Analysis: Power of patronage

The fishermen of Klong Dam face an uncertain future

By Simon Ingram in Samut Prakan province

New and strict rules were supposed to have established truly democratic conditions for Thailand's parliamentary election.

But in places like Samut Prakan, a coastal province south of Bangkok, its old-fashioned forces of patronage, feudalism and cold intimidation seem certain to influence the outcome once again.

The fishermen of Klong Dam, a small village near the mouth of the Chao Phraya river, can testify to that.

There is much at stake for them in the election because it may be their last chance to halt a huge and highly controversial waste water project which they say will destroy their livelihoods.

Fish stocks

Hunched over crumpled navigational charts, local activists Dawan Jantarahasdi and Sang Bantap explain how effluent from the waste water plant - which is already close to completion - will kill off the plankton and shrimp on which fish stocks in this northern part of the Gulf of Thailand depend.

Sang Bantap: Worried about the fish stocks

"It's the local politicians who want this scheme, not the people," said Sang Bantap.

The politicians in question belong to the powerful Asavahane family which for two decades has dictated political life in Samut Prakan.

The family also owns the land on which the waste water plant is being built and stand to make huge profits provided the project goes ahead.

The Asavahane operate what is in effect the family's own political party: Rassadorn, or The People Party.

It held five of the province's six seats in the old parliament.

Stopping the waste water project depends on voting these people out of office.

The chances of that appeared to be slender prior to the poll - the blue Rasadorn election posters were all over Samut Prakan while trucks mounted with loudspeakers plied the roads, blaring out the Rasadorn party jingle.

But on Saturday, all five Asavahane family members who ran in the election were defeated.

Carrying weapons

This was no easy defeat.

It was widely suspected that voter registration lists were tampered with in the run-up to election day, with names of people from outside the province being added in order to help Rasadorn candidates win constituencies where the party felt its control was threatened.

There were reports of intimidation too. Election observers found it almost impossible to work in the province. Some resorted to carrying weapons to defend themselves.

Opposing parties have made their presence felt

On the main road to Klong Dan, several posters belonging to Rasadorn's main rival, the Thai Rak Thai party, were defaced, a visible sign perhaps of the political intimidation - and violence - that lurks beneath the surface here.

At the headquarters of the local Election Commission, the official in charge, Pisit Sukarat, admitted that there were serious problems in Samut Prakan during the campaign. In one case, a candidate from the Chat Patana party was disqualified from the contest.

"We've taken every precaution to ensure that there's no repeat of the trouble last year," Mr Pisit told the BBC before the election.

That was the occasion when, during municipal elections, a gang of men burst into a polling station and began stuffing voting slips into election boxes. Policemen on duty did not intervene.

Efforts to question Rassadorn party officials about the complaints were unsuccessful.

At the party's headquarters, a receptionist said there was no-one to answer questions, even though the reception area was crowded with party canvassers.

Split

According to Sunai Phasuk of Pollwatch Network, such a situation was far from unusual.

"There are many Thai provinces where political life - from local to national level - is controlled by a single family."

But he said things don't always work out as these families intended.

"Sometimes more distant relatives split off from their party and join that of a rival. Then it becomes a war within the family, and it makes it more exciting to observe," he added.

But that war to wrest control of the province came abruptly to an end on Saturday's poll.

Back on the Klong Dan waterfront, Sang Bantap explained it this way - the fishermen's only hope was a Thai Rak Thai victory.

"If the waste water plant [was] completed, I don't see that there would be anything left for the fishermen here," he said.