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Study Ties Thailand's Turmoil to Rural Poverty, Stereotypes

Zsombor Peter

   BANGKOK - A new study of Thailand's poor and populous northeast hopes
   to focus the government's attention on helping a corner of the country
   that has played an outsized role in the past several years of political
   turmoil.

   Home to nearly a third of Thailand's 69 million people, most of them
   farmers, Isan has long lagged behind the rest of the country. Dry and
   underdeveloped, it has shared in relatively little of the breakneck
   growth that has transformed Thailand into Southeast Asia's second
   largest economy.

   A recent survey of northeastern households by the non-government Asia
   Foundation found that "people in Isan still struggle to make ends
   meet." The foundation says narrowing the gap between them and the rest
   of Thailand is key to a richer and more stable country.

   Populous and populist

   As Thailand's most populous region, Isan also has the most eligible
   voters. And together with the far north it consistently voted in
   populist governments between 2001 and 2011 led by or linked to telecoms
   tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, upending the political control of Thailand's
   middle-class, royalist, pro-military elite.

   The power struggle has fueled rounds of bloody protest and two military
   coups unseating first Thaksin and then, in 2014, his sister. A new
   constitution then drafted by the junta helped return a pro-military
   government to power after general elections earlier this year, raising
   fears of more unrest to come.

   "Research [has] shown that one of the leading indicators that pushed
   people toward political turmoil and protest is the fact that they are
   not satisfied with their economic condition and [the] uneven treatment
   ... that they receive," said Rattana Lao, lead author of the
   foundation's report, "Thailand's Inequality: Myths and Reality of
   Isan."

   "If the income is dispersed more equally among the provinces and people
   feel satisfied with their living standard, feel ... empowered
   economically and politically, I think the feeling of being disparaged,
   the feeling of being uneven would be reduced," she said.

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