Foreign media examines Culture Ministry

It's refreshing to see the foreign media examine the situation with Thailand's zealous Culture Ministry. And all it takes is a look from Singapore's Straits Times to put things in perspective.

Singer Tata Young's sexy pop songs could be slapped with ratings that would restrict who hears them in future.

Fashion shows, other forms of entertainment, even mobile phone messages may also find themselves rated by Thailand's controversial Ministry of Culture.

"If we want to live peacefully in society, a ratings system should be introduced to cover all kinds of media," Vice-Minister for Culture Weerasak Kowsurat, 39, said in an interview with The Straits Times.

He said the ministry was studying ratings systems around the world.

"In some other countries, you can opt for a particular rating. It would be like a restaurant menu which rates dishes for spiciness," he said.

The ministry was particularly concerned about media that promoted violence, such as pornography depicting children, incest and rape.

While Thailand had a liberal culture, violence in the south was "the first volcano" that showed that not everything was acceptable to all Thais, he said.

Earlier this year, the ministry sparked controversy when it objected to lyrics in a song by pop singer Tata Young and said fashion models should not bare too much skin and girls should not wear spaghetti-strap tops during the Songkran water festival.

But one move which few objected to was when it complained about mobile phone service providers which allowed users to send pornographic graphics through SMS, and it managed to get companies to bar the practice.

But its other moves - like disapproving remarks about homosexuals shown on television - have drawn fire.

Columnist Paisarn Likhitpreechakul wrote in The Nation "the ministry is showing multiple levels of ignorance about homosexuality".

Model Methinee Kingpayome said she was "confused and tired of the Culture Ministry". She said Thailand could not hope to become an international fashion hub with a prudish Ministry of Culture peering over the shoulders of catwalk models.

And Ms Young said she did not care what the ministry thought about the lyrics of her hit song "Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy".

The ministry insists it is not a cultural policeman, but just wants to mirror society by promoting self-awareness.

Mr Weerasak, a Harvard Law School graduate, takes pains to paint the issue in Thailand's historical context.

The ministry was scrapped after infamously suppressing Thai culture in favour of Western ways during Japan's occupation of Thailand.

That period was depicted in the recent hit film The Overture, which focused on how Thai classical musicians were pressured into virtually going underground.

'It was first born 60 years ago when the Japanese were controlling the region. The ministry forced people to wear hats and shoes, forced males to kiss goodbye to their wives before they left their houses in the morning; they said you shouldn't sit on the floor or eat with your fingers.

'It was an attempt to show the West we had been modernised,' Mr Weerasak told The Straits Times.

'It was awfully wrong. It lasted only five or six years and was then abandoned, and nobody wanted to start it up again.'

But two years ago, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reconstituted the ministry, with the 'mission to make sure we communicate with our public loudly and clearly that culture belongs to people, not organisations'.

Mr Weerasak said: 'Yes, we want to be a watchdog. The ministry of culture does not feel uncomfortable when we see people not wearing clothes, but we are concerned that it is done artistically, properly, timely, and in the right place.'