SOCIETY

Surviving and learning

Outlook Writers

When the economic bubble burst in 1997, the psyche of the Thai people was shocked to such an extent that, five years on, they have yet to fully recover.

Never before had Thais experienced such wealth being showered upon them as they did during the early 1990s. On the stock market, the stock price index repeatedly shot up to record highs. In farm lands around urban areas and even in remote and arid areas, poor farmers earned more money than they could have made in a lifetime of farming by selling their otherwise almost valueless land to property investors, who transformed these lands into housing estates, factories and golf courses.

Never before had employees been assured of high salaries and job security _ vacancies were many times higher than the number of qualified applicants.

Together with their new-found wealth, many Thais quickly shifted from their rustic, culturally-knitted lifestyle to pursue materialism and the worship of money. Wealth became valued more than virtue.

Like a gold rush, folks rushed to jump on the middle-class bandwagon, afraid of being left behind with nothing. As the standard of living on the fast track to affluence tremendously improved, Thai society was ripped apart by the power of money as never before.

Exploitation of natural resources in the name of national economic development extensively damaged the environment and ruined the traditional livelihood of many of the rural poor across the country.

The spell of capitalism accelerated urban migration by leaps and bounds. Workers deserted their villages for jobs in the industrial sector, leaving behind the elderly to raise the young at home. Broken families and weakened social ties in rural areas brought about social problems that are now showing themselves in today's society.

On the urban scene, violent crime triggered from conflicts of interest within families, friends and foes made frequent newspaper headlines _ right along with phenomenal growth in the GDP.

On the social side, the competitive, money-driven middle-class lifestyle pushed old values to the margins. Culture was seen as something for rural folks or as part of the past, and religion was seen as suitable for the elderly or the discontented.

At the same time, a person's value was determined by such things as the size of his house, the frequency of his trips abroad to foreign countries, the prestige of his car. Even ludicrously expensive foreign souvenirs and accessories became status symbols among school children and university students _ Thai society became infected with capitalistic social ills as it rushed headlong into economic success.

Was the devastating crisis of 1997, which put the brakes on this headlong rush, a blessing in disguise?

SPIRITUAL RESTORATION

Without doubt, the harsh blow of the economic crash had great impact on Thai society in all respects, financially, spiritually and psychologically. Devastated, some took their own lives rather than face their unfulfilled ambitions. Those who chose to live struggled to survive.

Patriotism came back in fashion as campaigns were launched to change public behaviour to favour sustainable development. Modest living and self-reliance became buzzwords during the post-economic crisis.

The ordinary citizens fell back on culture and faith, which acted as cushions in a time of crisis.

Meditation retreats became popular among the middle class, and books on meditation flew off the shelves in large numbers. That trend is still strong. On the surface, this retreat into meditation should be healthy, helping to alleviate social ills as greed is suppressed and suffering subsides. But in practice, meditation among the middle class concentrates mainly on alleviating individual suffering, and some Buddhist monks have criticised it as a personal escapism that does not address the root problem.

Instead of using it as an opportunity to contemplate the flaws of a capitalistic society that, in effect, has caused suffering for all of society, meditation has become a personal stress management skill or a way to sharpen business acumen.

Such monks point out that the essence of Buddhist teaching emphasises the interconnectedness of suffering _ that to alleviate one's own suffering, one has to help alleviate the suffering of others in the same society.

The benefit of meditation is unfortunately achieved only at a personal level. Without compassion, the middle class does not fulfil its spiritual mission to alleviate sufferings brought about by society's inequality and injustice. The failure to help cure the suffering of society as a whole deprives the middle class of the chance to step in and prevent the rising social unrest in the face of aggravated conflicts over scarce resources.

RISE OF CIVIL SOCIETY

Long before the economic boom, the poor realised how unfairly they were being treated in a capitalistic system infested with corruption and exploitation. As the powerless in society, the rural poor _ the majority of the Thai population _ looked on helplessly as the tide of economic success swept in, taking away from them land rights, natural resource accessibility and unspoiled environments to live in.

Disillusionment with their political representatives' poor performance in Parliament to protect their interests convinced villagers to take matters into their own hands.

The effort at self-empowerment gained momentum when non-government organisations offered support. But it wasn't until the 1997 People's Constitution, which endorsed public participation in government policy, that the civil society movement was consolidated.

That empowerment became even stronger after the impact of the economic crisis, when the poor began to realise that failure to protect their natural resources would lead to such resources being forever lost.

When the poor stood up to claim their rights as guaranteed by the constitution, the government authorities were caught off-guard. Never before had they yielded to public demands for transparency and disclosure of information on mega-projects such as dams and electricity plants that would effect the livelihood of villagers living in the areas where they were to be constructed.

The Assembly of the Poor demonstrated their determination to exercise their constitutional rights by participating in the writing of some passages of the Community Forest Bill, now in Parliament.

The civil society movement that challenged the power of government authorities over controversial projects like the Pak Moon Dam, the Hin Krut and Bor Nok power plant projects and the Yadana gas pipeline project, has undoubtedly created a new front on the government checks and balances scene.
Equipped with facts and figures, rural participants have, in many cases, outdone state authorities in providing a rationale as to why they oppose the government's decisions.

Unfortunately, their movement seems to have received little sympathy _ more like downright apathy _ from the urban middle class.

Demonstrations at Pak Moon Dam in Ubol Ratchathani Province last year were criticised as a public disturbance by that province's urbanites.
Successive protests in front of Government House were jeered by Bangkokians, who blamed the rural demonstrators for traffic congestion and creating public annoyances.

When the government gave in to pressure and decided to postpone some of these projects, such as the Hin Krut Power Plant, some urbanites reacted with rage, blaming rural citizens for slowing down the country's economic recovery.

Inevitably, the resentment between the urban middle class and the rural poor will escalate into a confrontation in the absence of any dialogue to foster understanding.

Neither economic recovery nor political influence will restore peace and happiness in a country torn apart by conflicts of interest. Political commentators say that only people-to-people dialogue will narrow the social gap and lessen the pain we all share.

While the crisis of 1997 was devastating, there were some benefits. The middle class took a step back while the rural poor took a step forward, and there has been questions raised on how best to fairly distribute the country's natural resources on which all Thais depend.