ad info




Asiaweek
 home
 intelligence
 web features
 magazine archive
 technology
 newsmap
 customer service
 subscribe
 TIMEASIA.COM
 CNN.COM
  east asia
  southeast asia
  south asia
  central asia
  australasia
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 SHOWBIZ
 ASIA WEATHER
 ASIA TRAVEL


Web-only Exclusives
November 30, 2000

From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War
A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix

From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead
Bad news for the Philippines - and some others

From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies
Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights?

Asiaweek Time Asia Now Asiaweek story

SEPTEMBER 3, 1999 VOL. 25 NO. 30

B O O K S

Setting Thailand Right
A controversial work urges long-term change
By JULIAN GEARING

THIS BOOK'S TITLE RINGS of high drama, but it is a true-to-life tale of how economic development has run amok in Thailand. A Siamese Tragedy - Development and Disintegration in Modern Thailand (Zed Books, 256 pages, paperback, 550 baht/$13.30) concludes that the country is hurtling down an unsustainable track of economic fragility, ecological damage and human exploitation. This is not the ramblings of oddballs with an ax to grind. Authors Walden Bello, Shea Cunningham and Li Kheng Poh are respected academics who were warning about the pitfalls of the Thai model of development well before the Asian Crisis started in 1997 - although few listened to them. Don't be turned off by the uninspiring cover, the minor inaccuracies and typographical errors. If you want to understand where Thailand went wrong, read this book.


Book Cover
A Siamese Tragedy - Development and Disintegration in Modern Thailand
By Walden Bello, Shea Cunningham and Li Kheng Poh

A Siamese Tragedy analyzes Thailand's obsession with attaining the status of a newly industrialized country. Once dubbed Asia's Fifth Tiger (after Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong), Thailand boasted average annual economic growth of 10% from 1985 to 1995 - the fastest in the world for that period. But fueled by foreign capital and export income, the expansion spun out of control. Despite four-year development plans by the National Economic and Social Development Board, the private sector and its narrow interests, not the government, largely ran the show. What evolved was a tragedy of rape, pillage and exploitation of the country's resources.

The pre-crisis rush for profits left no time to upgrade physical and manpower resources, hampering the country's struggle to really rise from the ranks of the Third World. "Part of the problem has been lack of government and private-sector initiatives to implement strategic planning in the area of technology," write the authors. "But a great part of the problem has resided in the practices of multinational corporations, which have spearheaded the industrialization drive in Thailand." Many local and foreign companies neglected to invest in research and development technology to smarten up the workforce. They plowed profits into fancy speculative real estate ventures or diversified into totally unrelated fields.

Education is also seriously lacking. The secondary-school enrollment rate is a dismal 30% and the number of students studying engineering or computer is pitiful. The book blames unenlightened government policies, lack of drive, poor resources and limited English-language skills. Above all, Bello and company bemoan industry's tendency to regard workers as pawns in the race to make a fast baht. They cite as examples the fatal Kader toy factory fire, the Lamphun pollution deaths and the Sanyo arson incident. The environment did not fare much better. Agriculture, the so-called backbone of the country, has been neglected, resulting in uncontrolled deforestation, poor cultivation methods and misuse of pesticides and herbicides.

That's the history. Can Thailand upgrade the economy in a sustainable way by not further damaging the environment and by improving the lives of the masses? Since the book was published, Thailand has shown nascent signs of recovery. The economy grew 0.9% year-on-year in the first quarter of 1999, the first positive GDP growth in two years. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now expects GDP to expand 3% for the whole year. The danger is that the government may repeat past mistakes by focusing more on raw growth and untrammeled industrialization rather than on long-term changes needed for Thailand's future economic, social and environmental well-being.

Instead of business-as-usual stimulus measures, Bello and company urge more emphasis on the domestic market and local savings rather than exports and foreign investment, a stronger government hand, capital controls, alternatives to the rescue model of the IMF, and a common strategy among Asian nations in negotiating with Western governments and financial institutions. Thailand, they argue, must rethink the fundamentals of its economic model. Behind the Mercedes-Benzes and mobile phones lies a country buffeted by exploitative local and foreign big business and the effects of globalization, a juggernaut steered ineffectively by weak governments. This book makes the case that Thais deserve better.


This edition's table of contents | Asiaweek home

AsiaNow


   LATEST HEADLINES:

WASHINGTON
U.S. secretary of state says China should be 'tolerant'

MANILA
Philippine government denies Estrada's claim to presidency

ALLAHABAD
Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival

COLOMBO
Land mine explosion kills 11 Sri Lankan soldiers

TOKYO
Japan claims StarLink found in U.S. corn sample

BANGKOK
Thai party announces first coalition partner



TIME:

COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President

THAILAND: Twin teenage warriors turn themselves in to Bangkok officials

CHINA: Despite official vilification, hip Chinese dig Lamaist culture

PHOTO ESSAY: Estrada Calls Snap Election

WEB-ONLY INTERVIEW: Jimmy Lai on feeling lucky -- and why he's committed to the island state



ASIAWEEK:

COVER: The DoCoMo generation - Japan's leading mobile phone company goes global

Bandwidth Boom: Racing to wire - how underseas cable systems may yet fall short

TAIWAN: Party intrigues add to Chen Shui-bian's woes

JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness


Launch CNN's Desktop Ticker and get the latest news, delivered right on your desktop!

Today on CNN
 Search

Back to the top   © 2000 Asiaweek. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.