Can #MilkTeaAlliance help Thais change their mind about Myanmar after years of bad blood?

Thailand might share a border and enjoy stable relations with Myanmar despite the current political turmoil there, but in Thai school textbooks the Buddhist-majority neighbour to the west is cast as the birthplace of villains and looters who invaded the ancient Siamese kingdom's capital of Ayutthaya, took away all of its gold and used it to build one of Myanmar's holiest grounds - Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

The sacking of the city in 1767, which included the invaders' burning temples and images of the Buddha - unimaginable and offensive acts to Buddhists - led to the demise of Ayutthaya and resulted in the capital being moved to Bangkok, about 80km to the south.

Although the historical narrative has been taken as an article of faith in Thailand, a video clip posted last week on the Facebook page of a content creation company called Pud Production turned that narrative on its head. The eight-minute-long video counters the claim that it was only Burmese troops that were responsible for the pillaging of Ayutthaya, saying city residents also looted temples and palaces in search of valuables after the city was abandoned.

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Visitors carrying sun umbrellas pose for photos at the 17th-century Wat Chaiwatthanaram temple complex in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya. Photo: AFP alt=Visitors carrying sun umbrellas pose for photos at the 17th-century Wat Chaiwatthanaram temple complex in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya. Photo: AFP

The video also said that the gold taken from Ayutthaya was unlikely to have been brought to Yangon to build the Shwedagon Pagoda since the Burmese capital in those days was Inwa, a city in the Mandalay region, about 600km north of Yangon.

Tens of thousands of users have left comments expressing surprise at the alternative account.

"I remember growing up hating the Burmese [after] being taught these stories in school," said one user, commenting on the nationalistic tenor of some textbooks. "When I got older I realised education taught us a certain way."

Another comment read: "The Shwedagon Pagoda was built before Ayutthaya fell, and it was built by the Mon people, not the Burmese."

The 26-year-old producer of the video, Chatchai Pumpuang, said he had made the video because he felt it was "time for us to no longer hate our neighbours" and because he wanted to encourage young Thais to support their counterparts in Myanmar as part of the cross-border #MilkTeaAlliance against authoritarian governments.

"I want to help create a new understanding among Thailand's younger generation," he said. "If this thinking is changed, it can lead to social or political change."

Indeed, young people across Asia have rallied online to support the Myanmar protests amid an increasingly brutal crackdown by the military that has left more than 50 people dead - some shot directly in the head by security forces.

The hashtag #MilkTeaAlliance, which originated as an online protest movement against nationalistic internet users defending Beijing's "One China" policy amid the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and Taiwan's independence drive, is a reference to the shared enjoyment of the sweet, milky drink popular in Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Thai youth have since last year rallied for political reform and an overhaul of the monarchy, holding up the three-fingered salute from The Hunger Games during their marches as a symbol of resistance. Myanmar's pro-democracy supporters have adopted the same tactic.

Today, Ayutthaya, a small and sleepy province about an hour's drive north of Bangkok, is filled with the ruins of centuries-old palaces and temples - a reminder of both its past glory and definitive end.

Several years ago, Reuters reported that the most expensive Thai movie ever made was King Naresuan, a swashbuckling 2007 epic about the 16th-century Siamese monarch who liberated Ayutthaya from the evil clutches of the Burmese, single-handedly killing his opposite number in a duel aboard elephants.

But Pipad Krajaejun, a lecturer in history at Thammasat University in Bangkok, said the movie, like many accounts of Ayutthaya's history, needed to be re-examined.

He said one of the most widely accepted written accounts of the fall of Ayutthaya came from the 20th-century Royal Ayutthaya Chronicle, a purported eyewitness account of the city being burned to the ground. Pipad said recent archaeological excavations, though, had found no traces of ash, meaning there was no evidence of a great fire. In addition, he said, the story of the gold at the Shwedagon Pagoda coming from Ayutthaya has been disputed by academics for years.

Pipad said that the traditional narrative painting Burmese troops in a negative light was wrought of Thailand's nationalist agenda dating back to the early 20th century, which has periodically risen anew.

"The narrative was revived after the 1997 Asian financial crisis when Thailand needed to promote national unity," Pipad said. "Creating a shared and imagined enemy, in this case, the Burmese, was deployed as a tool to achieve that unity."

REWRITING HISTORY

Anti-coup protesters flash the three-fingered sign of resistance during a demonstration in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on Monday. Photo: AP alt=Anti-coup protesters flash the three-fingered sign of resistance during a demonstration in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on Monday. Photo: AP

Pipad said a new wave of Southeast Asian academics were seeking, through their work, to highlight the dynamics between nations rather than relying on "Cold War-era narratives that have often pitted nations against one another" - as exemplified by the misunderstood history of Ayutthaya.

Lalita Hanwong, a lecturer and researcher in history at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, said Thai youth were also delving into the past to understand their role in the present.

The Free Youth group that has led the Thai protests, for example, also calls itself "the Khana Ratsadon 2020" - linking its ideology to that of the Khana Ratsadon, or "People's Party", of 1932, which staged the bloodless revolution that ended absolute monarchy.

"Young Thai activists aim to reform much of the Thai way of thinking," Lalita said. "They want Thais to open up, and they see history as an important part of understanding current politics."

Part of that process, she said, was getting people to understand the one-sided nature of scholarly texts on the Ayutthaya period.

"While many young activists support the democratic process in Myanmar, many Thais still think [such support is wrong] because the Burmese are considered enemies", with the army and nationalists benefiting from this type of mindset.

She said that young Thais who had grown up exposed to pop culture and discussions on the internet were "not as bound to this idea of nationhood" and had "expressed more tolerance of people" - including the Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand who others in society blamed for causing an outbreak of the coronavirus in the country in December.

But changing the overall mindset of Thais on the issue was dependent on updating textbooks that had handed down the history of Ayutthaya to successive generations through the decades, Pipad said.

"It would take a complete overhaul of content, which means a working committee must comprise those who are really open-minded," he said. "I don't see this happening anytime soon."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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