BY PHILIP J CUNNINGHAM
Long before the term “Brexit” was coined, long before the EU
headquarters in Brussels had become a bloated bureaucracy out of touch with its
constituents, I remember hearing voices in the hinterland of Thailand that
spoke to the wisdom of disengaging from globalist bureaucratic schemes, large
and small.
In the year 2000, resistance to the World Bank-backed Pak
Moon Dam in Ubon Province was reaching a feverish peak—the controversial
facility, along with a smaller, likewise unwanted dam in Rasi Salai, Sisaket,
had been forcibly occupied by protesters.
A veteran activist of the 1970’s student generation named
Wanida Tantiwittayapitak rallied the Assembly of the Poor in Bangkok and in the
countryside to support the dam-displaced farmers and fishermen. At issue was
not just the matter of compensation but preserving a way of life. The Assembly was a pioneer in “occupy”
protests, including an encampment in front of Government House in Bangkok that
would become the template for myriad occupations in the years to come.
Talking to farmers and fisherman in Sisaket and Ubon at the
time, I was impressed by their plight as expressed in the words, “give us our
river back.” Their acute awareness of how outside capital and distant
bureaucratic bodies could render people powerless in their own backyard allowed
me to see the dam as both a menace and a metaphor.
Native fish were replaced by sterile tilapia fry raised in
nets, bought and sold by big agribusiness. The controversial Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand scheme bore the imprint of the central
government, the World Bank and faraway investors looking for a return on their
capital. The cement monstrosity blocked a free-flowing river to accumulate
“capital” for electricity production that would be distributed elsewhere. It
devastated a self-sufficient way of life while bringing in big business to fill
in the gap, at a profit. Waters that had been fished and refished for centuries
were suddenly depleted, while changing salinity levels threatened the vital
rice crop. Fish from the far reaches of the Mekong in Laos and Cambodia could
no longer spawn upstream and started to die out. So much for “development.”
Old-time activists such as Sulak Sivaraksa, Surachai
Chantimatorn, Phongsit Khamphi and Kraisak Choonhavan were among those I spoke
with who lent their minds, music and moral support, and for a while it looked
as if people power would be victorious.
To the chagrin of all, the Chuan Leekpai administration
didn’t do much to resolve the dispute, but to its credit, it did not bring the
heavy hand of the state down on protesters either. In the years since, sluice
gates have been opened and closed, and an ineffective fish ladder installed,
but basically the damage is done.
The plaintive cry, “give us our river back” is especially
poignant because it is human nature to mourn the loss of the things that
nurture us, but often there is no going back.
Isan in recent years has become embroiled in the politicking
of Bangkok-based political parties seeking electoral advantage. Most of the
old-time rural activists have gone quiescent in the face of new money and the
new politics, which has introduced populism, but at a price—the program is
linked to the fortunes of a billionaire seeking to consolidate power.
The self-sufficient, home-grown activism of the Isan
peasants was subsequently hijacked by color-coded political theatre funded and
directed in Bangkok, putting the sober anti-capitalist agenda of an earlier
generation back on the back burner.
Yet now, even more than then, Thai tycoons and their
globalist partners have much to answer for, not the least of which is the
steady degradation of Thailand’s environment. The magnates of material
development are not only ruining rivers and polluting the air, but are
commercializing every last inch of the countryside, while also denuding the
forests to sell timber and produce corn for ethanol schemes.
Big business continues to wipe out myriad local businesses,
as well as any trace of tradition or self-sufficiency in the hinterland, with
the result that self-reliance is dead and the entire nation is plugged into the
same big capitalist grid.
Thailand’s tycoons may bicker among themselves, but they
find common advantage in quietly yielding sovereignty to globalist partners,
for there is ample money to be made as a facilitator and comprador to global
capital, letting it flow where it wants to go. The neon-drenched, ecologically
unsound street-side emporiums that deliver over-priced, excessively wrapped
junk food to every corner of the country are just one symptom of the excessive
commercialization, loss of autonomy and unwholesome lifestyle that follows in
the wake of big money.
The bankers of the world, from Wall Street to Tokyo, from
London to Bangkok promulgate a borderless rush of cash in the name of
efficiency, even if the net result is to make the rich richer and the poor
poorer. The power of outside money
unleashed and unfettered in its flow now rages around the planet like an
unstoppable tsunami, inundating those least able to protect themselves,
sweeping away those unable to exploit its ripe tides and raw power. Even though
they nearly sunk the world economy in 2008, the self-styled “masters of the
universe” in London and New York--the greediest players in a greedy financial
system—never seem to have enough.
Big banks have bet the bank on globalism, so it is not
surprising that banks were among the biggest losers in the initial stock market
tumble that followed the vote affirming the UK readiness to leave EU. Yet the
complaints of the pro-EU, anti-Brexit crowd of capitalist supremos such as Hank
Paulson (“too-big-too-fail” Goldman Sachs savior and former US Treasury
Secretary) and George Soros (investor known for breaking both the Thai baht and
the Bank of England) ring utterly hollow; they have long track records of
profiting off the pain and misfortune of others.
With their experts in law and public relations the
beleaguered banks will no doubt find a way to pass the buck and spread the pain
around, and maybe even get ordinary taxpayers to pick up the tab, as they did
for their shameless bailout in 2008.
Thinking back to the humble but determined peasants I met in
the Moon River Basin a decade and a half ago, I again hear the refrain, “give
us our river back.”
For today we can hear the resounding echo of like-minded
voices, in England, in America, in Thailand and around the world.
Environmentalists, traditionalists and peasant activists alike have now been
joined by the millions upon millions of losers and skeptics in the big grand,
winner-takes-all globalization game. It is in the shark-like nature of big
banks and big bureaucracies to go on expanding, devouring resources, and
accumulating power, and go on they will. Critics of PTT, EU, ASEAN, IMF, ADB
alike—now is the time to step forward and join the growing chorus.
“Give us back our rivers, our forests, our farms, our
waterways, our way of life. Give us back our dominion, our sovereignty.”
