The Down-trodden Rural Poor Of Thailand

[saraburioz]

The Down-Trodden Rural Poor of Thailand

It's not quite what you think

Here's what you need to know about the rural have-nots of Thailand.

They are the richest poor people in the Third World. And they owe none

of their affluence to Thaksin Shinawatra.

Fugitive former Prime Minster Thaksin, a billionaire wanted in

connection with corruption and tax-evasion on a staggeringly egregious

scale, has done a remarkable job of convincing the world that he is

the champion of the rural poor in Thailand, and that such prosperity

as the farmer enjoys is in some way due to him. Yet all of "his"

programs have been in place for decades. His well-financed

public-relations machine merely invented catchy new terms for them.

In Europe and North America, farmers tend to be affluent. A comparison

is therefore not at all meaningful. But take a village carpenter in

Thailand's northeast and compare him with a wood-worker in a small

town in Iowa. To the American, the Thai seems impoverished, his house

appalling basic, his expectations in life distressingly limited. But

the Thai carpenter probably lives on family land rent-free, pays

nothing to moderate the climate, produces his own vegetables,

chickens, eggs and pork, and rides his own motor-cycle to his jobs.

He's seen the American lifestyle on TV, and it's so far beyond the

range of his experience, he doesn't feel deprived or envious.

Every village in Thailand was on the electricity grid long before

Thaksin came on the scene, and virtually every village family has a

refrigerator, electric rice-cooker, TV, radio and a couple of

oscillating fans. Almost all rural households have a motorcycle,

though it may be old and battered. In every village several families

own pickup trucks. Animals are no longer used for farm work except in

extremely remote corners of the kingdom. If farmers don't have a

mini-tractor of their own, they rent or borrow one from a neighbor.

The "landless peasant" class exists, but is very small when compared

with the Philippines, India and much of South America. The rich

absentee farm landlord is almost unknown. Most farming families tend a

small plot of land they own outright, mortgage-free (due to

unscrupulous practices in the past, an outdated, paternalistic law

prevents them putting up land as security with money-lenders, though

they may borrow on anticipated harvests.) They sell a small cash crop

through a co-operative. Their grown-up or adolescent children

supplement the family income from jobs they hold in the cities.

Thailand, like the U.S., has a fallen-through-the-cracks underclass.

While statistics*, as everywhere, have to be taken with a large

measure of skepticism, officially 10% of the population is below the

poverty line (12% in the U.S., 14% in Britain, 36% in Bangladesh). Of

course, that means the poverty line for Thailand and no international

comparisons are invoked. Poverty doesn't necessarily mean doing

without TV or not being able to lean a beat-up old 100 c.c. Honda

Dream by the door.

Unemployment in Thailand is 1.4% -- among the lowest in the world.

Here it has to be cautioned that employment statistics are notoriously

unreliable. Even in advanced countries, economists cannot agree

whether to include the under-employed and those not actively seeking

work. But unskilled work, if not well-paid, is not hard to find. My

Bangkok apartment building has had a "security guard wanted" sign out

for weeks.

During the dry season, many farmers supplement their income with

construction work in the cities. But some prefer to do without extra

luxuries and live the slow-paced, well-fed rural life. Two or three

years ago, I found it impossible for several weeks to find a plumber

to put in a new bathroom. Many "peasants" have become self-employed

entrepreneurs and done well for themselves. Thaksin's policies had no

discernible impact on the labor force.

There is no population pressure in Thailand, since each female, on

average, gives birth to 1.6 children in her lifetime. That is well

below replacement level, so the population will in time shrink unless

immigration is vigorously promoted. Reduction in family size was

achieved through education and the perceived economic benefits of

smaller families, the same way it was reduced in Europe and Japan.

This got started in the 1960s.

Wealth distribution in Thailand is no more extreme than in most

industrialised countries. The poorest 10% of the people of Thailand

own 2.6% of the nation's wealth. The richest 10% own 33.7%. In the

U.S., the comparable figures are 2% and 30%, in the U.K. 2.1% and

28.5%. These statistics may not be wholly reliable, but distribution

of wealth is unquestionably much more equitable than in China, India,

Brazil or South Africa. Even isolated Thai villages, especially in the

central plains, would seem very prosperous to rural Pakistanis and

positively utopian to most Nigerians. Thaksin's much-vaunted "village

revolving development funds" financing local enterprise had their

antecedents in the 1970s.

All main roads in Thailand are paved (close to First-World standards),

and most secondary roads are surfaced, as are a good many of the

tracks that lead into remote villages, even in the poorer north and

northeast parts of the country. It was like this when Thaksin was

still a bankrupt ex-cop.

There are slums in Bangkok, but you have to go out of your way to find

them. Since almost everyone is employed, squatters on state land in

the cities often live there by choice because it is rent-free. You

certainly do not have to go out of your way to see red-light

districts. Incomes from the sex industry (obviously denied to those

lacking looks and personally) exceed factory wages fivefold or more.

The blind and maimed can apply for state aid, but street begging is

often more lucrative. One sets one's own moral priorities.

There was care at government hospitals and health clinics long before

Thaksin came along with his fancy $1 scheme. Treatment is not

world-class but it is medical care nonetheless. People in need of

operations get them for small fees, and if they have no money the

charge is written off. No one is turned away from emergency rooms at

government hospitals. Doctors who went through medical school on state

scholarships owe as many years of modestly paid service in rural

hospitals as they had in tuition.

Almost no Thais are unable read & write. Girls on average get 14 years

of schooling and boys 13 years (note that girls are ahead). About 1.75

million post-secondary students (over 20% of their age group) are

enrolled in universities (ranging from world-class to barely

respectable), two-year colleges or vocational schools. Bright kids

from poor families get government scholarships, so

up-by-the-bootstraps success stories are so common as to be

unremarkable. This high rate of upward social mobility goes back at

least half a century.

Infant deaths per 1,000 live births in Thailand tallies 17, compared

with 180 in Angola, 153 in Afghanistan and 6 in the U.S.

Life-expectancy at birth is 73.1 years (78.1 in the U.S., 66.1 in

Russia). HIV-positive people make up 1.4% of Thailand's population

(0.6% in the U.S.)

With a population of 66 million, Thailand has 62 million registered

cellphones and 7 million landlines. Service is as reliable as it is in

Europe. One-fourth of the people regularly use the Internet. Thaksin's

own company, which prospered prodigiously while he was prime minister,

had one-third of the nation's mobile-phone customers. He sold the firm

to an investment arm of the Singapore government (and paid no income

tax).

Thailand routinely exports more than it imports. It is attractive for

foreign direct investment. It therefore has enormous foreign reserves,

and even though the country has few natural resources to sell abroad,

its reserves, at $138 billion, are the 10th highest in the world.

(Britain has $56 billion, Australia $45 billion). This means plenty of

capital for employment-creating new manufacturing jobs, which entice

rural folk seeking work in cities. The Thai currency is so strong that

even recent political troubles have not budged it.

Contrary to a widespread perception, the country's main exports are

not agricultural products, but cars & trucks, motorcycles & vehicle

parts (made by foreign-owned subsidiary companies). Exported pick-up

trucks, the biggest single-selling item, contain negligible imported

parts. One Japanese manufacturer sources its world-wide production of

one-ton pickups, including those sold in Japan, from its Thai

factories. Machinery is another big export, as are components for

computers and other electronic goods, textiles, garments & footwear,

processed food and animal fodder. Way down the list of

foreign-currency earners are rice, sugar and tourism.

Over the years the Thai government has routinely produced a trade

surplus, a current-account surplus and (though not this year) a budget

surplus.

Since 1960 (when Thaksin was 11) no "developing" country has exceeded

Thailand in average annual per-capita GDP growth. The farmers are

still poor by western standards, but they've had their share of this

rising affluence, and they are better off than rural folk in any other

nation on earth for which we reserve the term Third World. ✹

* All statistics quoted in this article were independently

cross-referenced from at least three of these sources: UNICEF, UNDP,

World Bank, Asian Devt. Bank, IMF, CIA, WHO, Bank of Thailand, Thai

National Statistics Office. In no case is a figure quoted from purely

Thai sources. In addition, plausibility comparisons were made with the

statistics of a number of other countries

[kaengk]

Yellow journalism!

[Mobi]

Yellow journalism!

Is that the best you can do?

If you wish dispute the facts or the conclusions, why don't you take the trouble to be a bit more erudite and point out the flaws in the OP's well researched and well reasoned post?

[jdinasia]

Yellow journalism!

Is that the best you can do?

If you wish dispute the facts or the conclusions, why don't you take the trouble to be a bit more erudite and point out the flaws in the OP's well researched and well reasoned post?

Decent article --- only flaw is that it is not cited

[markm]

Yellow journalism!

Is that the best you can do?

If you wish dispute the facts or the conclusions, why don't you take the trouble to be a bit more erudite and point out the flaws in the OP's well researched and well reasoned post?

Kaengk's response is a typical response of a socialist that has his reasoning and argument taken away and cannot counter the posting. All socialists want to see suffering masses under the jackbooted government so that they have a cause to harp on about.

I know the Northern issan are not that poor and suffering, and are really no worse off than they have been in centuries. They will survive as they have always done. The issarn people are not like the starving in the hunger camps of Ethiopia.

The village my FIL lives could be called poor, but definitely not suffering at the hands of the government.

Edited May 20, 2010 by markm

[AndyCapps]

Isaan girlies seem to be in the tourist spots making dosh, although technically ilegal.

[Xangsamhua]

Yellow journalism!

Is that the best you can do?

If you wish dispute the facts or the conclusions, why don't you take the trouble to be a bit more erudite and point out the flaws in the OP's well researched and well reasoned post?

Decent article --- only flaw is that it is not cited

The author of the article is Robert Woodrow, "a former editor of a weekly regional newsmagazine... now retired (who) reported on the politics and economics of Southeast Asia. He interviewed many political leaders during the years he was active, including several prime ministers of Thailand."

http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2...ncome-peasants/

I thought it was a very good article, but yes, the OP should have cited the source.

[tw25rw]

Wasn't this posted a couple of weeks ago?

Anyway it's just inventing new stereotypes to counter old ones and doesn't solve much.