Isan History VI. (Long article). Isan's Accelerated Rural and Econonomic Development,the Roles of Thai Government and Foreign Aid A. Isan and its Rural Development of Various Projects 1. A.R.D. (The Accelerated Rural Development Program) The central government of Thailand was seeking in the sixties to help Northeast Thailand in order to better bind the region to the country. Among other things, an Accelerated Rural Development Program (A.R.D.) was main project which was instituted in 1964 to improve relations between the rural population and Bangkok, to increase rural inc ome, and to strengthen local self-government, with the main concentration being in six of the sixteen Northeast provinces at that period of time. The general theory of the Accelerated Rural Development Program (A.R.D.) is that the Thai and foreign government,such as the American and other foreign governments, will cooperate in making funds, personnel, and equipment available for swift initiation and completion of the coordinated projects designed to bring tangible results in clearly defined areas. In this particular case of Isan, I'll choose Isan as a selected model from the rest of the Thailand, the provincial governor,however, is empowered to make decisions, to spend money, and to demand results. He does so in accordance with the expressed wishes of the local people and in cooperation with the other regional and local of ficials. The officials are expected to get together frequently with members of the community in order to determine their needs and to hear their comments. The program is thus relatively free from central bureaucracy; special personnel and equipment can be moved on to new projects as the early ones are completed, and the local population is expec ted to learn by doing and, hopefully, to grasp the significance of quickly and visibly improved living standards.1 Furthermore,roads have been constructed to link the villages with main highways leading to the Central Plain area for economic communication and security reasons. Public health, welfare and educational efforts have been greatly expanded. Agricultural extension activities to enable the farmers to shift from subsistence rice cultivation to the raising of the other products more suited to regional soil and water conditions have begun. To bring those activities down to a self-help level, the provincial government officials have been given greater coordinating and executive authority, as well as additional staff, and equipment funds for such regional rural development efforts. Briefly, the Thai Accelerated Rural Development Program (A.R.D.) as earlier mentioned, was instituted in 1964 to improve the relationship between the rural populations such as Isan and the Central population. It emphasized attempts to increase the rural people's income and to strengthen government in the provinces. 2. M.D.U. (The Mobile Rural Development Units) This program has been established to meet immediate village needs through quick impact programs in the fields of health, education, public works and in the forms of community development. In addition, there are mobile information teams and new radio stations, which emphasize the virtues of an independent Thailand and the nature of the Com munist threat. In my view,indeed,Buddhist monks have helped also; I've seen and witnessed that they travel from village to village teaching the villagers about Buddhist doctrines and simple current events in the town.2 Moreover, mobile medical teams, through the cooperation of A.R.D. and staffed by personnel drawn from the Thai medical profession, are treating about one million persons mainly in the Northeast the North and the rest of the country. The foreign governments such as the United States also support the Ministry's training programs, which gra duate about 1,000 rural health workers each year. Assistance is given to the Ministry's pilot project in protein nutrition and its family health program, which includes continuing research and plans to provide advice to approximately 4000,000 women by 1970.3 The military has also been involved in village-level development programs with Mobile D evelopment Units (M.D.U.). Therefore, these units, composed of military personnel, doctors, government agents and, occasionally, an American observer or participant, go into villages in selected areas and couple medical treatment and economic development advice and examples with information about the government and about the objectives of Communi sm. These units have usually been located in the most sensitive areas of the Northeast. 3. Strengthening the Police: The Improvement of Village Security . In this respect,to me, it is obvious that the villages in remote areas are among the Communist's main targets. Communist activities in remote, developing areas of Southeast Asia vary in degree from country to country, and even from one locality to another within the same country, but there is a fundamental pattern in their subversive and terroristic tactics which aims at creating armed conflict leading to an eventual Communist seizure of power. In order to reach the goal of an urgent protection against Communist threats and terrorism, the Bangkok government, with United States assistance, is increasing emphasis on the rural areas, and particularly upon the present generation of rural youths and young adults. Thus the effort has two basic objective: "better protection for villagers against insurgent threats, and wider opportunities for villagers to improve their livelihood by increasing production."4 Under the United States assistance program, the United States Operations Mission (USOM) in Bangkok has supported the Thai government program to improve the Thai National Police Department (T.N.P.D.) in terms of security for the rural reasons. The T.N.P.D. is seeking to increase the number of police stations at the Tambol (a tambol is a Thai admin istrative unit composed of small villages up to ten). Its main purpose is an effective self-defense for local security. The T.N.P.D. is also carrying out, with other programs, road-construction, communication improvements, and education as well, aimed toward the general objective of strengthening the rural areas.5 To help reach its goal, the T.N.P.D., with United States assistance, for good example,has established the so-called "Chaiya Training Center" in Udorn province. It trains the police to man the tambol police stations in order to meet security needs. Close contact with the local people is also a fundamental requirement for better security i n the up country. Through these improved police methods, it is hoped that the police may respond more quickly to requests for help from villages threatened by Communists. USOM assistance is providing the technical advice, communications equipment (e.g., radio sets, in order to communicate rapidly between villages and the security officials), we apons, vehicles, and even helicopters to improve T.N.P.D. mobility and its equipment. In 1969, approximately two thousand radios had been installed and were operating effectively. As earlier said, good example of the effort is the Chaiya Training Center, Udorn, USOM has supported the T.N.P.D. program to expand its facilities for training recruits. The annual capacity had reached 12,000 in 1969.6 Besides its regular police duties, the Border Patrol Police, under the T.N.P.D., is carrying on its program of teaching of health services and other small scale development projects in the Northeast, aimed at improving security by developing closer contact with the rural people. USOM support to the T.N.P.D., providing better protection for the people in the rural area, accounted for over $19 million in the fiscal year 1967 (nearly forty percent of the total USOM program) and over $13 million (260 million baht) in the fiscal year 1968. The program, which is particularly focused in the Northeast, is Usom's main recipient.7 4. M.I.T. (Mobile Information Teams) and New Radio and Television. In addition to the A.R.D., M.D.U., and T.N.P.D. programs, there are now information teams and new radio and television stations. They provide entertainment and also popular political education, emphasizing the virtues of independent Thailand and the nature of the Communist threat. The television station (Channel 55) in Khon-Kaen is one of many examples of this new approach. The United States also helps this project by giving funds and creating a powerful new radio station to cover the whole area, which is called "The Free Asia." The government tends to believe that economic improvement cannot be implemented effectively without the securing of village loyalty. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the peopl e's close feeling to Thailand and to the Thai government. To serve this purpose,I personally observe that the government has built both the radio and television stations in the Northeast which are located in the main Northeast provinces of Khon Kaen, Ubon, Udorn, Sakhon Nakhon, and Khorat etc . All these methods for making the Northeast populace more conscious of its sense off belonging to Thailand add to the traditional methods of education and local administration, which in the past contributed to the villagers' sense of belonging to Thailand.8 Much of the programming time on these radio and television stations is devoted to broadcasting traditional Northeastern music (in particular, folk opera known as Molum Moo, and folk songs or Molum Kan). Villagers hear that their own traditional culture is something which they share with other people. Radio commercials are also an importa nt means of communication, for in contrast to news and feature programs which are broadcast in Thai, they are given in a standardized Northeastern dialect. Although villagers recognize that this dialect is slightly different from their own, they find it completely comprehensible in contrast to central or standard Thai. 5. Other Thai Government Accelerated Rural Projects. As evidenced , now in 1990's the current Communist terrorist activity decreased in many areas in the Northeast as a direct result of the successful implementation of one or more of the various economic development programs. This rendered them less vulnerable to Communist persuasion. But the Thai government will still continue to call for greater efforts on the part of all concerned. Emphasis was placed on two factors on which might well depend the success or failure of a counter insurgency and current various Isan economic development projects, namely the relationship between officials and villagers, and the participation of the villagers in their own affairs.9 One of the more striking consequences of foreing aid to the Northeast has been the improvement of the region;s economic infrastructure. The completion of the Friendship Highway, which was built at a cost of $20 million (almost all from American sources), connected Bangkok with Khorat and finally with Nongkhai. Other less spectacular high ways and communication connections have followed quite logically from the desire, expressed during King Chulalongkorn's reign, to reduce the isolation of Isan from the Central Plains. The socio-economic structures and statistics which characterize the Thai Northeast must still be further improved if the material sources of discontent and alienation are to be eliminated. A rural income of the country, a greater discrepancy in income among farmers than elsewhere (the upper two percent receiving ten times more cash than t he lowest seventy-five percent),and an estimated total annual per capita income in the lowest group of about $3010 pose serious problems for the country. The first major governmental programs for the development of the Northeast came during 1961-1962 when the government promulgated a five year plan for the development of the region with the following objectives: 1. to improve water control and supply 2. to improve means of the transport and communication 3. to assist villages in increasing production and marketing 4. to provide for regional industrial development and (later) rural electrification 5. to encourage private industrial and commercial development in the region 6. to promote community development, educational facilities, and public health programs at the local level.11 This plan, although by no means the first effort of the government of Thailand to deal with the problems of the Northeast, was the first government-sponsored plan designed specifically for the improvement of the region not subsumed in some larger national scheme. When the plan was first made public, the government announced that it would be sending about $300,000,000 on its implementation over the next five years (1962-1966). The money to finance such a large undertaking was to come, in great part, from United States aid grants.12 After the plan was first published in 1961, a Northeastern committee in the National Economic Development Board of the Prime Minister's Office, was charged with supervising, coordinating, or carrying out research in the Northeast region in order to bring the original proposals more in line with existing realities. The implementation of th e program, however, has been divided between a large number of agencies, departments, and ministries with overall coordination supplied theoretically by the Ministry of National Development and the Prime Minister's Office. The United States Operations Mission to Thailand (part of the United States Agency for International Development) has devote d a large share of its resources to assist those Thai governmental bodies working on Northeastern development plans. However, these dual purpose programs were carried out by several agencies, some of which were specifically created for the purpose, including the National Security Command, the office of Accelerated Rural Development, the Communist Suppression Operation Command, the Department of Local Government, and Provincial and Border Patrol Police. All levels of the administrative system were involved, from governor to village headman, and in general there was a close cooperation between the military, civilian, and police arms in program implementation. By 1962 there were over 65,000 commercial vehicles in Thailand, 50,000 registered in places other than Bangkok. Although no specific figures for the Northeast are available, the Northeast must account for a sizable percentage of the commercial vehicles registered up country since much of the trade of the Central Plains is carried on by ve hicles registered in Bangkok. These statistics contrast sharply with a pre-war (1939) total os 5,100 commercial vehicles which were most likely to have been located almost exclusively in Bangkok. In 1960 additional communication links were made possible through the inauguration of air service by the Thai Airways Corporation to several Northeaste rn towns. By 1963 there were regular flights between Bangkok and Nakhon Phanom, Udon, Khon Kaen and Ubon.13 The government, again using American aid funds, has begun the construction of irrigation and multi-purpose dams as part of the large international scheme for the eventual harnessing of the power of the Mekong River and its tributaries. The two most important dams being constructed at the moment are the multi-purpose Nam Pong Project in Kh on Kaen, which is expected to provide both water control and electrical power for central provinces of the region, and the Lam Pao Project in Kalasin. Together they are designed to provide effective irrigation for most of the Chi River basin (this scheme covers the whole areas of Roi-Ed, Kalasin, and Ubol as well). B. The New Face of Isan Today and the International Economic Development. Apart from a priority emphasis on the expansion of public health and education, a gradual modernization of the public administrative system, and a new security-conscious concern for the regional development and politicization of the Northeast, the government's programs offer general solid hope for the national future, provided that results can be obtained in time in the political, social, and cultural spheres of life. The National Economic Development Board produced during 1960 the country's first economic development plan, a broad six year program for the period 1961-1966, to be implemented in two stages. Subsequently, a second plan was created for the period 1967-1971. The primary objective of the first Thai plan was to raise the living standard by mobilization and utilizing both human and natural resources to achieve a high rate of economic growth.14 I personally still recall the event very well, the late Dr. Edward W. Mill, my colleague and best Advisor at Grauduate schools both at Occidental College and the University of Southern California, had pointed to some of the key disparities between Isan and other regions of Thailand. He then wrote in an article that: . . . One of the chief subjects of concern for the Thai government in recent years has been the economic and social disparities between the different regions of the country. Of special interest has been the Northeast region, traditionally an area of less economic opportunity. Where the per capita income for the central region is around $240 annu ally, for the Northeast it is only $70. Soil and water conditions, poor communications, and lack ofadequate roads have contributed to this picture. Moreover, education has been only minimal. It has been estimated that only 4.4% of the children of the high school age are in school; the majority of children spend not more than four years in villa ge schools. This economic and social imbalance has made the region a prime target for Communist infiltration and propogranda.15 After noting these problems, Professor Mill also pointed out that . . . the government has organized a vast array of governmental activities designed to help the region. A comprehensive regional development plan, known as the National Economic Development Board (NEBD), has been worked out to coordinate efforts and achieve goals in this area. Working with the support of the United States Operations Mission (USO M), the Thai government is carrying out significant programs in rural development, road-building, communications improvements, and education, as well as generally expanding the range of government services for the Northeast. . . . Two years ago much of this governmental activity seemed to be largely on the paper. Today, there is concrete evidence of increasing accomplishment . . . long talks with the community development workers operating at the grass-roots, revealed a new sense of confidence and dedication to the tasks at hand.16 He continued: . . .Whatever the speculation may be, the Thai government is taking steps to be ready for almost any emergency. Evidence of this is to be seen in the new emergency preparedness program being planned by the NEDB and the National Security Council (N.S.C). This effort is designed to prepare the country for the mobilization of its national resources for future emergencies. It seeks to link together economic and military measures for national defense, with emphasis on the former. It reflects a desire on the part of the Thai to be ready for future emergencies.17 Some of the specific measures taken by the government include the completion of a new road from Roi-Ed province to other districts, for example, from Ampor Phon-thong, which opens up for more intensive development some 12,000 acres of land. This land is now under cultivation, mostly in rice. One of the prime means of the government is to persuade farmers to use chemical fertilizers which are now readily available on the market at reasonable prices. The agricultural officer posts big blue-and-white signs on those farm plots which are being fertilized, and the improved appearance and yield of the fields is thus brought to the attention of every passerby. The rice yield, at best, is, however, as yet, no more than about half that of the bountiful Central Plains, where the soil is richer and the rainfall more abundant, but progress is definitely being made. In addition to promoting the use of fertilizer, the government is encouraging the diversification of crops and the improvement of livestock. In this project area, special emphasis is placed upon the planting of tobacco and bananas, and upon introducing new strains of hogs and cattle. For those farmers who grow tobacco, the government pro vides the seed and buys the crop at fixed prices on behalf od the tobacco monopoly. The government has also provided a pumping boat which is tied up along the bank of the Mekong River to supply water for irrigation, the farmers themselves having dug the necessary ditches. The clear prospect is that a few acres of tobacco will soon multiply into a few hundred, and that the farmers' income will benefit accordingly. Other projects relate to village improvement. At larger villages, for example, the government has drilled deep well, provided pumps, built bath-and-laundry sheds, and encouraged the villagers themselves to build sanitary latrines on their own properties. The government has also started classes in which local boys and girls who have already finished primary school mar receive three months' training as seamstresses or barbers. At another village, the government has provided water for irrigation of vegetable gardens, land cultivated for the most part by the Thais, and maintained to look like model garden plots. Other projects relate to such matters as spraying with D.D.T. for mosquito control, the removal of livestock from their traditional quarters under the family dwelling into sheds at least a few yards distant, and the construction od small buildings for meetings of the local vigilante corps and other community organizations. Finally, up to today including Chuan government and Barnharn Administration in 1996, the government still has moved generally to reduce the control of Bangkok over local educational better and to encourage local school officials to exercise greater responsibility. This is a recognition of the fact that education in the Northeast remains d eeply rooted in traditional patterns and that educational goals can be best realized when local people are given the responsibility for them. Symbolic of the trend is the establishment of a great, new universities for the Northeast such as Khon Kaen University MahasaraKham Univ. Ubol Thani Univ...., "gate-way" to Isan. They will be a educationa l center to provide agricultural and vocational education for qualified young people in Isan and lessens the dependence of the Northeast on Bangkok for educational training. In the future, all Isan Colleges and Universities such as Khon Kaen University and others will be the leader in providing a better way of life for all the people of the North east. 1. The Peace Corps . Another way in which the United States has been helping Thailand is through the Peace Corps. Developed originally by the late Senator Hubert Humphrey and the late President John F. Kennedy, the program in Thailand has received a very warm welcome.18 Now looking back and counting it by late 1960's, there were more than 356 Peace Corps vo lunteers working in Thailand. The first U.S. Peace Corps volunteers arrived in Thailand in 1962; there were forty-five volunteers then. They are stationed not only in the Northeast, but also in the other regions of the country. Let's examine more cloely about the Peace Corps programs in Thailand which falls into three categories: 1 Rural Community Action. Since severe poverty is basically a rural problem in Thailand, all Peace Corps community action activities are in rural areas. The focus of the program is split between community development and public health. Both C.D. (Community Development) and Public Health volunteers work with village self-help programs. Long-range goals of community organization and a viable Thai government rural program are considered to be more important than special projects to meet immediate problems. Generally, no volunteer works on his own in a Thai rural development officials in district or provincial offices and assist Thai community development and public health work ers in villages and rural health centers. Rural community action volunteers help improve links of communication between the Thai government and the developing rural areas. 2 Education. Education contributes directly to making the existing education system functioning, effective one. The Thais consider education to be a most important element in their pattern of development. Many schools exist, and the rate of literacy is about seventy percent, but the standards for education are not uniformly high. Thus teacher training is perhaps the most important long-range objective of the Peace Corps education program in Thailand. 3 Health Service. Much of the volunteer's time is spent in remote rural areas. Day-to-day activities include house visits and the conduct of health surveys. In malaria eradication, they work with Thai and A.I.D. officials collecting blood samples from suspected malaria victims, in the laboratory analysis of blood samples, add in sprayi ng every structure with D.D.T. twice a year.19 No better indication can be found of the attitude of the Thai government toward the Peace Corps than the statement made by the former Thai Foreign Minister, Thanat Khoman. He said: . . . It is indeed striking that this important idea, the most powerful idea in recent times, of a Peace Corps, of a youth mingling, living, working with youth, should come from the mightiest nation on earth, the United States. Many of us who did not know about the United States thought of this great nation as a wealthy nation, a powerful nation, endowed with great material strength and many powerful weapons. But how many of us know that in United States ideas and ideals are also powerful? This is the secret of your greatness, of your might, which is not imposing or crushing people, but is filled with the hope of future good will and understanding.20 Volunteers also work in various agricultural programs, such as in swine and poultry extension programs. They also help with rural public works projects, such as providing feeder canals and farm ponds. They also assist in expansion of the present agricultural and community programs in Northeast Thailand.21 One of the newer programs for the Peace Corps in Thailand is in helping Thailand with its Mekong River Project. A total of seventeen men with degrees in agriculture, engineering, agronomy and soil science are working in a new high-priority program for Thailand. They are working in the Mekong basin, doing agricultural research and develop ment and carrying on river development activities.22 Clearly the Peace Corps has been and is making a most valuable contribution to the welfare of the people of Thailand, especially in the Northeast where assistance is needed so badly. Cites of Reference and Notations. 1 Daniel Wit, Thailand: Another Vietnam? (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968), pp. 175-185. 2 Wit, op. cit., pp. 175-185. 3 USIS/USOM Liason Office, U.S. Assistance to Thailand's Development and Security, April 1968. 4 USIS/USOM, Liason Office,, The US/Aid Program in Thailand, Context and Emphasis, April 1968,p.4. 5 The US/AID Program in Thailand, op. cit., p. 6. 6 Ibid., p. 8. 7 The US/Aid Program in Thailand, op. cit., p. 6, and U.S. Assistance to Thailand's Development and security, op. cit. 8 Charles F. Keyes, Isan: Regionalism in Northeast Thailand, Data Paper: No. 65, Southeast Asia Program, Department of Asian Studies (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, March 1967), pp. 56-58. 9 Keyes, op. cit., pp. 56-57. 10 Millard F. Long, "Economic Development in Northeast Thailand: Problems and Prospects," Asian Survey, VI, No. 7 (July 1966), pp. 355-356. 11 Thailand, Committee on Development of the Northeast (Bangkok: The Planning Office, National Economic Development Board, Office of the Prime Minister, 1961), pp. 1-2 12 The New York Times, April 14, 1962. 13 Bangkok Post, January 21, 1964. 14 Wit, op. cit., pp. 175-185. 15 Edward W. Mill, "Thailand Looks to the Future," Le Democrate (Bangkok, March 23, 1970). Translated from English into Thai. English version available from the Chevalier Program in Diplomacy and World Affairs, Occidental College, Los Angeles 16 Mill, op. cit., p. 2. 17 Ibid., p. 4. 18 For background on the origins and purposes of the Peace Corps, see article by Edward W. Mill, "IN the Service of the Nation," L.I.U. News, April 1961. 19 Peace Corps Handbook (FIle-card) by David Ziengenhagen, Washington D.C., 1967, pp. 1-3. 20 Mr. Thanat Khoman's speech to U.S. Peace Corps in Thailand, Thai Foreign Affairs Bulletin (Bangkok, Thailand: Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 1966). 21 Peace Corps Program Directory Summer 1970, Western Regional Office, Peace Corps, Room 8420, 300 North Los Angeles Street, Los, ANgeles, California 90012, 1970, pp. 13,15,39. 22 Ibid., p. 13. End of Isan History . Part VI. To be continued . Char Karnchanapee Ph.D. in Pol. Science(International Politics) Senior Analyst and Researcher. Rutgers University, New Jersey. 1/7/1996 URL ; http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~karnchan/ email address; karnchan@rci.rutgers.edu