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MULTIPLE MODERNITIES: GLOBALIZATION IN ASIAN CONTEXT153. How people were informed about andparticipated in the decision-making process ofthe project4. What the project proponents / the concernedcommunity / the NGOs or academics did tosolve or mitigate negative impact from theproject5. The present situationThailandThailand’s First National Economic DevelopmentPlan (1961-1966) began the country’s economicdevelopment in earnest. At the beginning of the 1970s,however, the economic gap between the cities and therural communities became a prominent social issue.Thailand began to move away from importsubstitutingindustrialization towards export-orientedindustrialization. The development of naturalresources, a population policy and poverty reductionwere identified as ways to reduce the domesticeconomic gap. In the mid-1980s industrial exportsovertook agricultural exports. The main agriculturalproduce for export included kenaf pulp, tapioca, sugarcorn, corn and natural rubber. Agri-businesses such asfrozen shrimp and broilers also developed in thisperiod. The market price for agricultural produce fellbut the arrival of more private companies from Japan,Korea and Taiwan helped the Thai GDP to grow. In1997, the Asian Financial Crash halted growth butsince then the Thai economy has gradually recovered.In a speech by the King Bhumibol Adyulyadej after theeconomic crisis, the concept of Seethakit Phoo Phiang(Sufficiency Economy) was elaborated and has sincebecome a pillar of the national development strategy.Songkhram river dam: Project outlineThe Songkhram river is located in northeasternThailand, also known as Isan. It is 420 km long andflows through Nong Khai, Udon Thani, and SakhonNakhon provinces before joining the Mekong river inNakhon Phanom province. The name Songkhrammeans “indigo-blue forest” in the local language. TheSongkhram river dam project was planned as a majorpart of the Kon Chi Mun mega-project. This projectwas started in 1992 and was intended to develop theMekong river, the Mun river, (a tributary of theMekong river), and the Chi river (a tributary of theMun river). It was designed to create electricity,improve irrigation, and help turn the “poor” and “dry”Isan into a green and rich area with agriculturalproduce throughout the year.When communities began to learn about theSongkhram dam project in the early 1990s, itsobjectives were understood to be focused on fisheries,tourism and flood-control. However through the mid-1990s, the Rasi Salai Dam and the Pak Mun Damprojects became widely known and gained notoriety inThai society. The Rasi Salai Dam in Si Sakhetprovince was constructed in 1992 for irrigationpurposes, but caused widespread salt damage inagricultural fields. There was a serious reduction of fishstocks after the construction of the Pak Mun Dam inUbon Ratchathani province in 1994. These twocontroversial dams influenced the communities alongthe Songkhram river to form a strong movement with adesire to save the river as “the last river without damsin Thailand”. Meanwhile, the Thai government hadestablished the Enhancement and Conservation ofNational Environmental Quality Act (NEQA) in1992. Five years later in 1997 the passing of the newConstitution of Thailand guaranteed communities theright to participate in the process of conductingEnvironmental Impact Assessments.As a result of the EIA for the Songkhram dam project,the committee proposed that the project wasinappropriate, citing imbalances betweenenvironmental issues and economic factors, and theimpact on biodiversity. The Thai cabinet approved thecommittee’s proposal and in 2002 the Songkram Damwas canceled.Impacts for the local communitiesThere are 30 communities along the Songkhramriver basin and produce from the river feedsaround 20,000 persons. There is richbiodiversity in the seasonal flooded area calledPhaa Bun Phaa Tam, a flooded forest located onthe river bank and on the lakeshore. Its fertilesoil and diverse eco-system provide thecommunities with wild vegetables, herbs,bamboo shoots, mushrooms, small edibleanimals and insects and rice fields. In the rainyseason, flood waters flow into the lowlands andforests, creating u-shaped lakes, natural pondsand tributaries that are sources of fishing,agriculture, wild harvesting and alsotransportation. Local people feared they wouldlose these rich flooded forests and with it thefertile land for farming and the fishing since thelower dam gate would cut off the seasonalmigration of fish.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows
16 Panel 1Participatory process and informationThough people had heard about the dam project sincethe 1990s the project proponents failed to informcommunities that the dam construction could result inthe submerging of the Phaa Bun Phaa Tam, theirfields, and some homes. They were also unaware of thepotential impacts on fish stocks. “The governmentdidn’t explain about the dam to us. When we noticed,the dam site was already purchased and then thegovernment gave information to the local people,” afisherman in Don San village said. The communitiesreceived genuine and detailed information throughtheir contacts with outside groups, such as TheAssembly of the Poor, a local people’s networkorganization, and TERRA/PER, an environmentalNGO in Bangkok, that were already working closelytogether to solve issues around deforestation of acommunity forest and problems caused by commercialeucalyptus plantations.NGO roleThe flooded forest had already been decreasing sincethe 1980s because of eucalyptus plantations and cattlegrazing.The communities had seen great changes totheir natural environment over many years. There wasintensive deforestation because of farm expansion,charcoal gathering and logging. There was watercontamination as a result of the use of agriculturalchemicals, increasing population and commercialindustries. The capacity of the flooded forest had beenreduced as a result of aquaculture, overfishing,inappropriate fishing gear and changes to naturalstreams due to the construction of irrigation systems.By collaborating with NGOs and academics, localcommunities succeeded in raising awareness of the richbiodiversity of their area and about their opposition tothe dam. NGOs and local community networksresearched the Songkhram river basin’s potential andproduced an alternative community development planin 2001. These activities empowered the communityand raised awareness in wider Thai society.It took intensive work and a lot of collaboration fromTERRA/PER and the Assembly of the Poor to raisethis local issue to the level of a nationwide issue. TheNGOs supported the communities on the dam issueby giving information, organizing a network,conducting campaigns and supporting advocacyactivities to the government.A village leader looked back at that time with deepemotion. He said: “We had two important issues atthat time but couldn’t keep them separate. The biggestfear over the Songkhram Dam was that our villagewould be a second “Rasi Salai” or “Pak Mun”. NGOsbrought us very necessary information, includingabout the legal system and about how to organize amovement”.Reevaluation of local resourcesThe activities in relation to the dam raised awarenesswithin the communities as well. As a result of research,workshops, campaigns and collaborations with othercommunities, academics and NGOs, more peoplerealized the urgent situation that they were facing, andthe close connection between their daily lives and theirlocal natural resources. This change in awarenessgradually raised the level of networking among 30different communities along the river basin.After the dam was canceled, the communities andNGOs conducted a four-year project in all thecommunities along the river basin in order to submit aCommunity Alternative Development Plan to theDepartment of Natural Resource Strategy in 2005.The objective of the project was to make sure the damwould not be continued and to prove that rather thangoing down the road of modernization orindustrialization, the best option would be to usetraditional industries and livelihood methods in analternative form of community development. Thegroups coordinated public fora in Sakhon NakhonRatchapat University and Mahasarakham Universitywhich were supported by the Ministry of NaturalResource Management and other public bodies andwere attended by more than 700 people.In addition, in 2003-2004, the World ConservationUnion (IUCN) and Thai NGOs and people’sorganizations (POs) conducted Thai Baan (Village)Research at four villages along the Songkhram riverbasin as part of the Mekong Wetlands and BiodiversityProject (MWBP), funded by the Mekong RiverCommission (MRC) and the United NationsDevelopment Program (UNDP). The Thai Baanapproach was a participatory model of social andenvironmental research. The communitiesdocumented local resources, knowledge about the useof resources, knowledge of livelihoods based on sixdifferent species of fish, fishing gear, local vegetation,agriculture and gardens, cattle and buffaloes, and localecosystems.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows
Page 2 and 3: CULTURE, POWER AND PRACTICES:THE GL
Page 7 and 8: viABOUT THE BOOKCULTURE, POWER AND
Page 9 and 10: viiiACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe API Coordin
Page 11 and 12: x(co-authored with Gunawan Wiradi,
Page 13 and 14: xiiSri Wahyuni is the director of t
Page 15 and 16: xivThe gap between rich and poor is
Page 17 and 18: xviand development mainly: Economy,
Page 19 and 20: xviiiIn closing, I would like to qu
Page 21 and 22: xxmovements to defend their rights,
Page 23 and 24: xxiicomplex relationships between f
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Page 28 and 29: MULTIPLE MODERNITIES: GLOBALIZATION
Page 58 and 59: POTENTIAL OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND PR
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POTENTIAL OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND PR
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FLUX AND FLOWS OF PEOPLE, POWER AND
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OPENING REMARKS AND OVERVIEWDr. Rat
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247There is also a massive movement
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249need to be looked at, as globali
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251Appendix IWorkshop ScheduleThe T
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25313:00 - 15:00 Concluding PanelCh
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255THAILANDAroon Puritat, Artist an
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257RAPPORTEURSGarry MorrisonMarian
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Communication, Education and Public
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261have used tourism as a mechanism
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263Panel 4: Multiple Modernities vi
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265out how Asian women politicians
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267CONTACT DETAILS (as of March 201
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