Thailand
Contact Info:
Center for Peace and Governance
King Prajadhipok's Institute
Address: 47/101 Moo 4, Tiwanond Road, Talad Kwan Subdistrict, Muang District Nonthaburi, 11000 Thailand
Tel: (662) 527 - 7830 to 7839
Fax: (02) 527 - 7826, 527- 7828
Web address:http://www.kpi.ac.th/en/index.asp
Contact Person(s): Vanchai Vatanasapt, Director
Summary:
KPI is an independent, academic public organization under the supervision of the National Assembly. The institute undertakes academic work including research, training, and seminars, disseminates information on development of democracy and governance and provides consultation on effective governance at the local and national level. In addition, KPI is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the King Prajadhipok Museum. All these tasks are possible due to the coordination and cooperation of local, foreign and international agencies with the common goal of creating sustainable democracy.
For the past ten years, Thailand has gone through the economic development and transformed from an agricultural country to an industrialized one. Many factories and facilities have been built. A serious problem to developers have been the protests regarding pollution. Some of the demonstration activities have turn violent. Several environmentalists were killed or disappeared.
With the new Constitution that was passed in the year 1997, the public participation process has been mentioned in many of the sectors, both as the rights of the citizens and as the way officials have to learn how to do in the decisions making process.
The Institute for Dispute Resolution was established for the first time in Thailand at Khon Kaen University in 1995, to do the training and research in Conflict Management. Since then the Institute has led the new concept of the Alternative Dispute resolution. Professor Vanchai Vatanasapt was the first Director of IDR at KKU. King Prajadhipok Institute was established since 1998 ,to be the think tank for the Parliamentarians and to promote Democracy in Thailand. The then Secretary General of the Institute has foreseen that peaceful dispute resolution is one of the part of democratic development and has asked Professor Vanchai to establish the Center for Peace and Governance at the Institute.
The traditional way of solving conflict in Thailand especially in the Northeastern part, called "Jao-Kote" (using the respectful elder of the village) has gradually been replaced by official ways of the Ministry of Justice and Court of Justice to resolve the dispute. To solved conflict, any dispute, some form of government involvement is needed. The rulings of the dispute cases have become either win or lose. The number of court cases have increased in the process of litigation. The process of litigation take much longer time.
After the Economic Crisis in Thailand in 1997, there are much more cases of business disputes. Family disputes as well as disputes in school especially in or among the Vocational Schools have spread widely.
Violence in Southern Thailand has been a particularly serious problem and the Thai Government is trying to find a way this manage.
All of these development create the demand for the appropriate ways for peaceful conflict management. The Government by the Prime Minister has signed the PM Order to encourage the use of Peaceful Conflict Resolution in 2003 (original and English translation follow).
After the General Election early this year, King Prajadhipok Institute has organized a conference on "The New Government and the Peaceful Way of Conflict Resolution" on April 7th,with the Resolution that there should be a National Body who will handle the Major Dispute and promote Appropriate or Alternative Dispute Resolution with the full support from the Government. The Deputy Prime Minister who came to close the conference on behalf of the PM has agreed to take this resolution to the Cabinet for approval. In the Resolution there is one suggestion that all Thai Universities will have to establish an Institute to do research, training, and provide services in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).
Many of the Thai Agencies are now aware of the need to learn about ADR and looking for better ways to solve conflict. What we need is to build a Culture of Peace in School, The Ministry of Education may involved the children more such as learning School Mediation and the Peer Mediation Process.
We are working to form a Consortium of Conflict Management Graduate Program among the Thai Universities ( at the present there are atleast three Universities: Khon Kaen University and Mahasarakam University in the Northeast, Prince of Songkla University in the South, and King Naraesuan University in the North). Recently we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Royal Roads University in Victoria ,BC, Canada, to launch the MA in Conflict Management together at the end of this year.
The following is the English translation of the original text. The original text may be found on the following pages.
Thai Prime Minister Order Number 187/2003
Policy to Deal with Conflict by Peaceful Means
Overview
The conflict in Thai society is increasing because the behavior of the people has changed due to the economy and the environment. Between the government and the people, the people don't believe in the government, the situation in the world changed and many conflicts have occurred in the world. So in Thai society, [we] have to think about the situation and need to figure out the way to eliminate the conflict, as the way that was used in the past was not good enough. The violence will increase because of people who do not trust the government. It is difficult to change the minds of those Thai peoples who do not trust the Thai government. The government wants to stop this situation by using the new system.
Order
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