From: ssg9328@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Samart Srijumnong)
Subject: Re: The Good woman in Thailand
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 06:27:54 GMT

messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk) writes:

>......................................... - you see, I do not 
>really believe that the government will solve anything, not in the
>US, not in Thailand.  If you should read my original post on the
>subject, you will see that I believe it is all a question of economy.
>What I do not believe is that the government is capable of improving
>economy or curing social ills brought about by an influx of easy money
>from outside during an economic hardship. Governmental regulations are
>usually detached from reality, dictated by lifetime bureaucrats with
>no vested interest in cutting bureacracy or improving economy, and
>with only vested interest in strenghtening their own position.  Where
>the government is not local, and where members of it do not have to
>go back to regular life after a few years of service and live together
>with their neighbors in the situation they created with their 
>regulations, you will have an apparattus that is detached from the 
>world it is surrounded by, and which members do not have to answer
>to those they regulate.  How one can possibly expect such government
>to improve anything, i don't know.
>As you said yourself - if one is affluent, one doesn't have to work
>the streets as a prostitute to live a good lifestyle.  Herein lies
>the answer.

>Best Regards,

>Tony

The above characterization of a government sounds familair. We have 
repeatedly heard this from former President George Bush. Yes, there
are many convincing points in this notion. However, IMO, Khun Sawanit
had made a point when he discussed about the erosion of environments 
and culture when tourism is concerned. It is capitalism, or tourist
industrialists, to make it more specific, that have taken advantages
of the situation leaving damage to both nature and culture, the two
most attractive selling points in tourism. In this regard, I agree
with him that the government needs to have a role, if not all, to
COMPROMISE between those industrialists and other interests of the country.
I do not want to be extreme to oppose KhuTony's observation. He
is right in saying that the government tends to pose unnecessary load
to the attempt of solving societal problems. How about some limited
roles of it? 

Enviroments belong to everybody but to save it always requires resources
both money and personnel. Every entrepreneur tends to care less about it
since its EXTERNALITY is obvious. A company, if decides to go along with
a government environment guideline, would have to PAY. Yet, its effect
does not limitedly fall upon the company but the whole society. This
makes the dream to have private sector involved in environmental protection
unrealistic. The government, whose role is to deal with all kind of
externality investment, needs to have a role.

As far as prostitution, the government may also have a role. As we all have
realized, prostitution is linked to mafia on one side and the police on
the other. The police is an arm of the government--to ENFORCE the law
and order. If the government realizes the problem, it could at least make
its arm of law work. Again, it is not easy. How about a compromise,
for example, to have the police under local control? 

On the private side, however, there are many things that can be done. I
believe non-government organizations (NGOs) could be very helpful in
helping alleviating this problem if not totally eradicate it. I am 
thinking about NGOs' approach which emphasizes dealing with people. 
We need to have this dimension of problem treated. We need to make
the parents realize their responsibilities. We need to make those girls
who are now in the prostitution to realize other alternatives which
are less harmful to their life (both psychologically and socially). 
We need to reeducate the demand side people, e.g. the clients (straight
or otherwise, foreign or otherwise) to realize the adverse effect of
prostitution to the society. We can begin effort in this fashion without
having to wait until the economic distribution is well equal since 
nobody knows when Thailand will reach that stage. 

Sorry to have digressed the discourse to another issue than the role
of government. Again, I would say we still need a government's role in
laying policy and persuit legal actions concerning the problem itself and 
in other related areas. Without it, the victims would never be rescued.
Without it, those who have benefitted from the situation would take
even more advantage of the de-regulation. In persuing this agenda, we
seem to have found our responsibilities to make the government more
EFFECTIVE and RESPONSIVE. 

Regards,
Samart
Champaign, Illinois
January 28, 1992.


Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai