On civil society

Civil Society and Democratization: Social Movements in Northeast Thailand.

By Somchai Phatharathananunth,

Published by Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (reprinted 2007)

Distributed by Silkworm Books

Available at leading bookshops, Bt695

Reviewed by Michael Smithies

Special to The Nation

The editing has been slight and throughout we are told what each chapter will contain, and even each section.

The first chapter is largely a theoretical survey of the relevant literature and provides a brief overview of Thai politics, "the domination of money politics" and "the exclusionary nature of Thai democracy".

Chapter 2 is much better, dealing with the historical background of Isan, its people being mostly ethnically Lao, the millenarian revolts caused by the increased incorporation of the region into the absolutist state, and greatly increased taxation accompanying this, with the transfer of wealth  "from the peripheries the capital, which caused considerable pressure in the countryside", especially on its poorest part. By 1899 palm-leaf manuscripts were circulating promising catastrophe and emancipation, turning into a "Holy Men's revolt". Somchai claims that the centralization of the state ran up against "the conception of nationhood [which was] alien to the Lao state because the Lao nation never achieved unity", a debatable proposition.

King Vajiravudh stressed the concept of the unity of  the Thai nation, and this was emphasized further in the post-1932 parliamentary period under Phibul. The Isan MPs attacked the large military budgets and demanded rural development. Isan developed a "split identity" and "while trying to establish a dominant ideology in Isan, Bangkok still discriminated against the region and, more importantly, suppressed those movements that voiced regional interests." Then came the armed struggle of Communist Party of Thailand, ending only in the early 1980s. Its defeat "only led to a new chapter of the struggle of Isan farmers."

The expansion of the NGOs is covered in chapter 3 and their heyday in  the period 1973-6. The emergence of  environmental concerns and the radicalization of the NGOs is described, and the hated Kho Jo Ko programme, seen as "a bid by the Thai state to evict farmers" from their lands in the so-called "degraded forest reserves" for commercial reforestation.

Then comes resistance. Chapter 4 covers the Small Scale Farmers in the radical period (1993-5), and deals with the increasing commercialisation of agriculture, and its demands. A new farmers' movement emerged, concerned not only with land rights, but also forestry conflicts, low agricultural prices, and rural debt. Various schemes dreamed up by bureaucrats (cashew nut growing, silkworm breeding, Brahman cow raising, etc) turned out to be disasters and simply left farmers with increased debts.

Chapter 5 covers the internal conflicts in the SSFAI, the founding of the Assembly of the Poor (AOP) in December 1995, and its strategies of broad-based alliances, public support, the use of the media. It gained recognition from the government - but changes of prime ministers meant promises extracted came to naught. The next chapter illustrates the decline of the SSFAI and its search for new strategies, and chapter 7 considers the attempt to transform the movement into a national organization.

The conclusion summarizes the different strategies but proposes no new ventures, and is followed by an epilogue bringing the tale into the Thaksin area, but showing the treatment was no different: politicians, now largely urban-oriented or only interested commercialization of agriculture, appeared to listen, promised decisions, and did not deliver.

In the CEO state, the right to rights was ignored, protesters were considered to be "anarchists".

The alphabet soup of acronyms needs to be consulted a great deal; it is a pity the Thai equivalents are not given. Closer editorial attention might have helped the readability of the book, as would the addition of a chronology of events; one gets lost with the various marches on Bangkok and the different confrontations with differing governments.

But what does not change very much is the position of the Isan farmers, as Thai Rath, in an editorial of 29 April 2008, noted: "Poor north-eastern farmers have received empty promises from politicians for a long time. Many grand schemes have been touted by politicians to gain votes, but nothing has come to fruition."

Farming may not be the prime source of income to the state now, but it still counts, as the recent international rice crisis shows, and it continues to provide a living of kinds for around half the population. The problems caused by past neglect and increasing urbanization remain with us, and look like doing so for a long time. Somchai's book helps put these matters into perspective, and for that we should be grateful.