Articles/studies (southern Thailand)

[pattaya127]

I thought to have a named thread for special articles or studies you deem an interesting read about thai life and culture may be a welcome permanent fixture on this section. Just mention: article or study and a brief idea of the subject, then copy it in or provide the link. here's a first one, comments and inputs are of course as usual welcome...

 

 

 

Bangkok Post June 12, 1999

 

A natural disaster

 

 

 

ENVIRONMENT:

 

 

 

The ricefields are filled with water and the vegetation that covers the hills and mountains are all lush and green. But this year's early and frequent rains threaten people in southern Thailand who depend on rubber plantationsand fruit orchards for their livelihood

 

 

 

Story And Pictures By Normita Thongtham

 

 

 

Peace has descended at last on the once volatile parts of southern Thailand. Thanks to the help of the Public Welfare Department which initiated land resettlement programmes in the once "red" areas of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, people are enjoying a better life. They have homes and land they can call their own, schools for their children, health centres and good roads.

 

 

 

But what man has created, Nature is now threatening to destroy-or was it the other way round?In the early 60s, as the rebel movement threatened to separate the three southernmost provinces from Thailand, then prime minister Sarit Thanarat allocated 600,000 rai of mountainous terrain for a resettlement programme. The aim was to populate the dense Sankalakiri mountain range which straddles Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat-and to drive the rebels away from their stronghold.

 

 

 

"It was a no-man's land when we first moved here in the early 1960s," said Mohammad Saki, 40, an officer of the Si Sakhon Self-Help Land Settlement in Si Sakhon district of Narathiwat province. "Military men could not get in, and even the Public Welfare Department lost several lives" before they won the local people's trust, he said.

 

 

 

Now officers of the department's resettlement programmes are worried for another reason.

 

 

 

Since January it has been raining steadily in southern Thailand. The ricefields are filled with water, and the rubber plantations, fruit orchards and the vegetation that covers the hills and mountains are all lush and green-but ironically, this is no cause for joy.

 

 

 

"Rubber and fruit trees are the main sources of income for people in the South," said Anan Dissara, superintendent of the Yala Self-Help Land Settlement group in Bannang Sata district of Yala.

 

 

 

"Last year I was worried that El Nino would bring us drought; instead it brought a bountiful harvest and the long kong trees even produced three crops instead of just one, which was most unusual," Mr Anan said "But this year it has been raining since January and the rubber trees could not be tapped. To make matters worse, because of the rains, the fruit trees have sprouted new leaves instead of flowers, so there won't be any fruit this year. "If this continues for two consecutive years the people will be in real trouble."For some, the trouble has already begun. In both Yala and Narathiwat provinces, the markets are almost empty as housewives buy basic necessities and then go home. "Mothers no longer can afford to buy sweets for their children," Mr Muhammad said in Narathiwat.

 

 

 

Mr Muhammad related how a father just outside the settlement left his wife and four little children, one a newborn, to find work as a rubber tapper, the way he always does at this time of year. After a month he returned home empty-handed, only to find his family had not eaten for several days.

 

 

 

"He went to town and pretended to buy rice, then when the shopowner was not looking he ran away without paying," Mr Muhammad said.

 

 

 

"The police went after him, but when they saw the starving children, and realised the father stole out of desperation, they let him go and the shopowner gave the rice to the family for free."Southern people are by nature satisfied with their lot, said Paisan Tamchavy, 33, an agricultural officer of the Public Welfare Department. "It's not for them to go marching down to Government House to protest against one thing or another or head for the capital to find work as labourers. As long as they have food and some money, they would rather stay home with their family."Rice farmers in the Northeast and the Central Region plant second or third crops although they are not allowed to do so for lack of irrigation water. "But here, although there is plenty of water in the fields, rice farmers don't take advantage of it because they plant rice only for their own consumption and one crop is already more than their family can eat," Mr Paisan said. Unfortunately, there are more rubber plantations than ricefields in the mountainous South, and most people buy rice, depending on the rubber and fruit trees for their livelihood. Even rice farmers prefer to tap rubber for cash after the harvesting season, said Mr Paisan, a native of Phatthalung. Usually tappers get 40 to 50 percent of the rubber, and many own motorcycles to take them from one plantation to another, he said.

 

 

 

"Rubber tapping is where people get money for daily expenses," Mr Anan said, "and once a year the fruit trees provide a lump sum for some luxuries or for their children's education."Rubber tapping is usually done in January and February, it stops when the trees shed their old leaves and grow new ones in March and April, and resumes in May and June or early July, or an average of 120 days a year. The trees have to be dry to prevent the sap from being diluted and the cut from being infected by fungus, which can kill the tree. Tapping, therefore, is not possible in the rainy season, which in the South usually lasts from July to December.

 

 

 

Mr Anan feels that plantation owners and rubber tappers do not get the full benefit from their investment and labour. For although Thailand is the biggest producer of rubber, producing nearly 2.1 million tonnes in 1995, the latest figure available, the price of rubber depends on Singapore. As the leading trader in the commodity, Singapore dictates the prices.

 

 

 

"Now the price is only 16-17 baht a kilogramme, down from 25 baht, but plantation owners would be willing to sell if they could only tap their rubber. That's how desperate they are," Mr Anan said.

 

 

 

Not that members of the Yala Self-Help Land Settlement have not known hard times before. When they first arrived all they had were the clothes on their back, according to Sayan Waba, the settlement's deputy superintendent. "Some of them lost everything in the typhoon that hit Laem Talumpuk in Nakhon Si Thammarat more than 30 years ago," Mr Sayan said. "Others came from various parts of the country but mostly from the southern region, and they were equally dirt-poor."The department made sure the settlers included Muslims as well as Buddhists, to encourage integration, Mr Sayan added.

 

 

 

The first group, which settled in 1965, were given 50 rai per family. Those who came later were given 25 and then 18 rai, as land became scarce, although not all 600,000 rai given by the Government have been resettled. Slopes higher than 600 metres have been returned to the Forestry Department, to be maintained as watershed areas.

 

 

 

In addition, the settlers were provided with loans to build a house and to buy farming equipment, saplings and fertiliser. When they repay the loans, they will be given a certificate of land ownership which they can exchange for a land title.

 

 

 

Although the rubber and fruit trees have been productive for many years, only about 500 families have received their land certificates so far, and Mr Sayan does not expect all settlers to be able to pay their loans until 2019. Until then, the Public Welfare Department maintains an office at the settlement to look after the settlers, teaching them agricultural know-how and vocational skills like basket weaving and cooking, and ensuring that they have public amenities like good roads and electricity.

 

 

 

The Yala Self-Help Land Settlement currently looks after 5,088 families in five sub-districts and 25 villages in Than To district, which is right at the Thai border with Malaysia, and Bannang Sata 140 km from the border. The settlement is now lush with rubber and fruit trees that blend with the original forest cover, and average per capita income last year was about 30,000 baht.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, the Si Sakhon settlement at the Narathiwat side of the mountain range looks after 2,825 families. Here the settlers earned a per capita income of 27,617 baht last year, according to Mr Muhammad.

 

 

 

"This includes money earned from silk weaving and yarn lipao bag weaving under Her Majesty the Queen's Support Foundation," he said.

 

 

 

At Kalong village, 25 housewives engage in silk weaving, while older women raise silkworms. Thread from the silkworms is sent to the Support Foundation in Bangkok, which blends it with threads from other provinces, then sends the finished product to the housewives' group who dye it before weaving.

 

 

 

In all there are six such groups in the Si Sakhon settlement. Each weaver gets 250 baht a yard, according to the Kalong group's leader Amphai Phopan, 36.

 

 

 

"But we only weave in our free time, to earn additional income. Usually we tap rubber in the morning and weave in the afternoon," she said. "But this year we haven't been able to tap rubber and we are all worried. Food is no worry, we can find things to eat in the forest, but without money how can our children go to school?"Other settlers, men and women, be it at Bannang Sata or Si Sakhon, echoed Mrs Amphai's worries. After all, the people have just another month before the real rainy season begins, and they will count themselves lucky if they can tap for 50 days this year.

 

 

 

The Public Welfare Department currently has 44 land settlements throughout the country, 14 of them in the South. Apart from political reasons, the resettlement programmes have also helped improve the lives of the poor and thus alleviate social problems, said Mr Sayan.

 

 

 

Mr Sayan recalls how the department helped relocate trishaw drivers from Bangkok to Muak Lek in Saraburi more that 20 years ago.

 

 

 

"We gave them land to till, and provided them basic necessities and loans to build a house and buy farming equipment. It took nearly two decades for them to pay the loans, but in the end they had land they could call their own."Do the settlers now enjoy a better life?"During the economic boom they sold their land and bought pick-up trucks, TVs and other luxuries," Mr Sayan said. "But now the money is gone, and they are back to square one.

 

 

 

"The land they used to own is now a golf course."

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Earlier this year I wanted to visit Ao Phang Gna bay near Phuket.Having plenty of time I caught the bus.It took nearly 10 hours but was definately worth it to see the scenery along the way.Only remember 3 crops being grown;bananas,coconut palms and rubber trees.Interesting to see the mats of rubber hanging on lines,I asume this was some sort of drying process.

[Pescator]

Plenty of pineapples and oil-palms in this area as well.

 

 

 

Did you notice the distinctive smell that comes from the rubber mats when you pass by? Or were you in an A/C bus?

 

 

 

Like your signature by the way:)

 

 

 

Hua Nguu.

 

 

[ThaiHome]

"Or were you in an A/C bus? "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TH

 

 

[Pescator]

It is basically the same smell you occasinally encounter in a locker room after a football game and *before* everyone has hit the showers

 

 

 

Hua Nguu.

[Guest]

Yes,now I think about it I did see some quite large oil palm plantations.They looked fairly recently planted,all in nice straight lines ,I wonder how long they have to wait before being able to harvest the first crop ? I can`t recall any rubber like smell though,don`t think the bus had A/C.I know one thing though,after 10+ hours I was glad to get off at Phang Nga.