Many years ago, there was an interesting video circulating online. It showed a man casually attempting to lean against a coconut tree when suddenly the tree collapsed, much to the shock of this poor fellow. Upon closer inspection, the man found that the tree was actually a hollow shell with a rotten inside, and the moment he put pressure on it, the hollow trunk collapsed. The video was quite a spectacle.
We Baha’is often use analogies comparing our faith to a tree with its Holy Branches and Semi-Holy Twigs, etc. I thought the above-mentioned anecdote fits the Baha’is of Thailand perfectly. The administration, with the help of their self-made Guardian and the administrative body, has very well made the tree hollow from the inside. From the outside, or let me say, on paper, it is a large towering tree, albeit with a hollow and rotten core.
The Haifan community in Thailand is an old one, with many a picture of the initial NSA members sitting with Ruhiyyih Khanum in 1964. The World Christian encyclopaedia [WCE] counted about 10,000 Adherents in Thailand in the year 1980 a mere 15 years since the formation of the NSA. That would definitely be a success. And then the WCE Counts about 144,000 Adherents in the Year 2000 showing phenomenal Growth of about 1300% in 2 decades.
But was this growth true, or was it only on paper? The WCE very famously (at least for the Haifans) publishes data that the Administration themselves provide to them. And for the Administration or the UHJ – they never let facts and true figures come in the way of a good growth story!
This Baha’i charade starts collapsing on itself when the numbers don’t begin to tally. With the advancement of communication and other mechanisms for primary verification now available, the Association of Religious Data Archives (ARDA) estimated in the year 2020 that the number of Baha’is in Thailand had halved to about 66,000, which is a massive decline compared to the year 2000.
Exit by Troops? Perhaps! And I’m not at all surprised when the faith has moved farther away from the pristine teachings of Baha’u’llah and the Master.
Most of this data comes from representatives of the UHJ, disguising themselves as non-Baha’is (for example, Mr. Rabbani, a Haifan, providing Baha’i data to the World Christian Encyclopedia), and there will never be any official Baha’i sources for confirming the data, obviously because they know the truth.
In Thailand, however, one can surely consider the testimony of Baha’is of Thailand as the correct figures. There have been recent reports coming from Thailand about the virtually non-existent Haifan Baha’i Community. Discussions between a recently migrated expat and a senior member of the Thai Baha’i community pointed out that there are only about 10 faithful in Bangkok and about 100 faithful in all of Thailand. Consequently, the NDFs are usually a single-digit affair, and the Naw-Ruz and Ridvan celebrations a double-digit one. No, I’m not at all surprised. This has been the case across different regions, and the US is one such example where right after the ascension of the Master, there was a major vacuum of people in the community. Some joined the Free Baha’is along with Lady Ruth White, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, and others. So, this has been the case since Shoghi Effendi has taken over the Faith in his hand through force and the alleged Will of the Master. The wrong will always be wrong, regardless of attempts to prove its truthfulness.
Today, local communities are rife with discussion about this tragic, or rather, expected loss of faithful. It is now commonplace to circulate photos of empty gatherings as a form of a last emotional appeal to the Haifans to show up (if they even exist!). However, more sinister undertones to such discussions cannot be completely discounted.
Tallying the population date in the form of a line chart reveals the following shock –
A Visual representation of the Population Growth of Haifan Baha’is in Thailand
This leaves us with some very important questions in mind:
- Was the data falsified all along from 1980 till date to show inflated figures by the NSA of Thailand for its generally corrupt reasons?
OR
- If the data is accepted at face value, does this show the massive crash and complete and utter annihilation of the faithful of Thailand? If yes – how?
Some Baha’is of Thailand themselves attribute this decline to the spiritually devoid mish-mash Ruhi Curriculum. Some of them blame it on the writing skills of Baha’i report writers trained by the Muhajirs and Arbabs clan. Others blame it on the strategic plans of the members sitting in Haifa to show acceptance of the Baha’i Faith by the masses.
The bottom line is that many are now finally willing to acknowledge that the grand tree of the Haifan sect in Thailand is now hollow and rotten, and it will likely take one push to finally bring it down.
I am sure that in response to this crisis of faith in Thailand, the House of Justice will only issue, as always, lovingly rhetorical words – hence fittingly called the House of Empty Rhetoric, which will only further aid in the decay. Meanwhile, the faithful of Thailand will keep circulating photographs of empty gatherings amongst themselves, wondering what went wrong.
In the end, thoughts and prayers on this tragic loss from the entire Free Baha’is community!
The Free Baha’is of Thailand 