How does politics drive spirituality? What happens when religion is kept out of politics? Is the separation of the church and the state always for the common good?

Thailand’s Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation (SNF) has published a series of books in honour of its former founding president Sulak Sivaraksa. Rediscovering Spiritual Values: Alternative to Consumerism from a Siamese Buddhist Perspective, is the latest volume published in honour of Sulak on the occasion of his 76th birthday this year.

The series include “Socially Engaged Spirituality (2003) and When Loyalty Demands Dissent: Sulak Sivaraksa and the charge of Lese Majeste in Siam (1993).

As revealed by its title Rediscovering Spiritual Values: Alternative to Consumerism from a Siamese Buddhist Perspective, the book deals mostly with Buddhist activism.

The author reflects on Siamese Buddhism, famous Thai personalities and Siamese political institutions, including the dangerous subject of the Thai monarchy.

Rediscovering Spiritual Values belongs to the political genre of the late 20th century. It reflects the revival of religious based political movements which began to pack momentum during the ‘90s.

Former Indonesian president Abdurrachman Wahid observed that “the new millennium saw a surprising trend of religious based political parties defeating secular political parties at the polls all over the world.”

The failure and retreat of secular parties reflects a growing disenchantment with an important foundation of modernity, namely secularism.

Secular governments have failed to deliver substantive economic and social justice to its constituents. The rule of law, resulting from the principle of the separation of church and state which came into vogue after the Middle Ages in Europe, could only deliver formal legalistic justice. Disadvantaged communities who are often victims of systemic violence found the legal justice system, of modern secular governments, unresponsive to their plight.

Under secular liberal democratic polities, capitalism, consumerism and globalisation have been allowed to develop without restraint leading to the dehumanisation of society. The attempt to keep religion out of politics, embodied in the principle of the separation of Church and State has resulted in the spiritual deprivation of modern secular societies.

“In their haste to keep religion out of politics the advocates of secularism have thrown out the baby with the bathwater,” said Abdurrachman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur.

“A global counter movement prescribing religious participation in politics emerged in the post modern period.”

Religious based mass movements targeted authoritarian governments, as well as, democratically elected ones. The Mujaheedin resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979-1989), the electoral victories of Islamist political parties over secular parties throughout most of the Middle East at the beginning of the new millennium, the monks’ revolt in Burma (2007) and the participation of engaged Buddhists in the occupation of the seat of government and Bangkok’s international airport (2008) embody the global trend towards the politicisation of religion.

The spiritual revival movement encompasses a diversity of regions as well as religions. It is a diverse global movement. Its fundamental concepts and practices are rooted in different religious traditions.

Nevertheless, the movement, despite its diversity, tends to share a common opponent, namely secular governments. In mainland Southeast Asia, the movement is inevitably bound up with the dominant religion Buddhism.

Rediscovering Spiritual Values is about the core values, beliefs and practices which inform the spiritual revival movement in Southeast Asia’s Buddhist region. Readers seeking to understand Thailand’s crisis of democracy and recent developments in Burma would gain much from reading the book.

Secular governments often fail to comprehend the spiritual revival movement. Hence, they tend to treat the movement rather dismissively. Such governmental arrogance is a mistake. Often secular governments ignore the spiritual revival movement to their peril as the recent collapse of electoral democracy in Thailand has shown.

Religious based political organisations brandishing the ideology of spiritual revival have become an important countervailing power to secular governments.

The spiritual revival movement’s critique of secular governments, have a lot of merit but it falls short of workable prescriptive policies which could be implemented by governments.

The movement’s dilemma is that it can either, remain on the political sidelines and continue criticising the government or it can try to enter the formal political arena to replace the government. If it stays on the sidelines it remains impotent but it can preserve its credibility. If it crosses the line to replace the government, as in the case of the Peoples’ Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in Thailand, it risks becoming co-opted.

During Thailand’s political crisis the PAD mounted a sustained street campaign against the corruption within the democratically elected government. In order to oust the “corrupt, populist” democratically elected government the PAD had to abandon its professed creed of non-violence and align itself with the military and forces to the right of the Thai political spectrum. The PAD ended up calling for a “New Politics” consisting in the suspension of electoral democracy and the replacement of an elected government with a largely appointed “reconciliation” government.

The PAD’s “New Politics” is a direct contradiction of the Engaged Buddhist Movement’s position on Burma. In the latter case, Engaged Buddhists have consistently supported Aung San Suu Kyi as the embodiment of embattled democratic values following the suspension of electoral democracy in Burma by the military junta.

Meanwhile, the political crisis in Thailand remains unresolved. Public institutions are compromised by double standards. The government has adopted similar “populist” policies as the last elected government, which was decried as “disguised vote buying”.

Widespread corruption among politicians of all parties and state enterprises remain untouched. Mobs donning red shirts, instead of yellow, continue to hold street rallies questioning the political legitimacy of the current government. (By Jeffery Sng in Bangkok/ Asia News Network)