Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha made headlines recently by asking the 20 richest Thai families for their help in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Prayut said that their expertise was needed at a time when the country was going through a major crisis.
The idea was met with ridicule online and offline with the hashtag #BeggarGovernment trending immediately after Prayut revealed his plans.
While Thais understand that big businesses here at home have a symbiotic relationship with the ruling government, the notion that such a relationship could be so overtly tapped seems alien and out of reach.
Yet not so long ago, this symbiosis between ruler and merchants (especially Sino-Thai families), was readily employed by the state to help them address all matters of governance.
A brief history on social conditions
In her recent book, ‘The Crown and the Capitalists’, Dr Wasana Wongsurawat, Assistant Professor of History at Chulalongkorn University, explores the rise of the Sino-Thai capitalist class and their relationship with the Thai ruling class.
“Corvee labor was the backbone of the Thai/Siam feudal system that tied male commoners to the land. This requires them to perform various forms of public labor for the state up to six months a year with alternating months, from building infrastructure to fighting wars,” she said.
The Chinese that lived and travelled all over Southeast Asia were able to fill the role of the merchant class due to this social condition. “If you are going to trade, you cannot be tied to the land like Siamese serfs. The Chinese had an in-between status where they were not limited to the capital and port cities like other foreigners and they were not obligated perform corvée labor which allowed them to travel inland and around the kingdom,” Wasana explains.
Agents for the crown
One of the main reasons why the Chinese entrepreneurs in Siam were able to dominate the commercial sector early on was also due to the special ties with the ruling class.
“One of the most lucrative trade from the eighteenth onward was the trade with China. The Siamese ruling class employed the ethnic Chinese as trade agents because they spoke the language and had networks in China, and had a monopoly on international trade in the Kingdom,” stated Wasana.
Though China and Siam underwent many transformations due to western imperialism, most notably Siam’s Bowring Treaty with the British in 1855, and the Opium Wars in China, Chinese subjects still played an important role in the Siamese courts.
They continued to serve as advisors and trade agents to the Siamese ruling class even though they were not given outright citizenship.
Maintaining ties with the Chinese entrepreneurs was a way to exert control over the economy because they were already influential in various local industries such as rice mills and rice export to China.
“At the beginning of the current [Chakri] dynasty, the Chinese had a firm control over the local economy. In order to exert control over the economy, the ruling class would establish a link with the Chinese entrepreneurs. This benefitted both sides because the ruling elite did not have the expertise in business, and the ethnic Chinese would have contacts with the government or gain a nobility title, they become part of the upper class of aristocrats which made it easier to get contracts and monopolize certain sectors of the economy. It’s a symbiotic relationship,” explains Wasana.
An unhappy union
One can still see the vestiges of this system of government in the modern era. Governments still favour certain families and certain businesses over others for either political or monetary rewards.
How else can one explain the same concessions going to the same businesses over and over again; for example, the Duty Free Concession, EGAT deals, etc.
“This group of the big businesses that support the Palang Pracharat party and support the current government, received lots of favors before [the lockdown],” Wasana said.
“The thinking behind the letters is that since we have helped you so much, now you have to help us because we are in trouble.”
But what men like Prayut doesn’t understand is that the symbiosis has changed. Sino-Thai businesses have evolved beyond their relationship to the government to become multinational conglomerates.
The government is no longer needed for the majority of these businesses to conduct their day-to-day affairs, especially those that have ventured abroad. If anything the government has become a hindrance, an unnecessary and oftentimes illegal tariff that have to be paid off.
