Publication Code: Y93O
by Amara Pongsapich et al.
In this study of change in Thailand's Central Region several key themes are emphasised. First, that historically the provinces of the Central Region have borne the initial brunt of economic and social transformation emanating from Bangkok. The commercialisation of agriculture towards export-orientated production has been evident from the mid-nineteenth century as Siam was "modernised" from above. Through a new network of canals and a new group of Chinese middlemen and rice-processors, the Central Region provinces became tightly interwoven with the capital. This region focussed on the fertile Chao Phraya River basin became the most productive rice-producing area in the Kingdom.
However the acceleration of changes from the advent of national development planning in the post - World War Two period has wrought the most radical changes, even through the groundwork was laid in the earlier century. We discuss the linkages formed between provincial entrepreneurs and merchants and political power holders in Bangkok during the 1950s and the new, economically-based patron client networks formed between farmers and local/metropolitan merchants. We discuss the fundamental changes in agricultural production and the consequences for farmers in the region as well as other traditional industries, such as fishing. We observe the growing consolidation of provincial Sino-Thai merchant alliances as they adapt their practices to new circumstances.
A key concept is that of "coping strategies". In the context of changing economic forces we can observe groups devising strategies to adjust and cope in different economic and policy settings. These coping strategies vary, depending on the circumstances, skills, cultural, political and economic resources of the groups in question. So the strategies can be seen as pro-active on the one hand, or reactive and defensive on the other, or perhaps a mixture of both. The pro-active strategy can be observed in the ways that Chinese merchants developed holding companies to more effectively mobilise resources in agricultural processing and export. For poor farmers in the upper central sub-region coping strategies have involved turn to upland cropping following the sale of paddy land to service debts. Other groups, in Chonburi for example, adapt by transferring occupations in line with expanding opportunities offered by the tourist economy. In Chao Choeng Sao Province, the development of manufacturing has encouraged a shift among farming households towards factory employment. An attempt is made to understand these changes in the context of changing traditional values, and it is concluded that while some fundamental changes have occurred, older belief systems still persist, sometimes aiding in the adjustment process. More research needs to be done on this aspect however.
The contention of this report is that development planning has entailed the emergence of a new ideology which favours capitalist priorities above all else. This has consequences for traditional Thai values and modes of living of ordinary people. The Chinese middlemen, in line with the merchants of Bangkok have been most adept at adopting and cooperating with this state-supported ideology, in partnership with local and central government officials. The benefits accruing from "development" (which among other things involves a new, more money-orientated attitude towards land) are not spread evenly among the agricultural and other occupational communities of the Central Region. This discussion presents case studies drawn from the sub-regions of the area to illustrate the various conflicts which have emerged in the development process.
November 1992