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of members of the communist party of Southern Thailand. The golden line referred to was “to be
loved by a senior government official (master) is like being embraced by a tiger, and to escape from a
master is like being pursued by a tiger” in the early days, and subsequently it was “not warring against
a master would never get rid of poverty”. This led to the kind of suppression in the way of “bandits
against bandits”, “kicking (an enemy) down a cliff, burning (someone) alive in a red barrel”, and
“a tour of hell” during the period of “peaceful South”, before events developed into the age of political
reform after the incident of “Atrocious May” of May 1992 and the drafting of the Constitution of the
Kingdom of Thailand of B.E. 2540 (1997 A.D.) through the process of public participation for the first
time. When promulgated, this Constitution went by the name of “the Constitution of Public Version”.
The political orientation of the inhabitants of the Songkhla Lagoon basin in terms of political
perception, belief, and value stemmed from the political socialization process or the socialization
process by the above social institutions to form the personality and character of the said inhabitants
as seen in the social phenomena visible in the culture of bandits or the culture of “big fellows”. The
comic characters of shadow play, such as Teng, Nunui, Sikaew, Yodtong, and Samaw, are believed
to have caricatured some real persons of the Songkhla Lagoon basin. Besides, there are instances of
conventions that appeared in the “words of the people of old” or in the past about “naughty Pattalung,
Songkhla joining in, Trang playing up discords, Nakhorn ganging up”, or historical evidence about the
towns of the Songkhla Lagoon basin being “hard to control”. The latter days may be seen from the
political fight in the name of the communist party of Thailand and from the modern period of politics
in the age of political reform until the inception of localism politics when Mr. Chuan Leekpai held the
position of head of the Democrat Party after B.E. 2531 (1988 A.D.) and advocated this voting campaign
policy in the South and the Songkhla Lagoon basin: “Vote for the whole team of Democrats for the
entire region; support Chuan Leekpai, a southerner, for the Prime Ministership,” which met with success
beyond expectation, so much so that the political party became the one and only for southerners
and the inhabitants of the Songkhla Lagoon basin that has monopolized every election until today.
The political culture of the inhabitants of the Songkhla Lagoon basin is a combination of a political
cultureof commoners andapolitical cultureof participation. That is to say, there two types of the inhabitants
of theSongkhlaLagoonbasin. One type ismadeupof thosewithknowledge andunderstandingof the roleof
politics in relation to oneself and of one’s own role in thewhole systemof politics, andwith eagerness to take
part inpolitics. Theother type still accepts thepower of political eliteand is characterizedbypolitical inertia.
Key Words :
Political culture ;Political orientation ;Process of political socialization
