Our Successes and Challenges

When Sulak came back from England forty years ago, he was a loner in the Thai intellectual realms of those days. His contemporary progressive intellectuals at this time, either the far left, the social democrats or even the liberals were all dis-functional. This was because, the ruling, oppressive military regime supported by the Americans, ensured that some were assassinated, others expelled from the country or put in jail, any others were forced underground. Political and social history of the last forty years has yet to be thoroughly examined by historians. What we can say is that the two successful uprisings in Siam in 1973 and 1992 overthrew two military regimes and the culture of military dominating politics is quickly withering away. The rebellious cultural and social movement in the 70's among students, young intellectuals and concerned scholars was the starting point of a stronger civil society that is growing and commanding more and more political and cultural space in today Thai society. Many former activists from the 70's and 80's have become a new elite among the political and business society and they hold key positions in many areas.

However, with the local exploitative capitalist and feudal systems and the force of global capitalist corporations, the fate of the majority of the people is not better off than forty years ago. In fact, a large portion of the poor are becoming poorer as the traditional culture and natural resources that used to support their life and livelihood are fast destroyed by the modernisation and development process, that some call neo imperialism. Bangkok, once a Venice of the East, has now become the most ugly city in Asia. The urban poor, especially workers, are much devided and can hardly unite themselves to be a new real political force inspite of the fast growing industry in the last few decades. However, over the last few decades the gross suffering of the rural poor who have been directly devastated by the so-called development process, with the support of dedicated activists, has stimulated a strong grassroots movement and they know have substantial power to talk with the political society.

However, the exploitative and oppressive power structure we aspired to change forty years ago has not really changed. The poor and the marginalised are not much better off. Having said that we should also mention that the NGO workers who work at the grassroots in the last few decades have had a good number of success stories at the micro level for sustainable and just future. There is more political and cultural space for positive change at the national level. Young activists and intellectuals of today who opt out of the mainstream have more space to stand firmly and more chance of making a real impact if they want to. Of course the MNC also have more chance to fish our bright- brained youngsters to serve their corporate empires.

Looking from a big picture, Sulak and Co. are part and parcel of these successes and failures of the new social movement in Siam. Of course some parts we have been very actively involved and other parts we have supported from some distance. In some areas, Sulak was a one man show, and in others he relies heavily on friends and colleagues. Other times we ask him for help and rely heavily on his support. We do not want to eulogise him, though this website is a kind of commemoration for his upcoming 70th anniversary, or an excuse to use his good name to harvest international support to continue what he has built up in the last 40 years.

There is a lot more we can say about our successes and challenges but we will wait for a more critical and more sophisticated analysis that we hope will be available in the future.

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