Aberrant Modernity: The Construction of Nationhood among Shan Prisoners in Thailand

Abstract

Sociocultural research on prisons often takes the prison as a site of government control of resistance to the power of the state. This paper looks at the prison as a site of construction of the idea of nation. It tells the stories of Shan ethnic nationals from Burma who crossed the border to seek their fortune in Thailand but ended up in Thai prisons for drug-related crimes. The paper links the prison with the notion of displacement, trying to understand how and to what extent Shan prisoners in Thailand engage in the construction of the idea of a “Shan” nation.

Keywords:

• Thailand
• Burma
• Shan
• migration
• nationalism
• cosmopolitanism
• prisons

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Ward Keeler, Craig Reynolds, Philip Taylor, Nicholas Tapp, Lysa Hong, Micah Morton and Frank Smith for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

1. FM 99 MHz is a community radio station, established in 2004 by Dr Uthaiwan Kanchanakamol, the then director of the Institute for Community Development. Between 2004 and 2008, the station's programs included broadcasts in Hmong, Karen, Lahu and Shan. The Shan program ran three times a week from 11-1pm. Since 2008, FM 99 MHz has been supported by the MAP Foundation, an NGO based in Chiang Mai working on migrant-related issues. FM 99 MHz now provides migrant community radio, broadcasting news, information and entertainment programs related to migrants living in Chiang Mai. As 90 per cent of the program content is in Shan language, MAP Radio is considered the only ethnic radio station in Thailand.

2. Normally, for prison visits, inmates are taken to a glass-covered booth. Visiting booths have telephones that visitors and inmates can use to communicate with one another. Visits last for 15 minutes. Visitors are never allowed to visit inmates in their cells or to touch them. I was allowed to interview Shan inmates at the clerical desk near the administration office.

3. Thailand's “War on Drugs” was initiated during the premiership of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (2001–06). A series of policies was introduced to counter a boom in Thailand's illegal drug market. These included changes to the punishment policy for drug addicts, setting provincial arrest and seizure targets, targeting dealers, and “ruthless” implementation. The campaign resulted in some 2,275 extrajudicial killings. The “War on Drugs” was widely criticised by the international community. See Human Rights Watch (2004).