A life lived with purpose

General news - Friday December 14, 2007

A life lived with purpose

It was during the good old days, when she called us, excitedly telling us we must drop by where she was staying. ''Hey! There is a whale swimming right in front of our front yard. Come here as quickly as possible,'' said Wanida Tantiwitayapitak, ''Phi Mod'', before she hung up the phone. The sky was bright blue. We were in a jolly mood. Two of our villager friends, Jintana Kaewkhao and Charoen Wat-aksorn, had just received honorary doctorates from the Midnight University. The ''conferring of degrees'', attended by academics, activists and villagers from around the nation, was over.

One of the well-wishers was Phi Mod, an adviser of the Assembly of the Poor. She was a long-time friend of the two PhD holders, who represented the people of Prachuap Khiri Khan in their fight against the multi-billion-baht coal-fired power plant projects in their hometown.

Arriving at Charoen's house, we discovered we had been duped. Phi Mod was there, with Charoen and his wife, all beaming naughty smiles. ''Oh! We did try to put a rope around the whale, but you were too late. It managed to get away,'' Phi Mod's voice could not hide her childlike glee. There, on the table, was laid out one of the most sumptuous seafood feasts I have ever seen in my life, all thanks to the homemade cooking by Krarok, Charoen's wife _ and the yet unspoiled sea of Bo Nok.

How gladly we journalists consented to this benevolent prank. And how fresh and scrumptious were those formalin-free prawns (they had been caught just that morning) which were the size of our arm! That afternoon's conversation, though touching every now and then on heavy subjects, was peppered with laughter. We couldn't decide who emitted the loudest laugh _ Charoen or Phi Mod or ourselves.

Indeed, that good old day seems almost like it'd just happened yesterday!

The cremation ceremony for Phi Mod on Wednesday was somehow not unlike Charoen's funeral which I attended a couple of years ago. They were both atypical, being both a mourning and a sort of reunion of Thai activists. It was amazing how one ordinary person could have made friends with so many different groups of people.

True, there was certainly sadness in the air. Quiet tears. Sniffling. Phi Mod's ageing mother and father, after greeting their daughter's friends with a smile, would fall back into their sombre mood when left by themselves.

But were Phi Mod to attend her own funeral, like the late jovial Charoen she would probably urge her mourners to carry on her life-long mission. There is a lot more work to be done, she might have said, her eyes shining.

Yes, there is a lot of work to be done. From the fisher folk of Pak Moon to those living on the southern coast, the struggle for justice has only reached a higher plateau. After their amazing success in stopping the power plant schemes, Prachuap locals now have to face an even bigger threat in the form of a steel mill complex. The Pak Moon dam's sluice gates were closed on Dec 5, a day before Phi Mod's demise. They will be opened again, hopefully next year, for the precious four months when Isan villagers can reunite with their families to catch fish. But more dam and other development projects are in the pipeline, to squeeze whatever remaining natural resources from the common people.

The cycle of suffering thus continues _ and so must the will to change. And how far-sighted both Charoen and Phi Mod were: both always stressed humbly how they were only part of the bigger movement.

No one person, or organisation, can push for real change.

Krarok recalled how Phi Mod once invited Prachuap protesters to join the Assembly of the Poor. Charoen turned down the offer, saying they preferred to be an ally. And they have been good allies, and friends, since.

Actually, there have been many more fighters for justice who have been groomed and inspired by Phi Mod, Charoen and their like-minded peers.

The waft of smoke in the air. One life has returned to nature.

In one of her rare interviews, Phi Mod once said that compared to the vast universe, each of us is only a tiny, insignificant existence _ our comings and goings almost have no effect on the cosmic changes.

For once, I think she was wrong. One life fully lived has accomplished a lot.

Vasana Chinvarakorn is a senior writer for Outlook, Bangkok Post.