Relations between Malay rubber producers and Thai Government officials in a development project in Southern Thailand

Abstract

Very few ethnographies have been written about the Malay-speaking areas of southern Thailand. Those that exist concentrate on Malay villages largely in isolation from their situation in the modern Thai state. Studies of local politics have focused on Malay separatism, and speak in terms of a Malay-Thai dichotomy which ignores internal divisions on each side. This dichotomy between Thais and Malays is a dominant theme in the social life of Yala province, and is partly characterised by a competition between the two groups to define the area's history, but it is complicated by other social divisions between town and country, and civil servants and rural dwellers. A study of the relations between urban Thai government officials and rural Malay rubber producers helps to highlight some of these issues. The Department of Agricultural Extension carries out development projects, but is internally factionalised in a way that unevenly distributes power and knowledge. This limits official understanding of project implementation and the ability to change its course. The internal economy of rubber production and marketing in a Malay village is also factionalised, depending on people's relations to land, leaders, and creditors. The differentiation of power and knowledge in a Malay village affects people's desire and ability to participate in government schemes. In the villages of Khala and Maju there are different outcomes of Malay participation in the same government project. In economic terms, the project failed in Khala but was a success in Maju. However, explanations by officials and villagers in both cases were inconsistent, and meant that no clear policy direction could be seen or implemented. Events in the two villages also demonstrate a deeper crisis in the Thai government's relations with southern Malays. T he internal factionalism in both Thai officialdom and Malay villages is ignored in ethnographic, historical, and political studies of the south. Additionally, historians and political scientists have been unable to explain the absence of mass insurrection, given Thai-Malay political antagonism and campaigns for secession of the Malay region from Thailand. The events in Khala and Maju help to explain both this absence of revolt, and the failure of government development schemes. In doing so, they show that internal divisions of government and village are crucial to understanding current economic and political behaviour, and in assessing the prospects of future development in the area.