Resistance to the controversial foreign land ownership bill is giving rise to the term khai chat — used to denounce traitors who sell the motherland — being used in political discourse. Whether a person is a government critic or supporter, he or she believes their ancestors fought very hard to protect our land and it should not be given away to foreigners. I do not dismiss their concern for national sovereignty, but their argument should be based on the effects of globalisation. It is a case in point for how some Thais are still captured by national ideas. The popular belief that ancestors sac…