Sickness of a Tiger

Anuradha Mittal reviews A Siamese Tragedy: Development and Disintegration in Modern Thailand by Walden Bello, Shea Cunningham and Li Kheng Poh, Food First / Zed Books. Published in The Ecologist Volume 29 Number 4, July 1999. Anuradha Mittal works for Food First, a policy think tank, which works to identify the root causes of hunger and poverty.

"This powerful book is about a nation that fell victim to a rapacious cult called the Market. It is a timely response to those who insist, against all the disastrous evidence, that 'there is no alternative'. There is of course, and there has to be."
John Pilger, author of Hidden Agendas.

Between July 2 and the end of 1997, the Thai currency fell by over 100% against the dollar, and the stock-market fell from an already low 800 points to below 400. At the top of the casualty list were the 50,000 employees of the 56 financial firms that had been shut down by the authorities at the urging of the International Monetary fund (IMF). By September 1997, the country's Finance Minister had predicted that about one million Thais would lose their jobs in the coming recession. Television and newspapers featured human interest stories, such as one about Sirivat Voravetvuthikun, the stockbroker who became a sandwich-maker and peddler to survive the slump. Thailand was effectively bankrupt, saddled with a foreign debt of $89 billion, over half of which was due in a few months.

"Even before the catastrophic economic collapse of 1997-1998, the 'fifth Asian Tiger' had feet of clay," says Dr. Walden Bello, co-author of A Siamese Tragedy. "The economic crisis can be traced to the late 1950s, when with strong backing from the World Bank, Thailand embarked on a path of 'development' stressing rapid industrialisation and minimal regulation of the private sector and greater integration into the global economy."

A Siamese Tragedy provides a comprehensive examination of what went wrong and reveals the economic, environmental and human rights costs of the Thai development model. It deals not with the challenge of reviving the moribund economy, but rather restructuring it on different principles and priorities. It articulates alternatives such as a transactions tax on speculative capital, the creation of an Asian Emergency Regional Fund to replace the US-controlled IMF in dealing with the financial crisis, debt-relief and growth financed principally from domestic savings and investment.

The key to repairing Thai society and its economy, says this book, is to redefine the notion of 'development'. Development, say the authors, should be re-orientated around the domestic market; instead of 8 to 10 per cent growth rates, the aim should be for ecological sustainability at 3 to 4 per cent or even less per year. "This political strategy for change which is both visionary and pragmatic is bringing together those negatively affected by the discredited strategy of fast track capitalism into a broad alliance for change," claims this timely assessment of the Asian problem. "Frozen during the years of the long boom, mass politics with a class edge is returning to centre stage." It remains to be seen if this is truly the case.