Thai border town businessmen and the state: An examination of their influence on Thai foreign policy toward Burma.

摘要

This study investigates the political behavior of business interest groups in two Thai border towns in promoting their business interests, which are closely linked with Thailand's relations with Burma. In the 1980s the Thai state supported these border town businessmen's efforts to found provincial chambers of commerce and incorporated them into provincial Joint Public and Private Consultative Committees (JPPCC), a corporatist structure formally intended to be the sole channel of provincial businessmen's demands to the state. The research question is how successfully these provincial chambers of commerce promoted their regional interest at the national level and what role the provincial JPPCCs played in their efforts. Major interests of these two border town chambers of commerce including border trade, regulations related to alien employment, and fisheries in Burmese waters are examined. Methodologically, this study relies on records of the Chambers of Commerce of Tak and Ranong provinces, meeting minutes of provincial Joint Public and Private Consultative Committees, official documents of the Thai Ministry of the Interior, interviews with leading border town businessmen and government officials, and observation of border activities. The study finds that the JPPCC structure served only as a forum and did not effectively facilitate regional business interest. The state bureaucracy is complex and security-oriented. For this reason, border town businessmen, whose activities tended to bypass state jurisdiction, had to engage in other political activities such as establishing connections, organizing protests, and lobbying to promote and better serve their interests. The study indicates that provincial businessmen at the periphery are increasingly powerful in national politics despite their lack of support from the state.