Apichai Puntasen
Dr. Apichai is an professor of economics at Thammasat
university. He helped me undertand the development theory with respect
to rural development. Basically his works allow me to make sense out
of the self-sufficiency literature and establish a firm theoretical
ground on this issue. As usual, I've very doubtful about the neoclassical
theory of economic development and its practice that resulted in the
Washington Consensus. I'm not, however, totally against it. I accepted
with great pleasure that it is the best development program ever known
to humanity.
Humanity, in general, in better of by the programs
such as that of the world bank. However, the qualitative side of that
development is troublesome. Rural areas are affected the most as I've
withness the total destruction of their culture and value, of course,
deprived them totally of all pride they have with the rural way of
life. Although there might be material gain, but their living conditions
are in trouble. They're full of debt and dependency of the capitalists.
It is true that people migrate into the urban areas
as generally living a slightly better life in term of income, but
the mental well-being is completedly degraded. I don't have to say
more as they're enough works circulating around the development community
on this particular issue. But I believe that we could combine the
developmental force of global capitalism while preserving rural life
styles and values. I've turned into the idea of self-sufficiency economics.
The problem was, however, that those who argue for self-sufficiency
economics are, in general, arguing for a closer economic tie with
the world. They have become neo-merchantilism. As I am a believer
of free market that needed adjustment and balance, the position of
sufficiency economics school wasn't truely promising.
In Thailand, the word "self-sufficienc"
has become a new mantra of the antiglobalist movement and serve the
rise of neo-protestionism in Thailand. I was intellectual depressed
as I truely think that the protectionist position will drive Thailand
into the destructive spriral and to be totally controlled by local
mafia and big businesses. I was searching for some economic principle
of self-sufficiency economics in order to work out theoretically how
to integrate self-sufficiency with a balance (of both endogenous and
exogenous growth) view of development.
Dr. Apichai has the answers. He explained that
self-suficiency serve economic 2 functions. That of reducing the transaction
cost of market itself when the total value of products are below the
transaction cost of carrying it into the market systems (larger scale
market) and also a hedge against the market risk (external factor
risk) as it allow a greater degree of self-reliance in the economy
as the goods are exchanged within the community. Of course, it is
a trade off between complete efficiency due to the division of labor
and the less efficient system that allow diversity of production in
the same economic unit (i.e. the rural community).
With these two factors in mind we could integrate
the idea meaningfully in to the systems of development I've derived
initially. It is again always about striking balance between internal
and external factor while trying to retain a good degree of self-reliance
due to two factors described. Apichai has also introduced me into
the Buddhist economics systems that aimed at a more equal distribution
of income, non-waste production process and satisfying welfare of
the society rather than monetary accumulation. All of it under the
idea of combining self-reliance as a building block in growth. It
didn't say that we must do everthing ourselves in order to be self-reliance
but rather be able to hedge against the market risk so that we are
relatively save when the crisis hit. Although there is a striking
similarity between Buddhist economics and the Marxist position, it
is very different in the sense that it work on coordination based
on free will of individuals rather than the centrally planned action
with the cost of public freedom.
