Publication

Lead - polluted Water Changed our Lives’: A Thai-Karen Village’s Quest for Environmental Justice

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Sitthikriengkrai, Malee. Nathan Porath. (2017) “Lead - polluted Water Changed our Lives’: A Thai-Karen Village’s Quest for Environmental Justice” in South East Asia Research, Vol 25(2), pp. 139 - 156, SOAS, University of London

Abstract

At the turn of the millennium, inhabitants of a small Karen village situated in one of Thailand’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites sought access to environmental justice in the Thai courts over industrial pollution that had contaminated their local stream with lead and caused them years of degraded health and social misery. The Karen villagers were only able to gain access to justice with the help of NGOs that served them as a support group during a period when Thailand was experiencing active civil and democratic awakening. The NGOs, which had a common cause with the Karen villagers, helped them enter the ‘environmental justice frame’ and its discourse. Their experience of lead pollution was framed within a moral ‘rhetoric of exposure’, which came to guide their activism against intransigent agencies and policies, as well as their mobilization for access to justice.

Forever Transnational

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Forever transnational: The ambivalence of return and cross-border activities of the Shan across the Thailand-Myanmar border. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. pp.75-89.

Over the past two decades, northern Thailand has experienced a massive influx of Shan ethnic nationals from Myanmar migrating to escape economic hardship and political conflicts at home. Myanmar's recent reforms raise the question of whether these migrants will return. The paper brings together the context of current changes in Myanmar with migrants' prospects of return and the impact of large‐scale migration on homeland politics. On the one hand, the paper explores the possibility that Shan migrants could remain forever transnational, for many of them will most likely never return. On the other hand, it considers the perspective of Shan elites in Myanmar on the fact a large portion of young Shan now spend their adult lives living and working in Thailand. While out‐migration of young Shan threatens the social fabric of Shan community in Myanmar, Shan ethnonationalists strive across the Myanmar border to regain loyalty among the Shan migrant population in Thailand. By examining the two aspects, this paper attempts to shed light on the impact of transnational migration on both migrants and their home country.

Charismatic Monks of Lanna Buddhism

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Porath, Nathan, Sitthikriengkrai, Malee (Reviewer) (2017), “Charismatic Monks of Lanna Buddhism”, in Paul Cohen, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 90, Part 2, No. 313, December 2017, Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 140-143 (Book review)

The book's focus on charisma is important, but it does not go far enough. It takes Weber's idea that charisma comes from the individual and combines this with the Buddhist cosmological notion of barami. But what is needed is a more in-depth and integrated sociological analysis of what constitutes the charismatic phenomena of these monks. Although Charismatic Monks does supply a great deal of evidence that could be used for such an analysis, the book's angle when discussing the devotees' side of the relationship focuses mainly on upland peoples. Although this is interesting in itself there is very little focus on other followers. For example, although some mention is made of Thai elites, we are not told very much about their actual relationship with the monks or about their importance to the movements. We are also told very little about these monks' relationship to kon muang (northern Thai people).

Khruba Bunchum: The Shift in a Millenarian Movement at the Thailand-Myanmar Border

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“Buddhist Holy Man Khruba Bunchum: The Shift in a Millenarian Movement at the Thailand-Myanmar Border” Sojourn. 31(2): pp. 377-412

The study of holy men active in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries has associated them primarily with millenarian movements. In the twenty-first century, Thailand–Myanmar border has seen the emergence of a holy man to whom the concept of millenarianism is, in the current changing religious environment, not applicable. Khruba Bunchum, a contemporary Thai with a significant ethnic minority following in Myanmar, rose to fame in Thailand after being forced to leave Myanmar and spending three years meditating in an isolated cave. He has gained followers among wealthy and middle-class Thais. His case illustrates the effect of mobile media technology in transforming the practice of venerating holy men. It suggests the need for a new approach to studying religious movements, one that draws on religious, political and media sources.

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Myanmar’s Long Road to Federalism: The Case of Shan State

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In reviewing the ongoing peace negotiation and the positions different Shan organizations have taken, we see that Myanmar’s peace process has a long way to go. Its major obstacles include concerns over trust, confusion over process, continued fighting in Shan State, and lack of ethnic unity.

But three years of peace talks have yielded success in that the negotiation strategy of both sides has become more sophisticated. We also see a willingness to compromise, as in how the government has recognized that the future of Myanmar is tied to a federal union. As for the Shan, two questions remain. Can the Shan unite in order to achieve the self-determination they have been fighting for over half a century? And how will the voices and interests of other ethnic groups living in Shan State be represented in this ethnically-defined state?