Abstract
There have been no major military operations by the Thai state against the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) since the mid-1980s. The tanks and guns of the Thai military have been replaced in the countryside by military officials talking about the political and economic dimensions of development. More political space existed in the countryside of the late 1980s, and some elements within the military attempted to manipulate groups of peasants in an effort to demonstrate that the military still had a legitimate role to play in politics. Utilizing material from field research conducted during the years 1985–88, I will focus on the changing nature of military initiatives in the countryside of Surat Thani in southern Thailand. I will discuss the question of whether or not military initiatives are designed to develop capitalism, maintain manageable levels of “internal” security, or combine both these rationales. Of equal importance, I will attempt to highlight the varied responses of local people to these military initiatives.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Shane P. Tarr
All of the following have had some input in making this article possible: Te Chou Meng, Apichai Puntasen, Nittaya and Chairat Kan-tawong, C.L. Chiou, Dick Whittington, Christine Harvey, and of course the people of Surat Thani. I would like to thank the anonymous BCAS referees for their helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.
Notes
Unless otherwise indicated, all the data utilized here come from my own fieldwork in Surat Thani from June 1985 until March 1988. I lived in villages for varying lengths of time and interviewed local peasants, civilian and military officials, CPT members, other political activists, business people, and others who had some insights to offer. I selected Surat Thani as my research location because of advice tendered to me by progressive Thais, the fact that it had a diversified economic base, was not located close to Thailand's border with Laos and Kampuchea, and the CPT had been very active here. The data has been more thoroughly analyzed in my Ph.D. dissertation—Shane Tarr, “Military Initiatives in the Countryside of Thailand: A Contribution to the Political Economy of Development” (St. Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland, 1988).
References
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- Skoçpol, Theda , 1982. Bringing the State Back In , Items 36 (1–2) (1982), pp. 1–8, Social Science Research Council;This problem is manifested in the otherwise good study of Thailand's military by David Elliot, Thailand: Origins of Military Rule (London: Zed, 1978).
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- The Fifth National Economic and Social Development Programme. In: Institute of Security and International Studies . Bangkok: Office of the Prime Minister, 1982. pp. 313–316, Three approaches worth considering in the Thai context can be had from the National and Economic Social Development Board;Chavalit Yongchaiyuth, “The Role of the Military and National Security,”;vol. 2, no. 1 (1983), pp. 5-9; and Kusuma Snitwongse, “Thai Government Responses to Armed Communist and Separatist Movements,” in Chandran Jeshurun, Government and Rebellions in Southeast Asia (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1985). A “theoretical” approach to this supposed nexus can be had from Abdul-Monem M. Al-Mashat, National Security in the Third World (Boulder, CO; and London: Westview, 1985).
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- Scott, James , 1985. Weapons of the Weak . New Haven and London: Yale University Press; 1985, It is not meant to imply that all people in Surat Thani have been afforded the luxury of open and organized political activity, and indeed everyday forms of resistance are mostly more important. What is intended here is to highlight political activities that were very much in the public eye during the 1970s and early 1980s. On the necessity of analyzing everyday forms of resistance.
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- Tarr, , Military . pp. 230–233, Flash floods in late 1988 brought thousands of unmilled logs crashing down from barren hillsides in Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat, killing more than 350 people and causing damage in excess of ten million baht. This led to a total ban on the logging of rain forests in Thailand, but the reform-oriented Chavalait Yongchaiyuth was responsible in 1989 for negotiating timber concessions with Myanmar's (Burma's) military regime. Indeed, the Thai military's record on the environment is highly suspect, notwithstanding its Green Isan project in northeastern Thailand.
- National Economic and Social Development Board. In: The Sub-Regional Development Study of the Upper Southern Part of Thailand . Bangkok: Office of the Prime Minister, The economic-development scenario envisaged by the Thai state for Surat Thani is to diversify agriculture by promoting more ecologically balanced and intensive forms of agriculture, particularly the cultivation of rubber, palm oil, tree fruits, and rice. Local industrial development is to be based on agriculture, with some scope for the development of local consumer-oriented industries, and, of course, the promotion of tourism. In the countryside it is envisaged that more attention will be paid to rationalizing land-use practices and institutionalizing access to land;1984); and The Sixth National Economic And Social Development Programme (Bangkok: Office of the Prime Minister, 1987).
- Tarr, , Military . pp. 220–222, These initiatives are explicitly spelled out in the Fifth National Economic and Social Development Programme of 1982. For a fuller description.
- 1986. "Gongthap". In: Poorwahm patnah chaht Thai rup cheewit sotsi . Bangkok: Gongbaychahgahn; 1986, By August 1983 the military had established a program known as Poorwahm Patnah Chaht Thai (Participants in National Development) in northeastern Thailand for former CPT members;the Thai Army;Participants in Thailand's national development receive a fresh life.
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- Kerdpol, Saiyud , 1986. The Struggle for Thailand . Bangkok: S. Research Co. Ltd.; 1986, This program began in 1975. At the village level it involves the village head person, two deputies, and three to five persons overseeing the functioning of subcommittees associated with village development, political administration, defense, health, education, and culture. Between 1975 and 1985 a total of 6,960 villages (20 percent of all Thailand's villages) across the country had been organized along these lines. See the account of this program by its initiator.
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- Baab sumroo-at gor moon kwahm jumpen peen korng krorp kroo-a . pp. 1–3, The models have been prepared in conjunction with the National Economic and Social Development Board. See the NESDB 1987 publication;(The model to quantify the basic needs of the family), no. 5.
- Tarr, , 1987. "Military". In: Tahahn prahm mah wikyothin . Bangkok: Gongbaychahgahn; 1987. pp. 225–227, Chavalit Yongchaiyuth was the architect of these paramilitary units. By 1987 there were approximately 16,000 Rangers, including 4,000 on reserve, hardly a large paramilitary unit for a country of nearly 50 million people. In 1981 Harn disbanded units in Phatthalung and Surat Thani. The Rangers have been the feature of Amnesty International Reports because of their human rights abuses;For official explanations of the Rangers, see Gonthap (the Thai Army);The Rangers come as mighty warriors.
- Hui, Lim Man , and Porpora, Douglas , 1987. The Political Economic Factors of Migration to Bangkok , Journal of Contemporary Asia 17 (1) (1987), pp. 76–89, See the arguments utilized.
- McVey, Ruth , Change . pp. 120–125, For a good account of the problems elsewhere in southern Thailand.
- Agricultural Census for Surat Thani,1978 and 1983 , See the National Statistical Office;(Surat Thani: Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, 1988). Statistical data for 1987 comes from the provincial agricultural office and is yet to be incorporated in official publications.
- Ball, Nicole , 1981. The Military in the Development Process . Claremont, CA: Regina; 1981, For a good review.
- Simbulan, Nymia Pimental , 1987. Low Intensity Conflict: Grassroots War and Counter-Insurgency in the Third World , Diliman Review 35 (1) (1987), pp. 35–40, For an interesting account of possible developments in the Philippines.