The domination of a fussy strongman in provincial Thailand: The case of Banharn Silpa-archa in Suphanburi

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 37, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 267-291

  Nishizaki, Yoshinori ^a  

^a NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL SERVICE; LEADERSHIP;

ASIA; EURASIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA; THAILAND;

EID: 33646694247     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463406000555     Document Type: Article

References (121)

1. See James Ockey, 'Business leaders, gangsters, and the middle class: Social groups and civilian rule in Thailand' (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1992)
2. Ockey, 'Chaopho: Capital accumulation and social welfare in Thailand', Crossroads, 8, 1 (1993): 48-77
3. Ockey, 'The rise of local power in Thailand: Provincial crime, elections and the bureaucracy', in Money and power in provincial Thailand, ed. Ruth McVey (Singapore: ISEAS, 2000), pp. 80-3
4. Ockey, Making democracy: Leadership, class, gender, and political participation in Thailand (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004)
5. Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, 'Chao Sua, Chao Pho, Chao Thi: Lords of Thailand's transition', in Money and power, ed. McVey, pp. 36-41
6. Sombat Chantornvong, 'Local godfathers in Thai politics', in Money and power, ed. McVey, pp. 53-73
7. Pasuk Phongpaichit and Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, Corruption and democracy in Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996), pp. 57-107.
8. For a work which has profoundly influenced these works, see Benedict Anderson, 'Murder and progress in modern Siam', New Left Review, 181 (May/June 1990): 33-48. As an aside, a nakleng's attributes are similar to the notions of virtu that Machiavelli discussed in The prince.
9. See, for instance, Ruth McVey, 'Of greed and violence and other signs of progress,' in McVey ed., Money and power, p. 8, where she writes: 'Justice and protection were not to be found in government and the law but in personal relationships, and local leaders were looked to for this.'
10. See also David Johnston, 'Bandit, nakleng, and peasant in rural Thai society', Contributions to Asian Studies, 15 (1980): 90-101.
11. O. W. Wolters, History, culture, and region in Southeast Asian perspectives (Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asia Studies Program, 1999), pp. 18, 94.
12. James Ockey, 'Thai society and patterns of political leadership', Asian Survey, 36, 4 (1996): 353.
13. Takejiro Tomita, Tai-Nichi jiten [Thai-Japanese dictionary] (Tenri: Yotokusha, 1990), p. 1917
14. [Dictionary of Overseas Chinese] (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1993), p. 47. I thank all my (Sino-)Thai informants who have educated me on the meaning and nuances of this word.
15. Pasuk and Sungsidh translate the word as 'an executive manager' (Corruption and democracy, p. 104), but this translation may be a bit misleading because it connotes a modern type of manager in modern society.
16. Banharn's father, Saeng Kim Be, migrated to Thailand in 1907 and ran a small shop dealing in Buddhist ornaments, clothes and daily consumables in the central market town of Suphanburi; Akharaphon et al. Senthang suu Nayok Ratamontri khong tueng siao harn Banharn Silpa-archa [Banharn Silpa-archa's road to the Premiership] (Bangkok: Nam Fon, 1995), p. 18; my interviews with Sino-Thai local merchants in Suphanburi in 2002 and 2004.
17. The suffix 'buri' means 'town'. 'Banharn-buri' thus means 'Banharn's Town'. Bangkokians use this phrase to criticize Banharn for having turned Suphanburi into his personal fiefdom. When used by Suphanburians, however, the term carries a more positive connotation.
18. On comparing Banharn to a longju, see Nikhon Chamnong, Boriharn ngan satai Banharn [Banharn-style management] (Bangkok: Mathichon, 2000).
19. See Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)
20. Joel Migdal, State in society: Studying how states and societies transform and constitute one another (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 15-23
21. and Akhil Gupta, 'Blurred boundaries: The discourse of corruption, the culture of politics, and the imagined state', American Ethnologist, 22, 2 (1995): 375-402.
22. Fred Riggs, Thailand: The modernization of a bureaucratic polity (Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1966).
23. National Economic Development Board (hereafter NEDB), The national economic development plan, 1961-1966: Second phase, 1964-1966 (Bangkok: 1964), p. 107.
24. Khon Suphan (hereafter KS), 10 June 1974. For accounts of other such works, see KS, 30 Apr. 1962; 15 May 1962; 30 Oct. 1962; 30 May 1963; 5 July 1963; 25 Dec. 1963; 20 May 1968; 20 Sept. 1968; 10 Jan. 1970; 10 June 1971; 30 July 1973; 10 Sept. 1973; 30 Nov. 1973; 10 June 1974; 20 June 1974; 20 July 1974; and 10 Dec. 1974. Khon Suphan is the oldest provincial newspaper in Suphanburi and has been published since 1957.
25. Interview, 18 Feb. 2002.
26. For articles on irrigation duct construction, see KS, 10 Sept. 1968; 5 Apr. 1962; 14 Mar. 1967; 28 June 1968; 28 Feb. 1970; and 20 June 1972. For articles on school construction, see KS, 20 June 1968; 4 Apr. 1967.
27. NEDB, The second national economic and social development plan 1967-71 (Bangkok: 1967), p. 195.
28. KS, 20 May 1968.
29. Chatthip Nartsupha, The Thai village economy in the past (Bangkok: Silkworm Books, 1997)
30. James Scott, The moral economy of the peasant (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976).
31. KS, 10 June 1971.
32. KS, 10 May 1973. A study conducted in another Thai province, Khon Kaen, lends additional support to my interpretation. The study found that, while supporting development in principle, many villagers do not want to sacrifice their own precious time and money for it. Plainly stated, they want development, but not if they have to contribute to it - a finding that supports Samuel Popkin's assumption derived from economics; Ratana Boonmathya, 'Contested concepts of development in rural Northeastern Thailand' (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1997), pp. 69-70, 146-9.
33. This was not confined to Suphanburi alone. Philip Hirsch, for example, shows that in neighbouring Uthai Thani province, villagers cooperated to build simple roads together. In Phetchabun province, too, villagers carried out development works on their own without receiving any state funds; Philip Hirsch, Development dilemmas in rural Thailand (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 171-2; Provincial Office of Phetchabun, Rai-ngan kitjakan prachampii 2503 [Report of activities, fiscal year 1960] and Rai-ngan kitjakan prachampii 2506 [Report of activities, fiscal year 1963].
34. Thak Chaloemtiarana, Thailand: The politics of despotic paternalism (Bangkok: Social Science Association of Thailand, 1979), p. 338
35. David Wyatt, Thailand: A short history (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), p. 285.
36. Pasuk and Sungsidh, Corruption and democracy, p. 26.
37. David Morell, 'Power and parliament in Thailand: The futile challenge, 1968-1971' (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1974), pp. 638-68.
38. Tej Bunnag, The provincial administration of Siam, 1892-1915 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 100, 105, 167.
39. On kin muang, see Pasuk and Sungsidh, Corruption and democracy, p. 7.
40. KS, 10 Sept. 1975.
41. KS, 20 June and 30 July 1973.
42. KS, 30 Oct. 1974.
43. KS, 30 May 1968; NEDB, Development projects requiring financial assistance under the second plan (1967-1971) (Bangkok: 1968), p.35.
44. KS, 30 October 1970 and 10 July 1973.
45. KS, 10 June 1971.
46. KS, 20 Mar. 1973, 10 June 1973; Budget Bureau [hereafter BB], Ekasarn ngop-pramarn: Ngop-pramarn prachampii ngop-pramarn 2518 [Budget document: Budget of fiscal year [hereafter EN] 1975], 3, 4: 159, 171.
47. KS, 10 Apr. 1975 and 20 May 1975.
48. KS, 10 Sept. 1974. For other cases that indicate bureaucratic inefficiency, see KS, 28 Dec. 1965; 3 Jan. 1967; 20 July 1969; 30 Aug. 1969; 20 Jan. 1971; 30 July 1971; and 20 Nov. 1971.
49. NEDB, The second national economic and social development plan, pp. 181, 190.
50. National Statistical Office, Statistical yearbook: Thailand, 24 (1963): 222 and 31 (1974-75): 293.
51. Riggs, Thailand
52. Norman Jacobs, Modernization without development. Thailand as an Asian case study (New York: Praeger, 1971).
53. Banharn's younger brother, Chumpol, served as Deputy Minister of Communication (1981-83) and minister of Education (1997-98), while his daughter, Kanchana, was Deputy Minister of Education (1999-2000). Three other MPs of Suphanburi have also held several Cabinet posts over the past two decades.
54. Several Suphanburians used this saying to describe Banharn's belief that guides his behaviour towards local civil servants. Examples of Banharn's inspection activities include the inspection, in January 1990, of the construction of a bridge and a riverside pavement in central Muang district. Once he finished this inspection, he quickly moved on to inspect road construction projects in two other sub-districts. Likewise, in October 1999, he spent the whole day inspecting the construction of six development works - three roads, one temple, and two schools - in five districts (KS, 1 Feb. 1990 and 16 Oct. 1999).
55. KS, 16 Mar., 16 May, 16 June, 1 July, 16 Nov. 1998; 1 Dec. 1999; 16 May, 1 Oct. 2000; 1 Mar., 2 May, 16 July, 16 Oct. 2001; 16 May, 16 Aug., 1 Nov., and 1 Dec. 2002. Suphan Post, 16 Apr., 16 Oct. 1999; 1 Jan., 16 Jan. and 1 Oct. 2002; unpublished news stories supplied by an informant.
56. Suphan Post, Dec. 2001 and 16 Aug. 1999 (Suphan Post, now called Isara, is a monthly provincial newspaper published since 2001)
57. KS, 16 April 1993; 1 Nov., 30 Dec., 16 Nov. 1993; 16 July 1996; 16 Mar., 16 Sept. 1997; 16 June, 16 Aug., 30 Dec. 1998; 16 June, 1 July, 1 Aug. 2000; 1 Sept. 2001; 1 June, 16 Sept. 2002; Isara, June 2002; unpublished news stories supplied by an informant.
58. KS, 16 Dec. 1995.
59. KS, 1 March 1987.
60. Asiaweek, 4 Feb. 2003, p. 28. The reporter also comments: 'Attention to detail is Banharn's forte. Ordering the changing of a lightbulb or chastising contractors over the quality of a varnished floor in a sparkling new basketball stadium is all in a weekend's work for the former premier.'
61. Chart Thai Samphan, 13 (2001): 17. On another occasion, he similarly described his character as follows: 'I watch everything-submitting a tender, buying rice, buying materials to be used in my business, or managing works in accordance with the target of the contract';
62. Khomduean Choetcharatfa, Cheewa prawat lae thasana Banharn Silpa-archa, Nayok Ratamontri khon thi 21 khong thai [The life and viewpoint of Banharn Silpa-archa, Thailand's 21st Prime Minister] (Bangkok: Soi Thong, 1995), p. 56.
63. Interview with a Highways Department official, 3 Feb. 2000. In Sept. 2000, for example, he checked the conditions of all the trees planted along the 80 kilometre highway between Suphanburi and Bangkok (KS, 16 Sept. 2000).
64. Interview, 11 Dec. 1999.
65. Personal observation and interview, 25 Apr. 2002.
66. KS, 16 Jan. 2002.
67. Interview with an official from the Provincial Office of Archaeology, 20 Apr. 2000; see also various copies of KS issued during this period.
68. Provincial Office of Suphanburi, Thiraluek phithi pert Phraborom Rachanusawri Phrabat Somdet Phra Junlajomklao Chaoyuhua lae Sala Klang Jangwat Suphanburi [Commemorating the opening of King Chulalongkorn Monument and the Provincial Hall of Suphanburi], p. 41.
69. KS, 16 Apr. 1999.
70. KS, 16 July 1997.
71. Author's research based on KS, supplemented by Thin Thai and Suphanburi Sarn, two local papers that were in print in the 1980s. Since the library holdings of KS consulted are incomplete in some years, the actual number of inspection tours and meetings conducted by Banharn is most likely much higher than the one given here.
72. Interview, 13 Dec. 1999.
73. Banharn's style has caused friction with, and estranged, other CT Party MPs too. One is his own brother Chumpol, who resigned as Education Minister in 1998 because of Banharn's 'constant interference'. According to one civil servant in Suphanburi, Chumpol, who has an MA in public administration from an American university, has 'a modern head' and is not accustomed to Banharn's 'traditional type of administration' (Interview, 2 Apr. 2000).
74. Interview, 7 Dec. 1999.
75. Interview, 30 Jan. 2000.
76. Interview, 6 May 2002.
77. Interview, 10 Apr. 2002.
78. Anonymous interview, 5 Apr. 2002.
79. Chart Thai Samphan, 13 (2001): 17, 18.
80. James Scott, Domination and the arts of resistance: Hidden transcripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).
81. Interview, 5 Feb. 2000.
82. Interview, 12 Dec. 1999. They even played badminton, Banharn's favourite sport, together many times. See KS 25 Jan. 1986; 1 Aug., 1 Sept. 1989; 1 Feb. and 16 Apr. 1990.
83. Department of Business Development, Ministry of Commerce [hereafter DBD/ MC], Suphanburi Limited Partnership File No. 198.
84. Michel Foucault, Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (New York: Vintage Books, 1995), p. 214.
85. Lisa Wedeen, Ambiguities of domination: Politics, rhetoric, and symbols in contemporary Syria (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).
86. Interview, 31 Jan. 2002.
87. KS, 16 June 1998.
88. KS, 16 Dec. 1998. While Head of the Provincial Office of Primary School Education (1996-2000), Dilok directed the construction of many other schools to Banharn's satisfaction. In 2000, Banharn rewarded Dilok by having him appointed as Deputy Director-General of the Bangkok-based National Office of Primary School Education. At that time, Banharn had a stranglehold on the Education Ministry. The Minister of Education was his protégé and MP from Ang Thong, Somsak Prisananandhakul, and Banharn's daughter Kanchana was Deputy Minister of Education.
89. KS, 16 Jan. 1999.
90. Interview, 3 Feb. 2000. Banharn owns Saha Srichai, a Bangkok-based construction company established in 1953 (DBD/MC, Bangkok Company File No. 3893).
91. Chart Thai Samphan, 13 (2001): 17.
92. Clifford Geertz, Negara: The theater state in nineteenth-century Bali (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), p. 13.
93. Personal observation, 3 June 2002.
94. Untitled data obtained at Departments of Highways, Accelerated Rural Development and Public Works.
95. Bangkok Post, 25 Sept. 1995.
96. BB, Ekasarn ngop-pramarn 2533 (hereafter EN), 4,5:333, EN 2535, 4,5:331, EN 2536, 4,5:362, and EN 2537, 4, 5: 393; Sports Authority of Suphanburi, Thiraluek phithi Wang silarert arkhan thiphak nakkiilaa khanat 200 tiang jangwat Suphanburi [Commemorating the cornerstone-laying ceremony for athletes' hostel with 200 beds, Suphanburi] (Suphanburi: NP 1998), p. 14
97. KS, 30 July 1976, 1 Feb. 1990; BB, EN 2520, 3, 7: 53, 68, EN 2540, 4, 9: 293, 379, EN 2544, 4, 9: 67; Chaophraya Yommarat Hospital, Thiraluek phithi pert tuek khon khai phiset Banharn-Jaemsai Silpa-archa 3 [Commemorating the opening ceremony for Banharn-Jaemsai Patients' Ward 3] (Suphanburi: NP 1998), pp. 33, 38.
98. Personal observation, 3 June 2002; interview, 17 Dec. 2000.
99. Anonymous interviews, 19, 30 Jan. 2002.
100. Interview, 14 Sept. 1999.
101. Interview, 12 Apr. 2002.
102. ITV, 19 Nov. 1999.
103. ITV, 6 Feb. 2000.
104. McVey, 'Of greed and violence', p. 4.
105. Interview, 18 Apr. 2002.
106. Suphan Post, 16 Aug. 1999.
107. KS, 1 Apr. 1996. See also KS, 1 Dec. 2000, for similar praise.
108. Reynaldo Ileto, Knowing America's colony: A hundred years from the Philippine War (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Center for Philippine Studies, 1999).
109. Daniel Arghiros, Democracy, development, and decentralization in provincial Thailand (Richmond: Curzon, 2001);
110. Michael Nelson, Central authority and local administration in Thailand (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1998).
111. Daniel Arghiros, Democracy, development, and decentralization in provincial Thailand;
112. Michael Montesano, 'The commerce of Trang, 1930s-1990s: Thailand's national integration in social historical perspective' (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1998)
113. Montesano, 'Market society and the origins of the new Thai politics', in Money and power, ed. McVey, pp. 97-122;116 Nelson, Central authority and local administration in Thailand.
114. See, for example, Thak, Thailand
115. Duncan McCargo, Chamlong Srimuang and the new Thai politics (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997)
116. William Warren, Prem Tinsulanonda: Soldier and satesman (Bangkok: M.L. Tridosyuth, 1997)
117. Vichitwong na Pombhejara, Pridi Banomyong and the making of Thailand's modern history (Bangkok: Committee on the Project for the National Celebration on the Occasion of the Centennial Anniversary of Pridi Banomyong, 2001)
118. Kobkua Suwannathat-pian, Thailand's durable Premier: Phibun through three decades, 1932-1957 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995)
119. Duncan McCargo and Ukrist Pathmanand, The Thaksinization of Thailand (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2005)
120. and Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, Thaksin: The business of politics in Thailand (Bangkok: Silkworm Books, 2004).
121. A recent issue of Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia similarly proposes that scholars pay due attention to the importance of leadership types in Southeast Asia. This suggestion, made about national-level politicians, can be extended to the level of local-level politicians, too. See 'Statesman or manager? The image and reality of leadership in Southeast Asia', in Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, 6 (2005) (http://kyotoreview.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp).