A woman who helped the poor

General news - Thursday December 13, 2007

COMMENTARY

A woman who helped the poor

SANITSUDA EKACHAI

Can small people rock the boat and change the system? Will justice eventually prevail? Ask Wanida Tantiwitayapitak, and the iron lady would certainly give you a steely look through her spectacles and say : "It is a matter of time."

A pipedream? A losing battle? Maybe so for many of us who see no point in hitting our heads against the brick wall of uncaring society. But for Wanida, working for change was simply her duty.

"I can't stand seeing the poor being treated unfairly," she once said matter-of-factly when asked why she chose to fight for the poor instead of working for money and fulfilling a woman's duty as wife and mother.

Although Wanida refused to play the good woman's game set by society, her womanhood played a crucial role in shaping Thailand's first and by far the most effective grassroots movement - the Assembly of the Poor.

Many have studied the assembly's works, but few realise the importance of its gender dimension. The movement succeeds in staying united to advance different causes together in one because it was given birth by a woman. And because it works like a woman.

And that woman was Wanida.

The steely look of determination, the glaring spectacles, the parched lips, the ever tossled short hair, the fiery justice talk - all this gave Wanida an image of a fearsome fighter. And she was. But I am fortunate enough to have once seen her gentle self, when she was rolling on the floor writing poetry, one after another in a stream of hopes and dreams, which were not for herself but for the downtrodden. Those were the moments when she felt at ease enough to allow herself to do what she rarely did - talking about herself, and her role in the movement. After some urging, of course.

"The assembly is no one person's work, that's why I don't want to talk about myself," she said humbly.

The villager groups, she said, used to be members of a small-scale farmer organisation she was part of. Despite its mission to fight for the poor, the organisation became politicised while the all-male leadership became friendly with the power structure. The organisation eventually disintegrated. "But the villagers' suffering still persisted. So I arranged for the villagers to meet in a group meeting to discuss what we should do next." They all agreed that it was necessary to continue the efforts to solve the problems that came from state and industry abuse. But how?

"I've learned from the previous organisation's failure that the top-down hierarchical structure - which is the way men work - does not work. It prevents the voices from the ground to reach the top. It also allows for easy political intervention that entails temptation for power and money."

That was why Wanida opted for a flat, loosely connected network based on constant dialogue among the members in an equal setting - which is the way women work. Hence the emergence of the Assembly of the Poor.

The assembly quickly grew to cover villager groups nationwide which suffered from the government's development policies that destroyed their environ-ment, their sources of livelihood, their health, their children's future, and filled their lives with misery. Despite the growth, it has maintained an egalitarian structure that empowers the villagers to decide what they want and to negotiate fearlessly with the authorities themselves.

Wanida's bitterness is not only the government's endless stream of false promises, but also society's contempt for the poor. She once poured out her feelings in an open letter : 'You need to realise that they're the victims of destructive development. You need to understand that they're struggling to protect their way of life, to preserve their natural environment.

"Their struggles need support from you - the middle class, the elite, city people who still have a conscience and goodwill.

"Having a good government doesn't suffice. We need a new social and economic structure that is just and fair to the majority poor. May the power of goodness and compassion prevail over all kinds of injustice. May the people's fight soon prevail."

After succumbing to cancer last week, Wanida's body turned to ashes in a cremation ceremony yesterday. Her hopes and dreams, however, will live on.

Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor (Outlook), Bangkok Post.

Email: sanitsudae@bangkokpost.co.th

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