Snubbed: Paisan Suwannawong of the Thai Treatment Action Group. Photo: Paul Kidd.

Ten years after the adoption of the GIPA (Greater Involvement of People With AIDS) principles at the Paris AIDS Summit, HIV-positive people are still struggling to be heard. NAPWA President GABE McCARTHY reports from Bangkok.

“Governments and corporations hate activists because we know what they are up to and we are pulling the masks of fake concern from their faces to reveal their true nature. But to me activists are to be honoured. Activists are my true friends. They stand by my side when I face discrimination and injustice. They have the courage to stand up to those in power who use their positions for their own benefit. They are the ones who can help provide a way forward to fight AIDS and injustice in this world.”

These words — from Thai treatment activist Paisan Suwannawong — were without doubt the most powerful words I heard across the eight days of the International AIDS Conference 2004. The most important outcome of attending the conference for me has been a renewed zeal to continue to engage with governments and communities as a positive activist.

The quotation above came at the end of Paisan’s speech in the opening ceremony of Bangkok. This ceremony dramatically highlighted the continuing tokenism of people living with HIV in the formal response to the epidemic. I was fortunate to have heard Paisan speak previously, so I knew that he would be worth listening to. However the opening ceremony program was restructured at the last minute so that Paisan, the only HIV-positive person to speak, was scheduled to speak last and after some ceremonial elements. The official party left during these ceremonial bits and many in the audience took this to be their cue as well.

In the space of about 20 minutes, the crowd of more than 5000 thinned out until there were only about 500 who of us (it was particularly interesting for me to note that many of the groups who attempted to disrupt Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s speech didn’t bother to stay either).

I was absolutely devastated for Paisan. I couldn’t imagine how he must have felt. Clearly most of us remaining in the audience felt the same way, as for such a small number scattered through a large stadium we made a lot of noise in support of Paisan.

I walked out of the opening feeling pretty angry but also proud that I had bothered to stay. Others who had also stayed on felt the same way, and suspected that the ceremony had deliberately been constructed to give the impression that it was over in order that Paisan, a drug user and HIV activist, not be heard by many people.

This experience gave me a very fine eye for spotting tokenism of positive involvement throughout the rest of the conference. And there were plenty of examples for me to notice. I could have come away from the conference quite disillusioned, but Paisan’s final comments struck a chord for me and balanced the conference experience.

There may yet be a great deal of change needed to improve the lives of positive people in Australia and internationally, but we can never really rely on governments to fully implement these changes. They will always fall in to the trap of believing their own propaganda and we will always be needed to point out where they need to improve.