they have schools all around the world, why don’t they do the organization in different countries every year? Wouldn’t it be better in order to know other cultures? But no! It cannot create the same advertising effect if they do it in Mongolia, Vietnam or Egypt. They do it in Turkey so the bureaucrats, mayors, popular singers/show men can be audiences and praise them on Turkish TVs.

The second purpose of the schools is to initiate the first contact with other countries in terms of business. Many high school graduates who couldn’t pass University Entrance Exam in Turkey are sent to far countries to study the language of that country and study university in that country. These young disciples are now fluent speakers of Thai, Vietnamese, Hindi, Arabic, Lao, Khmer, Tagalog, Korean, Japanese etc. And of course they create a reliable bridge between Turkish business people and the business people of their host country when required. In every country, besides having schools, they also have trade agencies which help business people to have connections with local counterparts. This way, the business people make more money and eventually donate more money to the movement.

More things can be written about the FG movement but I am not writing this blog entry to discuss the real goals of FG disciples. For those who wish to know how I know their real agenda, my answer would be very simple: I was one of them. I spent 10 years of my life with them and I reached to certain levels that very few disciples know that they ever exist. My judgment is personal but my personal history is real, not fake at all.

My advice to Ms Ekachai will be this: Buddhism doesn’t need such a project to be praised as a peaceful religion. Buddha never wanted to build a religion or never asked for his image being spread all around the world. His thoughts are the most-revolutionary among other religious prophets as he only says “Anyone wants to join, s/he is welcome. If not, it is also fine.” No exclusivism in Buddhism and this only is enough to make it a unique path for its followers. What today’s Thai people need is not to spread Buddhism all around but to de-institutionalize the religion so that it will go back to its roots. Society can function in its best performance if people’s minds are free from the intimidation of religious zealots and if a secular moral philosophy is constructed within people’s hearts, with or without the need of a Buddha living there.

With these thoughts, some are angry as my country is straying away from freedom and justice, some are hopeful as I am going back to try to make some changes, if they let me, some are pessimistic as the freedom in Turkey is becoming a privilege a few can enjoy these days, some are scary as many journalists, writers, academics, soldiers are put on trials for some imaginary excuses only to intimidate the secular powers in the country and to show them who is the new owner of the nation, I flied over the clouds and drank my second cup of coffee…

I arrived to Khon Kaen with this chaos of thoughts in my head, not relaxed at all, not at ease. J was waiting for me at the gate so we hugged, put the bags in the car and set on the road once more. After talking to J, I started seeing things around me better, with more light shedding on them. At least that dark pessimism lifted itself from my head and let me enjoy the moment for a while. Maybe this was the optimism of “getting back home” or the funny tickling that only love can handle…She drives the car so I just sat at the front seat and watched the road rolling under my feet. Before heading home, we went to a Tesco Lotus in order to buy things for the party. She told me that there will be a reunion party as I am coming back and we are leaving Thailand for Turkey soon. All uncles and aunts will be at our house. So we bought beer, snacks etc and got back to the road again. The highway from KK to Banh Then (It is funny because a few days ago I was riding my motorbike near Ben Thanh market in HCMC and now I am riding in a car through Banh Then, a district in Chaiyapum province) is large and smooth. J can easily go with 120 km/h but she drives slowly as there are many vehicles on the road, many getting back home from their work in KK. 

We see a car-crash scene but we did not stop as the police was already there. The sun is close to setting in front of us, J is happy that I am back in Thailand, I am happy that things so far went according to plan. Once I look at my watch as if I worry about time and she realizes this. She says “Don’t worry. I will take you home before the sunset.” I look at the speedometer and also at where exactly we are and say “It is ok. Take me home before sunrise, that will be enough!” We both laugh and keep sailing towards sun, towards home.