Legitimizing Margins: Actions and Reactions in Containing the Ethnic Minority in Thailand

Panel Convenor(s)

• SH

  Sinae Hyun

  Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University, Republic of Korea

Panel Chair(s)

• MS

  Mukdawan Sakboon

  Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Presenter(s)

• MS

  Mukdawan Sakboon

  Chiang Mai University, Thailand
• KM

  Kihong Mun

  Pukyong National University, Republic of Korea
• SH

  Sinae Hyun

  Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University, Republic of Korea

Highland minorities in northern Thailand began receiving lavish attention from Thai and foreign governments in the 1950s when the global Cold War replaced the old colonial system. With the influx of migrants from Communist-dominated China and decolonizing neighboring countries, the demography of northern Thailand has changed drastically. The Thai government was alarmed accordingly, hastily devising policies and programs to control the population that was presumed to be ignorant of Thai politics, society, and culture. From resettlement camps to schools for ethnic minority children, the Thai government has tried to inculcate Thainess, effectively marginalizing, and alienating the minority. These efforts have been backlashed as they unintentionally strengthened the minority’s imperative for preserving their autonomy and identity as well.

This panel aims to rethink and tackle predominant perceptions of highland minorities and immigrants from neighboring countries as passive, unlawful non-Thai subjects. Most minority people who have settled and struggled to find a ground where they could build a life in northern Thailand since the nineteenth century did not immediately deny the Thai state. It was the Thai state’s policies and regulations that pushed them to the margins of the state, generating resistance and resentment. Based on the fieldwork, interviews, and literature review, the four presentations in this panel critically examine dynamic interactions between the Thai state’s efforts at containing the margin to enhance its legitimacy and the ethnic minority’s endeavor to make their presence in Thailand known and lawful. 
Sakboon’s paper examines the ‘ten-year card’ that has created the so-called ‘identity-economy’ and ‘card-economy’ in the ethnic minority community to analyze how the card has become a strategic tool for transforming a holder’s identity. Leepreecha’s paper analyzes the impacts of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) initiated by ethnic minority leaders to raise the voices of indigenous minority people in national politics and local grounds. Mun’s paper delves into curriculum and educational training programs run by Migrant Learning Centres (MLCs) for the ethnic minority children in Thailand-Myanmar border areas to reveal diversifying demands for education. Hyun’s paper looks at the royal development projects undertaken by the Border Patrol Police Schools in northern Thailand to reveal the Thai state’s efforts at containing and surveilling the non-Thai subjects. These case studies illuminate the growing gap and tension between national and ethnic identity not only in the political arena but also in the legal and educational spheres.

Presentations:

• 14:00 – 15:45 (GMT+7)

  Neither a Thai Nor an Alien: The Liminal Identity of the 'Ten-year Card' Holders in Thailand
  

  Presenter: Mukdawan Sakboon – Chiang Mai University
• 14:00 – 15:45 (GMT+7)

  Studying through "Exceptional Space": Migrants Learning Centres in Thailand-Myanmar Border
  

  Presenter: Kihong Mun – Pukyong National University
• 14:00 – 15:45 (GMT+7)

  Schools for Nation and Progress: Border Patrol Police School in Thailand
  

  Presenter: Sinae Hyun – Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University