new frontiers

Briefing on Tourism, Development and Environment Issues

in the Mekong Subregion

Vol. 5, No. 6 November-December 1999

THE REGION

FINE-TUNING THE TOURISM AGENDA IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL-LOCAL NEXUS

Academic attention on Southeast Asian tourism is predicated on two reasons. One is the immense potential for tourism growth notwithstanding the current economic crisis. Secondly, with its diverse mix of cultures, political regimes and environmental attributes, the region presents a rich laboratory arising from the intersection of global/regional tourism and local cultural politics. The following article is edited from a research paper, entitled "Critical Issues in a Critical Era: Tourism in Southeast Asia" by Peggy Teo and T.C. Chang of the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore (SJTG: 19[2], 1998).

The blurring of what is "local" and "global", and who constitutes the "outsider" or "insider" is relevant to Southeast Asian tourism today. The rise in number of domestic tourists, and the search for national and "Asian" identities, have infused tourism development projects with social and political agendas as well as economic. Tourism development has often be regarded as a form of "westernization"; today, however, tourism in Southeast Asia is also about creating landscapes and identities for local consumption and nationalistic purposes. There is the argument that the nexus of rapid tourism growth, construction of ethnic identities, and evolving political structures blur the distinctions between tourism and local politics, and between foreign tourists and local residents. Intrusive governments deploy tourism as a way to enforce policies without politics being visibly involved. Hence, tourism is implicated with such socio-political motives as boosting the position of bumiputeras ("sons of the soil") in Malaysia; assimilating tribal groups in Thailand; and promoting national solidarity in Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.

One should not underestimate the salience of local players in the global game. It is by them that the success or failure of tourism development is ultimately decided.

A brief perusal of the literature reveals that tourism analyses in Southeast Asia has moved away from a narrow preoccupation with "impacts", "tourist behaviours" and "tourist flows". A wide array of topics dealing with cultural identities, cultural politics, economic collaboration and sustainability have been raised instead. This redirection serves to emphasize first, the pervasiveness of tourism as a global phenomenon, and second, its intersection with multiple issues of local and regional significance. As such, it becomes imperative that we fine-tune the research agenda to understand the "status" of tourism in contemporary Southeast Asian societies.

To do this, we must readdress the global-local tension implicit in much of the existing literature. Globalization is about the compression of time and space horizons for which tourism has been an important contributing force to the shrinking of space. What was once far is now near and what was once unfamiliar has become more familiar. Since boundaries and frontiers have become more permeable, economies and cultures are literally thrown into contact with one another.

The global significance of tourism is without doubt. The shrinking of the world has been facilitated by many factors, prime of which are technological changes in transport, especially in aviation and in rail travel. In addition, informational flows in a world run by computers have made the task of travelling an almost instantaneous decision. Higher living standards, more affluence, better advertising are only some of the other facilitators for the globalization of tourism.

While tourism space has certainly expanded, there is also a counteractive force of the renaissance of locality and region. There has been a surge of interest in local economies (and regional economies). In culture, localism has also become important. The "sense of place" or the struggle for identity is very much a contemporary concern.

Recognizing the local contribution as setting an arena or context for the relation between "globalizing" and "particularizing" dynamics recasts tourism research from a purely spatial comprehension to a more critical understanding of the phenomenon. For example, local cultures form organized resistance to global forces and refuse to be subordinated by global culture or global economic forces. Instead they fashion global elements into their own cultures and traditions.

The local agency in this dyad is often portrayed as capable of resistance or of contesting the use of space, capital or the creation of images and customs. However, the proactive role that agents play in the production or creation of tourism landscapes is often overlooked so that the global-local are interpreted as opposing forces in need of reconciliation. Not enough credit has been given to how local forces contest global forces by harnessing tourism according to their own terms.

There is no doubt that Southeast Asia has embraced tourism wholeheartedly. Whether tourism can be sustained, however, is widely questioned. Sustainability itself does not have a fixed and agreed definition. There is power on the part of the people to harness global tourism in such a way as to improve their own set of conditions. In areas where local voices are relatively unheard, tourism development may falter in the long run because success is ultimately dependent on local communities supporting the attractions, and luring foreign visitors as a result. In short, one should not underestimate the salience of local players in the global game. It is by them that the success and failure of tourism development is ultimately decided.

NEW JOINT EFFORTS TO BOOST REGIONAL TOURISM

[TN: 30.11.99; 6.12.99] - THE next ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) will be held in Bangkok from 20 to 26 January with an estimate of 1,200 participants from ASEAN nations. During the ATF, the tourism ministers of ASEAN countries will primarily discuss ways to create seamless travel within the region, given the slow pro-gress of its implementation. In addition, marketing plans will be concretized for the region's forthcoming tourism promotional campaign, known as "Visit ASEAN Year 2002".

Four ASEAN members - Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand - also recently agreed to launch a joint promo-tion of historic sites in their countries as well as further development of transport links. The package, called "The Great Wonders of Suwanaphumi" was proposed by Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan at the meeting of ASEAN leaders in Manila in late November. The key sites in the package are Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Laos' Luang Prabang, Burma's central city of Mandalay and Thailand's Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew.

A joint statement of the four foreign ministers of the respective countries said the promotion would help raise the significance of the Suwannaphumi Peninsula, which is a historical concept of mainland Southeast Asia.

The latest tourism promotion efforts come at a time when the various economic schemes to boost Mekong basin development are seriously put into question. For instance, the Asian Development Bank, which initiated the Greater Mekong Sub-region Economic Cooperation (GMS), has poured in US$40 million in assistance and US$460 million in loans into the region for infra-structure projects aimed at facilitating trade and tourism. But the over-emphasis on the hardware deve-lopment and lingering instability marked by border conflicts and demarcation disputes have resulted in the uneven distribution of prosperity, increasing cross-border drug trade and crime, human trafficking and illegal migration from poor to richer neighbouring coun-tries. Likewise alarming is the environmental degra-dation in the Mekong watershed areas and the river's growing contamination as a result of increased eco-nomic activities. The national and regional efforts to cope with the issues, which directly affect the life of millions of people, have not been forthcoming by the lure of short-term business prospects and vested interests.

In several ways, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which has taken some shine off the Mekong sub-region, is a blessing in disguise. It has revealed the destructive force of rapid and unsustainable development, giving countries and development agencies time to rethink their policies, also in terms of tourism.

CASINOS, CRIME AND POLITICS

[BP: 25.10.99; 7.11.99; TN: 24.10.99; 25.10.99; 17.11.99; 18.11.99; 5.12.99) - THAILAND and neighbouring states have tended to adopt a more liberal attitude to facilitate travel and ease visa restrictions to encourage tourists to visit and spend money in their countries. As a result, they now face a tremendous threat from lawless people who want to use the region as a base to expand their criminal activities.

An editorial in The Nation cynically noted: Thailand is no longer "amazing" and certainly no longer the "Land of Smiles". What our country is now becoming is a rendezvous for unwanted persons from other countries, near and far."

Due to Hong Kong's and Macau's return to Chinese rule, Thailand has turned into a haven for Chinese crime syndicates, the so-called "Triads", that push their way into new territories. Backed up by the local mafia, the country's entertainment places, hotels and illegal casinos provide them with a steady income, not to mention other illegal activities connected with their networks in neighbouring countries such as gambling, drug trafficking, prostitution, contraband goods, weapons smuggling and illegal labour.

On 13 October, Bangkok police found three men from Hong Kong shot dead on the back seats of a taxi near Don Muang Airport. Two of them had just arrived from Macau, and the third man had come from Phnom Penh, where he had worked as a card dealer in a casino. The killing was part of a "turf fight" between two rival Triad gangs related to gambling, which had been going on for a year. One of the many stories in this war is that the gang called "14 K" was reportedly infuriated when its rival "4 Kings" took control of the casino resort in the Cambodian border town of Koh Kong.

In a separate development, two Thai businessmen were shot dead at the notorious Koh Kong International Resort on 16 November. Somporn Inthanon, who was riddled with eight bullets in the head, was the manager of the casino resort. The other victim, Manoon Boonklong, was secretary to Pat Supaka, a "godfather" of Thailand's Trat province, who together with Kietchai Chaichaowarat, a member of parliament from Udon Thani, co-owned the Koh Kong resort as well as a number of other casinos along the Thai-Cambodian border.

According to police sources, the two men had been ordered by Pat to investigate the rampant cheating at the casino. Apparently, they had found enough evidence of fraud and embezzlement there to incriminate high-placed people in the operation, said a police officer to explain what led to the two men's death.

Operators of other border casinos in Cambodia said the recent killings were just the beginning. "There have been lots of ugly disputes between the Thais and their Cambodian partners. More killings can be expected soon," one Thai businessman said.

A Thai intelligence officer, who monitors security along the Thai-Cambodian border, commented that casinos and resorts in Koh Kong receive special interest from the Phnom Penh government because Cambodian partners are relatives of the country's Defense Minister Tea Banh.

A casino in Burma has also caused anxieties in recent weeks. On 22 October, the Burmese military arrested a group of Thai gambling tourists at the casino of the Andaman Club on the island of Koh Son, opposite Thailand's Ranong province, after the seizure of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok that led to the closure of the border and tense relations between Thailand and Burma (see new frontiers 5[5]). Accounts given by the gamblers, who were gradually released, said troops from the Burmese 288^th Battalion stormed the Andaman Club and rounded up about 200 gamblers, including the casino operator, Prawat Ongsomwang, who is the brother of a Ranong provincial councillor. Thirty-one of them were jailed for a week and then escorted back to Thailand after a fine of US$1,200 was paid for each of them to Burmese authorities.

Burma denied the move was related to the embassy crisis. "They were arrested for breaching the gambling act and appropriate legal action shall be taken against all those involved irrespective of their nationality," a faxed government statement said. But it was not clear what gambling act the imprisoned persons had violated since the casino had been given official permission to operate and thousands of Thais and foreign tourists flocked there regularly.

The Andaman Club, owned by Thai business tycoon Vikrom Aiyasiri, opened in November 1995, and Lt General Kyaw Ba, then Hotel and Tourism Minister of Burma, presided over the opening ceremony. The 1,800-acre casino resort boasts 205 deluxe rooms and suites, all overlooking the Andaman Sea and its sprawling islands. It is well equipped, with a swimming pool, sea-view jogging track, 18-hole golf course (to be opened in 2001), fitness centre, sauna, and inter-national gaming room. A helipad and a luxury sea cruiser for sightseeing tours are also in operation. Vikrom, who is called the "godfather" of gamblers, is known to be 'in' with the top shots in the Burmese junta. He also has logging concessions in Burma and a 49 per cent stake in Myanmar Gems Enterprise, a joint venture with the Rangoon regime.

The Koh Son casino is reckoned to have a daily turnover exceeding US$250,000. Normally, gamblers would be accompanied by Thai officials for security reasons. Even if the border checkpoint is closed, it is easy to sneak into the casino, which is located only 100 metres from Thailand.

Following the Andaman Club fiasco, the police chief of Chiang Rai on Thailand's northern border to Burma warned people against crossing the officially closed border to visit casinos in Burma's Tachilek and Golden Triangle as gamblers still managed to sneak across ostensibly for sightseeing tours on the Mekong river despite the tense situation.

BURMA

TOURISM BLUES CONTINUES

[BP: 4.11.99] - AFTER the Burmese embassy siege be-ginning of October, tourists have become even more hesitant to visit Rangoon. Asked about the state of tourism, a hotelier based in the Burmese capital commented: "Well, if we hadn't suffered enough from the embassy scare, Indian airlines finished us off." Due to a heavy rainstorm, an Indian Airlines Airbus 320 had slid off the runway, leaving it stuck in mud halfway up its undercarriage.

Concerned by the embassy incident and resulting border conflicts, few Thais have been travelling to Rangoon over the last weeks. In fact, there were rumours that the Burmese embassy had quietly stopped to issuing visa to Thai tourists.

Tourism entrepreneurs are now hoping that both tour groups and individual travellers from Europe visit Burma again as the peak season starts. But understandably, there is a reluctance to go to Burma. Of the hundreds of Western tourists who log messages on the Lonely Planet website after their Burma trip, most indicate they do not agree with the political situation in the country.

The tourism slump is reflected clearest in the balance sheets of the top Rangoon hotels which are losing heavily. Reports suggest, foreign hotel investors want to pull out of Burma. The Malaysian E&O has been trying to sell at least one hotel in Rangoon. The going rate at city hotels has slipped from US$100 to less than US$60 a night. Even the Strand Hotel, which always managed to maintain a US$400 per night room rate, has been forced to cut rates.

The future of tourism also looks bleak in Mandalay, the city at the centre of Burma's key tourist region. The construction of a new international airport has been completed, with one of the longest runways in the region and a terminal building capable of handling wide-bodied jets. However, nobody seems to know when the airport will open and who will fly there. So far, only Air Mandalay, a domestic airline, has indicated it will fly to the new airport.

Insiders claim the opening of the Mandalay airport was delayed because the construction works on the key road from the city was not completed in time. Others say, no international flights are scheduled and a management contract with an airport handling company remains in contention.

The latest political turmoil caused by the embassy crisis and the subsequent closure of the border will have a long-term impact on tourism development and has scuttled aspirations that Mandalay will quickly assume the status of a second international gateway to Burma, according to tourism analysts.

BURMA'S DEVELOPMENT POLICIES CONDEMNED AS ANTI-PEOPLE

[WS: Nov.99-Feb.00; UN-CSD: Apr.99] - GIVEN Burma's deplorable human rights record, it is ironic that Burma presented a Myanmar Agenda 21, a plan for action for sustainable development in the country, to the 7^th Session of the United Nations' Commission on Sus-tainable Development (CSD) in April 1999. While "sustainable tourism" is addressed as integral part of this national Agenda 21, the aspirations and concerns of ordinary citizens are completely ignored.

Indeed, tourism has been high on Burma's deve-lopment agenda in recent years. But the burden has fallen principally on the poor and powerless populace, whereas most of the rewards have gone to ruling military regime and its close associates. It has also been well documented that forced eviction of local communities and forced labour have frequently occurred for the sake of tourism-related development.

A recently published study by Curtis W. Lambrecht, a political scientist from Yale University, is instructive as it examines the regime's development policies, including its devastating effects on the communities it is supposed to be helping. It notes: "The burdens and human cost of development in Burma are not an inevitable price that must be paid to advance the citizenry of the country. The overwhelming toll of development in Burma is a consequence of the State's attempts to realize its development agenda and the manner in which it implements these programmes. Persistent corruption, forced conscription and labour, high taxes and the ruthless suppression of dissent have led many inside and outside of Burma to regard the State as a source of danger and oppression.

To control the populace, Burma's dictatorship fre-quently violates the human rights of the citizenry, producing resistance, rebellion and flight which, in turn, lead to increased efforts by the Sate to impose its control over non-cooperative segments of society. In this way, a cycle of resistance and oppression has evolved. In Burma, development is an oxymoron: the primary means by which the country's military dictatorship attempts to realize its supposed goal of a developed and peaceful nation is through destruction and violation."

CAMBODIA

ANGKOR FLIGHTS SQUABBLES FLARE UP AGAIN

[TN: 22.10.99; 1.11.99] - IN October, the National Assem-bly president came out in favour of a controversial plan to increase international flights to Cambodia's most popular tourist attraction, Angkor Wat. Prince Norodom Sihanouk said he had urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to begin direct flights from Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City.

A 1997 deal with Bangkok Airways allowing flights between Bangkok and Siem Reap, the gateway to the Angkor temples, provoked complaints from several tourism and travel ventures in Phnom Penh. The Franco-Malaysian concession managing Phnom Penh's airport was particularly outspoken because the deal broke a clause in its contract guaranteeing that Phnom Penh would remain the country's only international airport until 2005.

Ranariddh, however, told reporters at a recent opening ceremony for Cambodia's third domestic carrier, Phnom Penh Airways owned by Ranariddh's younger brother Prince Norodom Chakrapong, that the airport and domestic airlines "should not be afraid" because "when tourists pour into Siem Reap, they will also come to Phnom Penh." He hoped that the government would begin new direct flights to Angkor once a US$14.4 million renovation of Siem Reap's airport will be completed next March.

Following Ranariddh's proposal, representatives of Cambodian companies and travel agencies passed a resolution at a seminar on tourism development, asking the government to reconsider and possibly scrap its plan to allow the flights. They warned the move could lead to unemployment and bankruptcy of tourism-related businesses in Phnom Penh because 90 per cent of tourists who visit Cambodia target Angkor Wat, not the country's capital.

On another occasion, a senior official of the state-run Royal Air Cambodge said it will shut down operations if the open-skies policy is implemented to increase inter-national flights to Angkor.

BROTHELS CLOSED DURING WATER FESTIVAL

[TN: 22.11.99] - CAMBODIAN police shut down hundreds of brothels in Phnom Penh in a bid to prevent a boom of HIV/AIDS infections during the annual water festival in November.

"Our goal for the water festival is to give pleasure to families, not send home husbands with AIDS," said the city's governor, Chea Sophara.

The water festival celebrates the change in currents on the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers and a boom in fishing harvests, and draws 20,000 rowers for scores of boat races, as well as up to one million holidaymakers from the countryside and foreign tourists.

The most important annual holiday is also a boom for Phnom Penh's many brothels, where an estimated 50 per cent of the prostitutes are infected with HIV/AIDS. Brothels are especially popular with the racers of the 400 boats for the festival, as participants are often dizzy with the glow of public performance and eager to spend their money from prizes and sponsorship on nightlife experiences in Phnom Penh.

However, several brothels in the capital continued to operate normally during daylight hours, although ope-rators said they were aware police would enforce the clampdown in the evening after the end of the racing.

THAILAND

SPECIAL REPORT

ECO-TOURISM TOUCHY SUBJECT FOR RESEARCHER

Community research is supposed to have the goal of developing and strengthening local communities. Tanistha Dansilp presents an indepth study of an eco-tourism project in northern Thailand initiated by an academic, which is likely to have adverse impacts on the community's culture even as it attempts to develop its economy (TN: 1.12.1999).

The growing trend among acade-mics, community research stresses development, crea-tive thinking, community participa-tion and solutions to local pro-blems. But these benefits will not occur if the researcher does not respect and understand the people's way of life in the community being studied. Instead, the researcher may be the only one who gets the benefits, and local problems may even be compounded.

One academic eco-tourism pro-jects looks at Karen living in Ban Pong Sa-mi, in Chiang Mai's Mae Wang district. The objective of the project, which is funded by the Thailand Research Fund, was to create an eco-tourism model for the Wang River area and to establish a network of eco-tourism for other local villages to participate in order to preserve indigenous cultures.

"The aim of my research was to use eco-tourism to develop Ban Pong Sa-mi," said Choosit Choo-chat, an assistant professor of tourism at Rajabhat Institute, Chiang Mai. "This method of tou-rism will help the local people to revive their ancient knowledge, ceremonies and culture to create a strong community."

"I understand these people's culture. I have known this village for a long time, since 1992," Choosit said. But instead of allowing villagers to offer input, Choosit was observed making decisions by himself, and he did not let the villagers focus on their real problems. Instead, he threw out orders about trivial matters without consulting the villagers.

On one trek, Choosit said to the locals who accompanied them, "The Bua Thong flower is beautiful. Plant another field of them so that tourists can enjoy it and take pic-tures." Another example showed either his ignorance or his thought-lessness about local culture. Accor-ding to Karen culture, men and wmen are prohibited from sleeping together if they are not married. But when the Karen offered to provide housing to separate men and women during a trek organized for reporters, the researcher insisted that it was not necessary. "Never mind, men and women can sleep in the same room," he said.

"If (the researcher) only brings tourists to come to look at nature and buy local products, it's not any different from what the tourist office would do."

"This researcher (Choosit) thinks for the local people all the time instead of asking for our consensus," said Siwakorn Odo-chow, a Wang River area youth group representative. "When we have a public hearing…he can't clear up our doubts. If he only brings tourists to come to look at nature and buy local products, it's not any different from what the tourist office would do," he said.

Somchai Srichai, president of the Northern Farmers Network, feels that giving local people the chance to speak their minds is paramount in this kind of project. But he argued that this has not been the case in Ban Pong Sa-mi. Instead, villagers have been saddled with a programme that is not true to their wishes.

"This tourist programme is like a fast food menu. "These activities aren't natural to our way of life. They're artificial," he said. "The local people have a culture that relates deeply to nature and the forest. The forest is connected to life events such as birth and death, and it is a major source of the villagers' food. This researcher has to learn about this from the local people…"

Choosit pointed out, however, that he received permission from the Northern Farmers Network to carry out his research and firmly defended his practices.

Other academics feel strongly about involving the local population in research projects. "We must respect the honour of local people. A researcher should let the local people think for themselves," said Yos Santasombat, a Chiang Mai University anthropologist. "If we observe (eco-tourism) as a western concept, (it) doesn't relate to humans but to nature. In Thailand, however, eco-tourism must relate to local people and their culture." The principle of eco-tourism must take into account the social and eco-logical systems of local people, he added.

Jittisak Putjorn, an eco-tourism researcher from Chiang Mai's Maejo University who was present to observe Choosit in practice, argued that it is the researcher's respon-sibility to be aware of the research process and to review and address any problems that may occur. "We should not see the local people as puppets to do anything that a researcher or tour guide wants them to do."

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'THE BEACH' WAR RAGES ON

In November 1998, the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) gave the US film company 20^th Century Fox permission to create a "tropical paradise" on Maya Beach in the Phi Phi Islands National Park for its film 'The Beach', starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Government officials justified the decision on the grounds that the Hollywood movie would help boost tourism and thus bring in badly-needed foreign exchange which could pull Thailand out of its economic crisis. Local residents of Krabi province and civic groups from all over Thailand protested strongly not only at the proposed changes in landscape but also at the state-sanctioned breaking of environmental and national park laws. One year on, the controversy is still far from being resolved.

Maya Beach Ruined [TN: 14.11.99; TN: 6.12.99; II] - Recent reports, photos and a video from Krabi residents monitoring Phi Phi Leh Island just confirm what critics have predicted from the beginning: The alterations made to Maya Beach so that it conforms to Hollywood's image have led to irreversible ecological damage despite Fox's promises and attempts to return the site to its original state.

Heavy rain storms in October and November have eventually ruined the beach completely. Local witnesses say Maya Beach has suffered much more from erosion this year than other beaches in the area hit by the monsoon. They also fear that the massive amounts of sand washed into the sea will have devastating impacts on the surrounding coral reefs. An expert on coastal engineering from Prince of Sonkhla University, Somboon Porninetpong, pointed out that the beach is unique because it is a coral-sand beach, which is quite rare around the world. It has taken thousands of years for coral to be crushed into grains of sand and deposited on the beach as a solid wedge, Somboon said. It might take decades for Maya to recover from the monumental erosion, he added.

Protesters Accused of Blackmailing [KS: 11.11.99] - RFD general director Plodprasop Suraswadee said the filmmakers had informed him that some groups opposed to 'The Beach' had demanded money from their company and they had paid three million baht (US$75,000) to resolve the conflict.

The protesters categorically denied the allegations of blackmailing and argued such accusations were a tactic to detract from the real issues of 'The Beach' affair. One of the Krabi protest leaders, Boonkasem Saekhow, challenged the film company to prove their claims and stressed the resistance movement had developed out of environmental concerns only and not because of money. He also reiterated that the protesters had not opposed the film-making as such and their actions were only directed against the unlawful and damaging landscape alterations for the filming.

Local Protests Keep Diplomats Off the Beach [TN: 15.11.99] - On 14 November, a group of 46 foreign diplomats and their spouses, touring southern Thailand at the invitation of Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, were due to visit Maya Bay. However, their schedule was changed after police reported that local residents - outraged by the damage done to Maya Bay because of the filming - planned to protest. Several diplomats who chose to visit Phi Phi Leh anyway were carefully steered away from the protesters who unfurled a banner reading "Welcome to the Ruins of Maya Bay" and dis-tributed leaflets to visitors.

'The Beach' on Trial [AP: 19.11.99: BBC-N: 19.11.99; TN: 20.11.99] - Last January, two elected assemblies from Krabi province - the Krabi Provincial Authority Organization and the Ao Nang Tambon Administration Organization - and 19 Krabi residents filed lawsuits against the RFD and its general-director Plodprasop, Agriculture Minister Pongpol Adireksarn, Fox and its Thai coordinator Santa International Film Production Co for making unlawful changes in a national park.

During the last court hearing on 19 November, lawyers representing the plaintiffs submitted photos of Maya Beach taken beginning of November as evidence that the filmmakers actually destroyed the beach. Meanwhile, Lt. Paitoon Krungwong, the attorney defending the accused government officials argued the sand dune collapsed because of monsoon storms not the filmmaking. The lawyer representing Fox, Dusit Ali-ishoa, agreed insisting, "It's a natural event of the beach that we cannot stop." Both Paitoon and Dusit said they visited Maya Bay and did not see any damage. Somsak Kittithorakul, the first witness for the plaintiffs, retorted: "I believe nature always tells the truth, and whoever destroyed the beach, has to be punished." The next court hearing is scheduled for 9 December.

'The Beach' Controversy on BBC Radio [BBC-WS: 24.11.99] - On 24 November, the BBC World Service aired an interview with the Thai Fox representative, Santa Pestanji, and the editor of The Nation, Pana Janviroj in a programme called "One Planet". Santa commented on the Maya controversy: "We are being accused, unfairly accused. I think people still forget that the James Bond picture made the South (of Thailand) famous, and we were hoping - I myself personally hoping - that this, 'The Beach', will also make Phi Phi Beach famous, just like James Bond… We have not destroyed anything. We put back everything to the original surrounding where we found it." When asked about the fact that the sand dune had been washed out during the monsoon, Santa claimed: "It has not been washed out. This is a natural happening through the (rainy) season."

Pana of The Nation explained: "The sentiment and the feeling is very high… And you know, it is not (only) the environmentalists and the international organizations or the press, which is looking at the beach with a tooth comb, but also the local people. You know, the people who filed the lawsuits and so on, the local people, they are not anyone with any international influence as such."

"It seems like that the film company and the government agency, the Royal Forestry Department, colluded together and exploited (a) legal loophole," said Pana, adding, "There are a lot of fishy things that went on. If something is found, then they should be condemned and set examples to others. And you know, this is a big company, this is 20^th Century Fox, not some production company in the side streets of London."

Exposure of Cyberspace Campaigns Slamming the Protests (TN: 24.+25.11.99; BBC-N: 26.11.99] - In a commentary, published in The Nation, Anita Pleumarom of the Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team (t.i.m.-team) examined as to how 'The Beach' controversy has been portrayed on various websites with internationally links and contributors. The study revealed that a site called "thaistudents.com/thebeach", operated by an expatriate staff of a private primary school outside of Bangkok, as well as various websites promoting eco-tourism, have been obviously involved in a joint effort to strengthen the positions of the pro-'The Beach' lobby - including Fox, Beach Productions and the Leonardo DiCaprio camp -, while discrediting the protest movement and critical media reports on the Maya Beach affair. Arguments that Fox made all-out efforts to avoid damaging the beach and to even upgrade it were pinpointed as a veritable greenwash in ignorance of the real environmental concerns of local people. "To make a place look green and clean can be easily done at any time to hoodwink people and to sell images of an 'unspoiled' paradise to tourists," said the report. "Meanwhile, the attempt to conceal other Fox activities - exactly those that have caused the most serious ecological damage such as bulldozing the sand dune and removing its natural vegetation - is obvious."

BBC News picked up The Nation story saying, "The producers of Leonardo DiCaprio's 'The Beach' are behind a smear campaign against groups accusing them of environmental damage, according to a Thai newspaper. Just days after 20^th Century Fox's first appearance in a Thai court, The Nation claims Fox are running a secret campaign to discredit groups who blame the film company for damaging Phi Phi Leh (Island)".

Fox and the TAT Team Up to Promote 'The Beach' for Tourism Purposes [BP: 23.11.99; HR: 24.11.99] - In an ironic twist, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Fox announced a costly marketing campaign at the recent World Travel Market in London to promote the new movie 'The Beach' and Thailand's beaches, despite the ongoing court case against Fox and the fact that the country's beaches and islands are already wrecked by the high influx of visitors and unfettered tourism development.

The joint campaign will start at the end of January, a month before the release of 'The Beach'. TAT-Fox roadshows will be organized to promote the film. Moreover, British travel agents will be invited to view free sneak previews of the movie and be eligible for competitions to win trips to Thailand, a courtesy of the TAT. Some 4,000 agents have already signed up, and Thai hotels and package tour companies are drawing up "DiCaprio tours" that match the locations of the movie. Airlines such as THAI, British Airways/Quantas, EVA and China Airlines, as well as Thai restaurants and credit-card companies are also expected to join. Images from 'The Beach' will be built into all advertisements.

The move has created additional anger among Thai environmentalists. They say it was the government's intention all along to capitalize on the film and the popularity of DiCaprio to promote Thailand and boost tourism in Phi Phi Islands National Park and other protected areas, with little or no regard for the long-term environmental impacts.

NEW MOBILE LOO FOOLS THE ANIMALS, TOO

[BP: 31.10.99] - Although many attempts to harmonize humans with nature fail, officials of the Royal Forestry Department claim success in fooling wildlife into thinking their new mobile toilets are just part of the scenery.

The conveniences, painted in a camouflage pattern, blend so well with the surroundings that they have left animals and tourists alike perplexed, forestry chief Plodprasop Suraswadee said.

"We had them tested in national parks nearby. People couldn't find them," he said.

Deer in Khao Yai National Park had even run into them by mistake, they were so well disguised, he added.

Each mobile rest room costs US$25,000, with an additional painting charge of US$5,000.

ROYAL CEREMONY - AN EVENT OF CULTURAL PRIDE OR TOURIST COMMODITY?

[TN: 5.11.99; BP: 11.11.99] - The colourful procession of Royal Barges on the Chao Phraya River beginning of November marked His Majesty the King's 72^nd birthday on 5 December. People thronged the piers where the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) had made seating arrangements. Seats had to be pre-booked at 1,000 baht, unaffordable for ordinary citizens in the street. Tourism officials, however, overlooked the many people who were not allowed to enter the areas provided to spectators. Sanitsuda Ekachai wrote in a commentary:

"Majestic! Magical! Ask any Thai who witnessed the splendour of the royal barge procession last week, and they'll say without hesitation how proud the ceremony made them feel to be Thai…

As the country watched the royal flotilla transport the King to the temple of Dawn, there was a shared relief: Thailand may be plagued by ills and uncertainty, but at least we're fortunate enough to have someone noble to unite us. This patriotic pride, sadly, was marred somewhat by the way the authorities turned this sanctified ceremony into a cultural commodity and a symbol of state power.

It's the closeness between the people and the King that makes the monarchy meaningful to Thailand. Yet, the officials turned away thousands of ordinary Thais from the ceremony just to make money from tourists and to keep the prime riverside viewing spots to themselves. This bias shows how the state manipulates popular patriotism, how it determines who has access to national identity and pride - and who not."

AN AKHA WOMAN SPEAKS OUT AGAINST PREJUDICE AND TOURISTIC EXPLOITATION

[TN: 17.11.99] - TWO years ago, Chutima Morlaeku, an Akha woman from Chiang Rai, was approached by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and asked to help set up a traditional Akha house on Sanam Luang in Bangkok as part of an exhibition intended Thailand's ethnic and cultural diversity. Dressed in traditional Akha garb, she and 12 other women endured the sweltering heat of Bangkok for nine days, demonstrating traditional weaving and needlework skills and participating in the Swing Festival or Yekhu-ja; this "drawing rain to eat" festival is celebrated by Akha women in August, 108 days after the ritual planting of the first rice seeds.

"Thais would come by and ask questions like, 'Have you ever seen a Maew?' I wish I could have told them that there's no such a thing as a Maew; the people they are referring to call themselves Hmong. We overheard other visitors saying that we were dirty."

"Some of us had to sleep at a nearby temple. There was no toilet, so we had to do it in a plastic bag. One day, a visitor lost control of the swing and hit me in the head, knocking me out. When I came to the hospital, I heard the nurses talking about me as if I were an alien from another planet. I felt like an animal in the zoo or some kind of clown."

But the exhibition was considered a success. "The TAT officials told us that we were valuable national assets, that we reflected the richness of Thai culture."

Earlier this year, Chutima joined more than 2,000 members of Akha, Lahu, Lisu and other tribal groups, to appeal for Thai citizenship and land rights. "The constitution clearly states that anyone born on Thai soil is entitled to Thai citizenship. But many people had been told that they weren't eligible because their parents had come from Burma. I hadn't realized such double standards were in operation," said Chutima who is lucky for having legally acquired Thai citizenship. She was one of the many ethnic protesters who camped in front of the Chiang Mai provincial hall and were forcibly removed by police last May (see also new frontiers 5[4]).

"The villagers told me they were no longer afraid of dying. That for life to continue like this was already a form of death. That they'd always been cooperative in the past but if somebody were to shoot at them then they would shoot back," Chutima said. Since she has been involved in the ethnic people's struggle, she herself has been facing various forms of harassment and even received letters threatening her life.

"The TAT officials told us that we were valuable national assets, but we were told at the provincial hall that we weren't Thai, we were aliens," she said. "If we were ever asked to help TAT again, I'll enquire first if they consider us as being really Thai. We don't want to be used as some sort of gimmick to help boost tourism revenue."

VIETNAM

HALONG BAY CORAL THREATENED

[TN: 3.11.99] - CORAL in and around Halong Bay, a world natural heritage site and famous tourist desti-nation in northern Vietnam, is in danger of extinction, recently warned Nguyen Huy Yet, a scientist of the Institute of Oceanology in Haiphong.

He said his team of divers found a large amount of dying coral in the bay. Coral is an important component in underwater ecology, providing shelter and creating food for fish and other marine creatures.

Yet primarily blamed heavy pollution produced by the coal mining industry and illegal dynamite fishing in Halong Bay, adding that millions of tonnes of waste soil from open coal mines is dumped into the bay.

Almost all the coral was covered with mud and underwater visibility has been reduced to as little as two metres from eight metres 15 years ago, said Yet.

HANOI BANS HIV-POSITIVE WORKERS

[TN: 26.10.99] - VIETNAM has banned people who have HIV, which can lead to AIDS, from taking jobs such as hotel workers and kindergarten teachers, reported the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper in October. It added that people infected with HIV would also be prohibited to work in restaurants, health care centres, beauty salons and the like.

The press report said the number of people in Vietnam with HIV had recently hit more than 16,000, of whom more than 2,900 had contracted AIDS; of this number, 1509 had died.

Over the last years, the detection of HIV/AIDS has risen sharply in the country, although foreign health agencies suspect the incidence of HIV infection is much higher than the official figures.

At a recent International AIDS Congress in Asia and the Pacific held in Kuala Lumpur, Martha Ainsworth, a senior World Bank economist, said the Asian economic crisis has hampered the fight against AIDS as cash-strapped governments were forced to slash budgets and lower wages. The crisis also pushed thousands of fami-lies into poverty and many women into prostitution.

SOURCES USED IN THIS ISSUE:

AP=Associated Press; BBC-N=BBC News; BBC-WS=BBC World Service; BP=Bangkok Post; HR=Hollywood Reporter; II=Insider Information; KS=Khao Sod (in Thai); SJTG=Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography; TN=The Nation; WS=Watershed.

new frontiers is designed to foster informed discussion and action on tourism, development and environment issues in the Mekong subregion. The information can be reproduced freely, although acknowledgement to the publisher would be appreciated as well as the sending of cuttings of articles based on this document.

Published by: Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team (t.i.m.-team), with support from the

Third World Network (TWN), Penang/Malaysia

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