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Prostitution and Female Leadership in Rural Thailand: The Story of Phayao Province*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2011

YOSHINORI NISHIZAKI
YOSHINORI NISHIZAKI*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore117570 Email: polyn@nus.edu.sg
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Abstract

For all the attention paid to the economic, social, and moral dimensions of prostitution in Thailand, no scholar has thus far conducted an empirical study of the relationship between the vice and political change in the countryside, where most sex workers come from. Using the case of Phayao Province in northern Thailand, I attempt to redress this lacuna. I show how rampant prostitution, the most acute social issue in Phayao, has ushered in the rise to power of one virtuous woman from an ethnic minority family—Ladawan Wongsriwong. Located on the economic and social margins of Thailand, many village families in Phayao traditionally relied on prostitution for income, causing a massive influx of young girls into the lucrative sex industry in Bangkok and abroad. In the 1990s, however, AIDS started taking a heavy toll on Phayao's small population. Against this backdrop, Ladawan emerged as a prominent female leader in the male-dominant rural society of Phayao by conducting an extensive issue-oriented campaign against prostitution. This case questions much of the literature on rural politics and female leadership in democratizing Southeast Asia that underestimates the importance of social issues.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 6 , November 2011 , pp. 1535 - 1597
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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38 Wathinee and Guest, ‘Prostitution in Thailand’, p. 148.

39 It was not until 1978 that compulsory education was extended to last for six years.

40 See Muecke, ‘Mother Sold Food, Daughter Sells Her Body’, p. 897, for a similar account.

41 Almost 94 per cent of Phayao's women born between 1941 and 1950—women who came of age in the 1960s–1970s—received six or fewer years of education or no education at all. National Statistical Office, Sammano Prachakon lae Keha,2543, Jangwat Phayao [Population and Housing Census, 2000, Phayao Province] (Bangkok: 2001), p. 127.

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51 To describe this point, a few respondents used a Thai proverb, Kai ngam phro khon, khon ngam phro taeng [A chicken is naturally beautiful thanks to its feathers, while human beings owe their beauty to their clothing].

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53 For similar accounts, see Ford, Nicholas and Koetsawang, Suporn, ‘The Socio-cultural Context of the Transmission of HIV in Thailand’, Social Science and Medicine 33, 4 (1991): 409Google Scholar; Peracca, Sara, Knodel*, John and Saengtienchai, Chanpen, ‘Can Prostitutes Marry? Thai Attitudes toward Female Sex Workers’, Social Science and Medicine 47, 2 (1998): 255–267Google Scholar; Taylor, ‘Dangerous Trade-offs’, p. 416.

54 In one revealing and locally well-known case, even a primary school teacher in Village A quit her job and became a sex worker in Bangkok—a case that my respondent, who went to the teacher's school, shrugged off as ‘normal’ (rueang thammada), as I expressed disbelief.

55 As a few merchants in Villages A and C described by using Thai proverbs, some farmers started acting proud, as if they were ‘reptiles that have found gold’ [kinka dai thong] or ‘buffaloes that have forgotten their feet’ [wua luem tiin].

56 Niwat, Chumchon Kha Praweni, pp. 77, 80–81

57 Ladawan, ‘Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon’, p. 19.

58 Ladawan recounts a similar story in Kamol Hengkietisak, ‘A Green Harvest of a Different Kind’, Bangkok Post, 20 March 1994, p. 17.

59 Niwat, Chumchon Kha Praweni, p. 81.

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63 Niwat, Chumchon Kha Praweni, p. 74.

64 For similar accounts, see also Muecke, ‘Mother Sold Food, Daughter Sells Her Body’, pp. 894, 896; Cook, ‘Dutiful Daughters, Estranged Sisters’, p. 268.

65 Somsuan, ‘Sueksa Khwam Khit Hen Khong Phra Sangkhathikan Tor Panha Kan Kha Praweni Dek’, p. 94.

66 Kamol, ‘A Green Harvest of a Different Kind’.

67 For similar stories, see also Ford and Suporn, ‘The Socio-cultural Context of the Transmission of HIV in Thailand’, p. 409; Matsui, Shoojo wa Naze Shouhu ni Nattanoka, pp. 128–129; Ladawan, Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon, pp. 15, 31.

68 National Statistical Office, Sammano Prachakon lae Keha, 2523, Jangwat Phayao [Population and Housing Census, 1980, Phayao Province] (Bangkok: 1980), p. 63.

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71 See Niwat, Chumchon Kha Praweni, p. 84 for similar accounts.

72 Cook, ‘Dutiful Daughters, Estranged Sisters’, p. 253.

73 Ladawan, ‘Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon’, p. 15.

74 Taylor, ‘Dangerous Trade-offs’, p. 416; see also Niwat, Chumchon Kha Praweni, p. 81.

75 Matsui, Shoojo wa Naze Shouhu ni Nattanoka, p. 200.

76 Phongpaichit, Pasuk, Piriyarangsan, Sungsidh, and Treerat, Nualnoi, Guns, Girls, Gambling, Ganja: Thailand's Illegal Economy and Public Policy (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 1998), p. 155Google Scholar.

77 Personal email communication, 4 March 2007.

78 Ladawan, ‘Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon’, p. 31.

79 See also Taylor, ‘Dangerous Trade-offs’, p. 422.

80 Supara Janchitfah, ‘Politics of Misery in Phayao’, Bangkok Post, 27 October 1996, p. 13.

81 Jiralak, Wikrit Thang Watthanatham kap Kan Damrong Chiwit khong Yaosatrii, p. 211; Niwat, Chumchon Kha Praweni, p. 84; see also Pasuk, From Peasant Girls to Bangkok Masseuses, pp. 46, 48.

82 Wathinee and Guest, ‘Prostitution in Thailand’, pp. 148–149.

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87 Ibid., pp. 16, 21–22.

88 Alpha Research, Thailand in Figures 2005–2006 (Nonthaburi, Thailand: 2006), p. 99.

89 Supara, ‘Politics of Misery in Phayao’.

90 The author's interview notes, 29 January 2007.

91 See also Knodel, John and Im-em, Wassana, ‘The Economic Consequences for Parents of Losing an Adult Child to AIDS: Evidence from Thailand’, Social Science and Medicine 59 (2004): 987–1001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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93 For example, the middle-class owner of one brothel in Dok Kham Tai lost his son to AIDS. Niwat, Chumchon Kha Praweni, p. 88.

94 One example is a Japanese former civil servant named Misaburo Taniguchi (born 1923), who moved to Jun District of Phayao in 1990. He hands out free vegetables and fruits that he has grown to HIV-infected people and their families at the district hospital every week.

95 This is not unique to Phayao. A quite similar phenomenon emerged in Chiang Mai and other provinces of northern Thailand. See Tanabe, Shigeharu, ‘Suffering, Community, and Self-government: HIV/AIDS Self-help Groups in Northern Thailand’, in Tanabe, Shigeharu (ed.), Imagining Communities in Thailand: Ethnographic Approaches (Chiang Mai: Mekong Press, 2008)Google Scholar.

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98 According to one extremely well-informed researcher on ethnic minorities in northern Thailand, Ladawan's ID card number, which starts with ‘3’, indicates that she acquired Thai citizenship at birth. In accordance with the (complicated) Thai civil registration system, if her parents had had only a ‘legal alien’ status (that is, if they had not acquired Thai citizenship), her ID number would start with ‘6’. If she had had her Thai citizenship granted by the Ministry of Interior sometime after her birth, her ID number would start with ‘8’ (email correspondences with Mukdawan Sakboon, 2007).

99 National Statistical Office, Sammano Prachakon lae Keha, 2543, Jangwat Phayao, pp. 127, 129.

100 Juthaphuthi, Monthira, Yuu Yang Mii Khwam Mai [Living Meaningfully] (Bangkok: Phraew, 1995), pp. 86, 91Google Scholar; Matichon, 31 July 2005, p. 11; the author's interview with Bunpeng, 6 February 2007.

101 Caspar, , Asia no Kodomo Baishun to Nihon [The Prostitution of Asian Children and Japan] (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1996), p. 157Google Scholar.

102 Data obtained from the Ministry of Public Health, 25 January 2007.

103 Kamol, ‘A Green Harvest of a Different Kind’.

104 Monthira, Yuu Yang Mii Khwam Mai, pp. 87–88.

105 Ladawan, ‘Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon’, p. 43.

106 Caspar, Asia no Kodomo Baishun to Nihon, pp. 158–159.

107 As Ladawan recalls, she was initially hesitant to accept the offer, but Anand persuaded her in person at the Prime Minister's Office. When she said, ‘Let me talk to my family first’, Anand replied, ‘This kind of good offer should be accepted. If your husband objects, get a divorce and get a new husband’ (Matichon, 31 July 2005).

108 Sawarphanit, Ko, Mong Kansueksa: Senthang thi Thaothiam khong Khon Thai [Looking at Education: The Equal Path for Thais]. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press, 1992)Google Scholar.

109 Bangkok Post, 6 August 1992, p. 3; Caspar, Asia no Kodomo Baishun to Nihon, p. 159.

110 Kamol, ‘A Green Harvest of a Different Kind’.

111 Ibid.

112 Ladawan, ‘Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon’, p. 16. In the earlier election of March 1992, Anand had encouraged Ladawan to run for office, too. She declined, saying to Anand, ‘Why don't you found a party of your own first? I will then run for office’. Krungthep Thurakij, 14 August 1999, pp. 2–4; Matichon, 31 July 2005, p. 30.

113 Department of Local Administration, Phon Kanluektang Samachik Sapha Phuthaen Rasadon 2535 [Results of the House of Representatives Election 1992] (Bangkok: 1992), p. 104.

114 Bangkok Post, 24 June 1995, p. 6.

115 Siroj, Child Prostitution in Thailand, p. 13.

116 Unless otherwise noted, this section is based on the verbal and written information I obtained at the Northern Young Women's Development Foundation on 6 and 7 February 2007.

117 See also Thai Post, 12 May 2002, pp. 2–5; Naew Na, 10 June 1996, p. 19.

118 http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~caspar/ and http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~caspar/tattahitori.htm [accessed 24 January 2011].

119 Caspar, Asia no Kodomo Baishun to Nihon, pp. 154–164, 180; 2001; Thai Post, 12 May 2002, pp. 2–5. In subsequent years, Ladawan gave similar talks in other parts of Japan. In July 1998, for example, she addressed an audience of some 800 people in Okinawa. http://www.gender.go.jp/egarite/121/121-17.html [accessed 2 February 2011].

120 Untitled data obtained at Rat Prachanukro School, 7 February 2007.

121 Budget Bureau (BB), Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2538 [Budget Document 1995], 8,7 (1994a): 2/89–2/90; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2538 [Budget Document 1995], 4,5 (1994b): 830; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2539 [Budget Document 1996], 8,7 (1995a): 2/39–2/40; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2540 [Budget Document 1997], 8,6 (1996): 2/28–2/29; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2542 [Budget Document 1999], 8,6 (1998): 2/28; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2543 [Budget Document 2000], 8,6 (1999): 2/29; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2544 [Budget Document 2001], 8,4 (2000): 2/27; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2545 [Budget Document 2002], 8,4 (2001): 2/28; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2546 [Budget Document 2003], 8,3 (2002): 2/23; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2547 [Budget Document 2004], 8,3 (2003): 2/23; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2548 [Budget Document 2005], 3: 2/15.

122 The author's interviews at Rat Prachanukro School, 7 February 2007.

123 BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2537 [Budget Document 1994], 4,5 (1993): 918–920; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2538 (1994a): 2/91; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2538 (1994b): 1009; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2539 (1995a): 2/41; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2539 [Budget Document 1996], 4,8 (1995b): 922, 926–927, 937; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2540: 2/29; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2541 [Budget Document 1998], 8,6 (1997): 2/34; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2542: 2/29; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2543: 2/30; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2547: 2/24.

124 Chiang Kham Vocational College, Ekasarn Nenam Withayalai kan Acheep Chiang Kham [Guidebook on Chiang Kham Vocational College] (Phayao: 1998); the author's interviews at Chiang Kham Vocational College, 6 February 2007

125 BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2540: 2/29; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2541: 2/34; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2542: 2/29; BB, Ekasarn Ngop-pramarn 2543: 2/30.

126 Naresuan University, Khomun Sathiti Mahawithayalai Naresuan Withayaket Sarasonthet Phayao Pii 2549 [Statistical data on Naresuan University, Information Technology Campus of Phayao 2006] (Phayao: 2006), pp. 30–31.

127 The author's interviews at Rat Prachanukro, 7 February 2007.

128 Casper, Asia no Kodomo Baishun to Nihon, p. 159; Ladawan, ‘Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon’, p. 46.

129 Ladawan, ‘Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon’, p. 46.

130 Monthira, Yuu Yang Mii Khwam Mai, pp. 87–88.

131 The author's interview at Chiengcom Leather, 17 December 2007; Department of Business Development, Phayao Company File no.15854600002 (Chiengcom Leather).

132 Ladawan, ‘Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon’, pp. 36–37.

133 Sansanee Nakpong, another female MP (Bangkok) from Phalang Dhamra Party and former television anchorwoman, submitted a separate anti-prostitution bill on this occasion. Bangkok Post,14 September 1995, p. 1.

134 National Parliament, Rai-ngan Kan Prachum Sapha Phuthaen Rasadon [Minutes of House of Representatives Sessions], regular session, 5(1995), pp. 204–212.

135 For details, see Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Phraracha Banyat Pongkan lae Prap Pram kan Kha Praweni 2539 [The Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act 1996] (Bangkok: 1997).

136 National Parliament, Rai-ngan Kan Prachum Sapha Phuthaen Rasadon, p. 211.

137 Matichon, 17 February 1997, p. 30; Naew Na, 5 May 1997, pp. 1–2; Siam Rat, 24 February 1997, pp. 1–2.

138 Ladawan, ‘Yuthasat kan Kae Kai Panhaa Soophenii Dek Yang Dai Phon’, p. 49.

139 See Wongsriwong, Ladawan, Labour Policy Dialogue between Ms. Ladawan Wongsriwong, Deputy Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and the Executives of International Labour Organisation (ILO), October 9–14, 2001, Geneva, Switzerland (Bangkok: Bophit Printing, 2002)Google Scholar; Matichon, 19 May 2005, p. 15; Siam Rath, 7 October 2005, p. 23; Thai Post, 25 October 2005, p. 8.

140 National Statistical Office, Sammano Prachakon lae Keha, 2523, Jangwat Phayao, p. 63; Caspar, Asia no Kodomo Baishun to Nihon, p. 162.

141 Kane, John, The Politics of Moral Capital (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

142 The following account is based on my interviews with JJ on 27 and 30 July 2008, 2 and 3 August 2008, and 2 June 2009.

143 The daughter of the agent who had tried to draw JJ into prostitution died of AIDS, too. The agent had his own daughter work as a prostitute.

144 Supara, ‘Politics of Misery in Phayao’.

145 Bangkok Post, 24 June 1995, p. 6.

146 Untitled data obtained at the Provincial Office of Phayao on 11 January 2008.

147 Tharn Setakit, 8 August 1999, p. 13; Matichon, 12 April 2004, p. 8.

148 Department of Business Development, Phayao Company File No. 0575529000059.

149 For Phiao's background, see also Phonla Muang Nuea [Northern Citizen], 26 May–1 June 2008, pp. 6–7.

150 Supara, ‘Politics of Misery in Phayao’.

151 Department of Local Administration, Phon Kanluektang Samachik Sapha Phuthaen Rasadon 2535 [Results of the House of Representatives Election 1992] (Bangkok: 1992), p. 104.

152 As of 2001, nine years after becoming an MP, Ladawan's personal assets totalled little more than 2.3 million baht. She was one of the ‘poorest’ MPs. National Office of Counter Corruption, minister file no. 35.

153 Department of Local Administration, Khomun Sathiti lae Phon Kanluektang Samachik Sapha Phuthaen Rasadon 2 Karakadakhom 2538 [Statistical Data and the Results of the House of Representatives Election 2 July 1995] (Bangkok: 1995), p. 86.

154 Department of Business Development, Phayao Limited Partnership File No. 261.

155 Later, in the senate election of 2006, Aree came in first, receiving 14 per cent of the votes cast. She is now the chief of the Provincial Office of Public Health in Phayao.

156 Supara, ‘Politics of Misery in Phayao’.

157 Department of Local Administration, Khomun Sathiti lae Phon Kanluektang Samachik Sapha Phuthaen Rasadon 17 Phueschikayon 2539 [Statistical Data and the Results of the House of Representatives Election 17 November 1996] (Bangkok: 1996), p. 195.

158 Mae liang is a designation for influential women in northern Thailand. During my fieldwork in Phrae in June 2009, one female merchant in Den Chai District described Siriwan as a woman who ‘speaks roughly (hao hao) and behaves like a nakleng (tough guy)’.

159 Bangkok Post, 19 June 1995, p. 3.

160 For further details, see the provincial newspaper Siang Phrae, 1–10 July and 1–10 November 2007; Bangkok Post, 23 October 2007, p. 4; Thai Rath, 23 October 2007, pp. 1, 15.

161 Cielito Pascual, ‘Signs of Success::The Race against Poverty Awards’ (1999), http://www.shareintl.org/archives/homelessness/hl-cpsigns-success.htm [accessed 4 January 2011].

162 Supara, ‘Politics of Misery in Phayao’; Pascual, ‘Signs of Success’; the author's interviews with Mookda's colleagues at Tampin Withayakhom School, 31 January 2007.

163 Anek, ‘A Tale of Two Democracies’, pp. 208, 222.

164 Post Today, 15 September 2003, C1; The Nation, 17 January 2003, 4B.

165 Untitled data obtained from the Provincial Office of Phayao on 11 January 2008.

166 Ministry of Labour. Minimum Wage (2007), http://eng.mol.go.th/statistic_01.html [accessed 2 February 2011].

167 Taylor, ‘Dangerous Trade-offs’.

168 See, for example, Muang Phayao, 16–31 January 2007, pp. 6–7.

169 Walker, ‘The Rural Constitution and the Everyday Politics of Elections in Northern Thailand’.

170 Ockey, Making Democracy.

171 Roces, ‘The Gendering of Postwar Philippine Politics’.

172 Sayam Rath Weekly, 20 August 1989, cited in Anek, ‘A Tale of Two Democracies’, p. 214. Emphasis mine.

173 Richter, ‘Exploring Theories of Female Leadership in South and Southeast Asia’, p. 530.

174 Ockey, ‘Thai Society and Patterns of Political Leadership’, Asian Survey 36,4: 345–360.

175 Ockey, Making Democracy, pp. 76, 101–123.

176 Kerkvliet, Benedict, ‘Manuela Santa Ana de Maclang and Philippine Politics’, in McCoy, Alfred (ed.), Lives at the Margin (Madison, Wisconsin: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin, 2000), pp. 389–421Google Scholar.