7 - Ethnicity and the Politics of Location in Thailand

Summary

The thesis that I will propose is a simple one. I will argue you that you cannot understand or explain development in Thailand by simply looking at economic indicators and political activity but, rather, we need to look deeper into the changing nature of Thai society and how cultural politics are situationally constructed through the process of globalization and localization. I will illustrate my case by discussing the issue of ethnicity and how ethnicity has transformed the nature of conflict and struggle in Thai society.

Let me begin with events that took place on the afternoon of 10 January 1999 when a family of Lua (a small highlander group in northern Thailand) were confronted by local Forestry Department officials. Two men were picked up and taken to a nearby police station. They were subsequently charged with trespassing, occupying and illegally practising agricultural cultivation within a national park. They were detained at the police station for eight days and were then released on bail after a large group of Lua threatened to stage a massive rally in front of the district office. This incident is by no means isolated, as powerful demands for resources, lands and mobility control have guided state expansion to the furthest corners of the land. The autonomy and mobility of marginal cultural groups from once inaccessible places in tropical forests and rugged mountains have increasingly been threatened. During the past decade, many ethnic minority groups in northern Thailand have been victimized by a militant conservation policy to protect forests. In August 1999, twenty Karens from two villages in Koh Sute National Park were arrested for practising agriculture in an area where they had lived for centuries. In 1991 the Hmong of Hun Tang village in Doi Inthanon National Park were forced to abandon their agricultural practices and were threatened with relocation.