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Down but not out
COMMUNITY ACTION: A slum community in a Bangkok suburb is demonstrating how the poor can carve their place in urban development
Vasana Chinvarakorn
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| "We are going to show them that poor people like us can achieve a number of things, and we don't have to wait for the government to help."_ Pictures courtesy of the PHET KHLONG JAN COMMUNITY |
For years, the two-kilometre artery off the Bung Kum Lake in Khlong Jan district has been nothing but a sad eyesore endured by those who live nearby. A stagnant pool steeped in foul, filthy smells, the canal served as both the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and the community's garbage dump.
But over the past year, Mr Somchai and his neighbours have joined hands to turn the tide.
Once a month, residents of the Phet Khlong Jan Community, be they young or old, team up in small cleaning units. Some take charge of picking up the rubbish that has been choking the canal. Others, armed with spades and knives, unearth the hardened mud, and chop up the thick overgrowth of hyacinth that seems to float there forever.
More garbage cans have also sprouted up around the community. Every three days, the residents take turns emptying the bins during the regular rounds of local garbage trucks.
Gradually, the once-notorious stench began to disappear. The water became less murky. And unless there is a heavy rain that stirs up the sludge at the bottom, it's even possible to catch a glimpse of a few schools of fish swimming here and there.
Moreover, the Phet Khlong Jan residents are thinking about planting a little garden of their own. A tiny patch of land on one of the canal's banks has been set aside for the purpose, with a budget to make large purchases of soil to fill up the swampy area.
The wish list of this urban village of 300-plus people does not end there. Their future plans include a new community walkway, a childcare centre, a mobile health unit, and perhaps a cooperative store, to be run by and for members themselves, serving and selling goods at reasonable prices.
To cover these development activities, a community savings account has been opened, with each family chipping in 30 baht a month. A committee has been set up to regulate the flow of the money.
"The Phet Khlong Jan Community is serving as a model of how slum people can help save the environment, to prove that the poor are not the cause of pollution," said Mr Somchai.
"The people here are showing, through real examples, how slum communities can help clean up Bangkok's waterways. Without true participation of residents at the grassroots level, the state's slogan of creating a livable city would end up being just another meaningless cliche."
Considering the fact that virtually none of the Phet Khlong Jan residents own the land they are living on, as it belongs to the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA), the energy and resources poured into these public projects seem a risky bet. What if, after having beautified the area, these slum people were forced to move elsewhere? Aren't they afraid their efforts might be in vain?
Indeed, the lack of security in land ownership, Mr Somchai points out, is one main reason why many slum residents are hesitant to take part in projects to develop their own neighbourhoods.
"Another major cause of the poor conditions in the slum communities is the state agencies themselves. They are not willing to provide us with public utilities, seeing us as illegal squatters. On the other hand, the same state officers would scuttle to please private businesses who want to rent the land and turn it into discotheques or shopping malls. The stark differences in treatment are similar to the caste system," Mr Somchai laments.
For years, the Phet Khlong Jan residents had to make do with no state support. As squatters, the residents were deprived of official documents, and had to endure legal complications when sending their children to school or making contact with state agencies. Lack of public utilities, moreover, compelled them to buy electricity and water at exorbitant prices from private entrepreneurs.
Despite these hardships, the slum people continually refuse the state's proposal to relocate to another site far away from their present location.
Wirat Phosri, a resident at the Khlong Tan community and a member of the national network of slum communities (see sidebar), recalls a bitter experience when she decided to follow the BMA's suggestion and moved across town to the Chalong Krung Community.
"I don't want others to suffer as I did," said Mrs Wirat. "Our old community has been broken up. And we found ourselves living among total strangers.
"Most importantly, there is no work there. As the new place is far from where I work, I ended up paying 30 baht a day just for commuting, and my daily income was a little over a hundred baht. Besides, we still lack public services. I have to buy expensive bottled water to cook rice. One by one, we decided to come back. Nowadays, only children and old people remain there."
As a more tightly knit community, the Phet Khlong Jan residents have managed to withstand the threats of eviction, most severe during the economic boom in the early nineties. Fortunately, the subsequent recession, and a more favourable political climate, enabled these people to eventually win the right to official household certificates.
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"We decided it's better that the services should be pooled, instead of a particular person owning it," explains Mr Somchai. "Separate ownership might induce selfishness. But each household has a meter that indicates how much they have to pay. And if there is any money leftover, we can save it for future repairs."
Mr Somchai's evident pride appears to lie in a small, plain-looking shack that serves as the Phet Khlong Jan Community Centre. Built with the residents' labour and donated materials, the centre reveals the locals' adaptability. Old wooden doors and windows have been turned into walls, adorned with cardboard carrying pictures of past activities, in which brown-faced villagers worked merrily alongside each other.
Mr Somchai is thinking about setting up a small library on the narrow balcony in front of the centre for children in the neighbourhood to come and spend their time usefully.
Contrary to the common perception of slums as rife with vice, the 42-year-old leader argues his community is well-equipped with rules and enforcement to keep temptations at bay.
"During the community's meetings, we have drafted rules that everybody must follow. Any family found engaged in drugs or other crimes will be kicked out immediately. For us, to sell drugs means you are trying to kill the entire community. So far, we have forced two families out for this reason.
"We also ban any house-renting business, as it shows that the person can afford an extra place to stay. Besides, we want to put a limit on the number of houses here, so that the community does not keep on growing endlessly."
In the next few months, the Phet Khlong Jan community will also undergo another physical transformation. According to architectural plans drawn up with assistance from students at the King Mongkut's Institute of Technology, Lat Krabang, all the houses will be renovated into two-storey buildings, with a concrete walkway linking the whole village together.
"Each resident has agreed to donate some space in front of his or her house so that we can have a wider walkway. This will make it easier and safer to deal with fire accidents. In addition, we are going to set up patrol teams to keep an eye on any potential trouble, be it fire, gangsters, or drugs."
To rally for communal sacrifices is definitely far from an easy job. Ironically, the poor slum residents seem to demonstrate a relatively high degree of willingness to give up some of their precious little land, or time off from their hand-to-mouth jobs, to work for free on community projects.
Mr Somchai confided that he has found it odd that a few well-to-do people have shown far less of a "public mind". The Phet Khlong Jan leader said every now and then, residents at the pricey condominiums next to his community throw their garbage down on the roofs of the slum people.
"And when they originally came here to build up the condos, they were complaining about how dirty we were, trying hard to force us out," Mr Somchai said with a wry chuckle.
"Society has been looking down on us as a nuisance, trying to shove us away as if we were dogs. But we are going to show them that poor people like us can achieve a number of things, and we don't have to wait for the government to help. In fact, it's the downtrodden people like us who have been supporting the country all along."
Proving their worth
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| Representatives of slum leaders in front of the Phet Khlong Jan Community Centre. |
At present, there are about 2,000 slum communities, with over 2 million people, supplying cheap labour for the city's economy. Moreover, it is estimated that the collection and sale of discarded materials by slum dwellers in Bangkok has helped reduce the garbage that local authorities must handle each day by a thousand tonnes.
Another survey found the Khlong Pai Singto Community alone supplied cheap food for about 7,500 Bangkok residents.
The government decided to fence in the small community during a World Bank meeting a few years ago, deeming it an eyesore, as it was located opposite a convention venue.
Threats of eviction, often with the use of force, have heightened the slum people's attempts to demand fair treatment. In 1989, a national conference of slum representatives agreed on the need for special legislation to address the issue of land security. Subsequent campaigns led to the emergence of the Network of Slums in the Four Regions. Unfortunately, the draft submitted to the government faced opposition and came to a standstill.
Since the new constitution opened a channel though which the people, with support from at least 50,000 voters, can submit their own drafts of law to Parliament, the national network of slum people has revived the original draft and is in the process of collecting the signatures.
In cooperation with various non-government organisations, the campaigns for the 50,000 signatures are pushing for two parallel laws relating to the poor's affairs.
In addition to the slum act, the other draft addresses the issue of community forestry, proposing mechanisms that would allow the rural poor to live in areas designated as national forests.
Regarding the slum act, the draft puts emphasis on direct participation by slum residents in drawing up plans and strategies to settle legal problems of land ownership and to improve the livelihood of the urban poor.
Contrary to the draft submitted by the state authorities, the slum people's version contains several ground-breaking proposals. It asks for a nation-wide survey of the current state of squatting, with an interim period that would put a halt on all on-going eviction activities. There is also a clause that recommends the state purchase private land and redistribute it for the poor, which could be done by either renting or a lease-to-own system.
In rental situations, a guarantee of at least a 30-year rental period is proposed.
The draft also recommends the establishment of a slum development fund as an independent body to be regulated by the people themselves.
Info for donations:
Name of organisation: The Phet Khlong Jan Community
Contact person: Mr Somchai Meesakorn
Address: 652/35 Moo 1, Seri Thai Road, Khlong Kum Sub-district, Bung Kum District, Bangkok, 10240
Phone: 732-4453
The public can support the Phet Khlong Jan Community by sending books, toys, or other educational materials to the above address, for youth in the area.
The Phet Khlong Jan Community has received legal assistance from the Building Together Association, a non-governmental organisation that provides support to slum communities nationwide to improve their environment, learn about their legal rights, and to achieve land ownership and self-sufficiency.
Name of organisation: The Building Together Association
Address: 1770 Lat Phrao 101, Bung Thong Lang Sub-district, Bang Kapi District, Bangkok, 10240
Telephone: 370-1714
Fax: 370-1831
To inquire about the on-going campaigns for the two drafts of the laws for the poor, contact the Coordinating Centre, Campaign for the Forum of the Poor Laws, the NGO Coordinating Committee for Development, 409 Soi Rohitasuk, Pracharatbamphen Road, Huay Kwang, Bangkok, 10310 telephone/fax 691-1216.
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© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd.
1999
Last Modified: Tue, Jan 4, 2000
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