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March 15, 2019
“THEY NEVER ASKED US WHAT WE WANT”
:HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATIONS DURING
THE MOKEN’S HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Cross Cultural Foundation’s Fact-Finding Mission,
Surin Islands, Phang Nga Province,
18-19 February 2019
Disaster Hits the Moken Village
On 3 February 2019, a village of the Moken people in the Surin Islands’s Bon Yai Bay caught fire which burned down 61 houses, leaving at least 237 villagers homeless. Among the affected people are 76 children under the age of 15 ; 35 of them are young girls. At least one person suffered from a minor injury. Moreover, 34 fishing boats, 38 boat engines, and 11 electric generators were damaged in the fire, resulting in difficulties for many villagers who rely on fishing for their subsistence. After having received information about this incident, Cross-Cultural Foundation (CrCF) undertook a fact-finding mission in the village during 18-19 February 2019.
Background on the Human Rights Situations of the Moken
The Moken, known as “ sea gypsies, ” are seafaring
indigenous people living along the ThailandMyanmar
marine border in the Andaman Sea. Historically,
they had a semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle,
migrating from place to place, living on the sea in
a traditional wooden boat called kabang, and subsisting
on artisanal fishing. During the monsoon season (May-
October), they would move back to the shore and live in
a temporary stilt house. However, after the emergence
of modern nation-states and demarcation of national
boundaries, the Moken has become subjected to strict
regulations under both the Thai and Myanmar
government and their lifestyle completely altered.
In Thailand, many areas where the Moken had previously
lived have been declared as marine national parks,
so national park authorities are key actors who directly
manage and enforce restrictions on the Moken’s way of life.
“ They want to keep us here but only as decorations of
the National Park for the tourists to enjoy, ” said one of
the Moken villagers, referring to the Surin Islands National
Park authorities. Under the National Park’s regulations,
the Moken are banned from chopping woods in the
island to build or repair their kabangs. During our field
visit, CrCF found that the Moken in the Surin Islands no
longer have any kabang left and have relocated their families
to live in a thatched, stilted hut on the shore by necessity.
Moreover, under the government’s maritime conservation
policies, they are not allowed to sell sea products that they
can gather to land-based communities. Therefore, most of
them have to work as boat drivers, cooks, or handicraft
sellers in the national park.
During the mission, CrCF found that the Moken villagers
face various forms of systematic human rights abuses.
Some examples include forced eviction and resettlement,
inability to access healthcare and education, dangerous
workplace environments, and statelessness. Nonetheless,
this report does not aim at providing comprehensive
documentation of the Moken’s human rights situations
but rather shedding some light on human rights issues
relevant to the fire incident.
“They never asked us what we want”
: Charity without Community Participation
- House design and layout
According to the information CrCF received, the Surin
Islands National Park authorities and the Thai Navy
approached the scene immediately after the incident
to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of the fire.
A great amount of financial and material aids subsequently
poured into the village. Shortly after, 94 officers from
operational military units were sent to the village to help
alleviate the impact of the disaster and re-construct the
houses. Planning to finish the reconstruction by late
March or early April, the military officials were quick to
begin the construction process, having already dug holes
and laid foundations and poles for all the 61 houses.
However, the Moken villagers were not at all consulted
about the planning and layout of their new houses and
the process of reconstruction.
In the Surin Islands’ Moken Village, 2-3 families often live
together in a single house, with each family having 4-5
members on average. Initially, the government planned to
allocate only a space of a 3 x 6.5 square meters for each
house, which is an impossibly small area for 8-15 people
to live in. Later, the Network for Sea Gypsies in
the Andaman Sea successfully urged the government to
change the housing layout to 5 x 8.5 square meters for
each house. Still, the government did not further consult
the community about their needs, and many villagers still
have several concerns as follows:
- The houses are built very close to each other.
The government has decided to strictly rebuild
the houses on the 6.1 rai that the villagers used
to live on, even though the community thinks
that their residential space should be expanded
for future prevention of disaster. There is so
little space that the roofs of each house touch
one another. If any house in the village catches
fire in the future, this design may make it easy
for the fire to spread to other houses in a short time.
- The house has a low basement (approximately 1.35-
meter high) . This area is traditionally used for
hanging out and docking the Moken’s traditional
boat called However, such activities are not feasible
with this design.
CrCF is concerned that the new house design and layout
will be uninhabitable for the Moken villagers. Previously,
after the 2004 Tsunami destroyed many Moken villagers’
residences, donors and government agencies went into
affected areas to help rebuild houses for them.
McDuie-Ra et al. (2013) studied the spatial dysfunction of
Baan Lion, a village constructed by the Lions Club
International Foundation, and found that the lack of
consultation and engagement of the local Moken
community in the construction process leads to the
uninhabitability of the finished houses.Should
McDuie-Ra, Robinson, & Kaewmahanin, “ Spatial dysfunction
in post-tsunami Baan Lion: Taking the Moken beyond
vulnerability and tradition ” (2013) the government
officials continue to take the villagers’ opinions for granted,
the newly constructed
The Moken villagers’ houses under construction,
Taken by Cross-Cultural Foundation, 19 February 2019
- Donations
Upon our arrival at the Moken village in Bon Yai Bay,
we find that the villagers have received an overwhelming
amount of donations in the form of food, clothes and
other utilities. However, these donations do not necessarily
match the needs of the local community. As we explored
the shelter area for villagers whose houses burned down,
we came across a tall pile of unwanted used clothes that
became a playground for Moken children.
Narumon Arunotai, a prominent anthropologist for
Chulalongkorn University who has also visited the village,
raised concerns that these donations may become rubbish.
If so, the donations will not only be useless but also create
a burden for the villagers to dispose of them. Similar to the
problems of house design and layout, the increasing amount
of unusable donations is a direct result of the lack of
engaging the Moken villagers in the strategic planning of
humanitarian assistance to ensure that external organizations
and individuals provide aids that correspond with
the community’s actual needs.
- Food supplies and other necessities
While the Moken villagers wait for the reconstruction
of their houses to finish, the Thai government provides
them with food, temporary shelter, and other necessities.
While most of the villagers’ fundamental needs have been
addressed, several of them expressed a strong sense of
frustration that stems from the official restriction of
their activities. Before the fire incident, every Moken family
in the Surin Islands earns their income by making bracelets
for their children to sell at the National Park. However, the
fire had destroyed many families’ wax rope and beads that
they use to make the bracelets, as well as all of their cash.
“We simply want some wax rope
and beads to make bracelets,
but they never asked what we want.– A moken villager
“We simply want some wax rope and beads to make bracelets,”
said a young Moken lady, “But they never asked us what we
want.” Several women in the village echoed the same
sentiments, which signify the Moken’s desire for self-reliance
and independence. However, since their cash had been
burned down, they cannot buy materials for the bracelets to
restart their business.
Moreover, the authorities do not see the importance of
their work. Once a CrCF staff enquired the local officials
about whether they can buy the villagers some materials
for making bracelets, they refused and responded that
the villagers would be able to resume their bracelet-making
business only after the reconstruction process ends.
“For now, they can live off the aids that we have been
providing. Instead of making bracelets, they could have
helped us do other works, but they are just too lazy,”
said a civilian official from Kuraburi district. What he said
reflects the negative racial stereotypes of indigenous
populations in Thailand, including the Moken, as ‘backward,’
‘incompetent,’ and ‘lazy’ that prevails among ethnic
Thai people. This racial prejudice results in a misperception
that the indigenous people do not know what they want,
therefore undeserving of direct participation in
decision – making processes about their home territories
and requiring authoritative, top – down guidance and
leadership from more ‘civilized’ and ‘better-educated’
people, i.e., ethnic Thai people.
CrCF commends the government authorities for its rapid
shelter and food support after the fire incident. Such a timely
humanitarian response has saved many lives of Moken
villagers and restored their dignity and security in the time of
crisis. Despite the Thai government’s seemingly good intention,
the absence of community engagement in the reconstruction
process, tinged with racial prejudice, does not only fail to
empower the Moken villagers but also subjects them into
a more vulnerable, helpless position. Most villagers now
have to rely solely and passively on the State’s humanitarian
assistance and private charity. They can neither express
what kind of assistance they want nor seek out any alternatives.
Policy and legal recommendations:
Towards the right to self-determination for the Moken
On 11 February 2019, the Network of Andaman Seafaring
Ethnic People, represented by Mr. Wittawat Thepsong,
handed a letter to Mr. Wicharn Simachaya, Secretary of
the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment,
who acts as Chairman of the Committee for the Affairs of
Indigenous Peoples. The letter demands the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Environment to temporarily halt
the reconstruction of houses in the Moken village in
the Surin Islands and proposes three following requests
These requests do not deviate much from the government’s
already-existing agenda to improve theMoken’s quality of life.
On 2 June 2010, the government issued Cabinet Resolution on
the Rehabilitation of Sea Gypsies’ Ways of Life
( hereinafter “ Cabinet Resolution ” ). The Cabinet Resolution
indicates that the government will create short-term measures
for housing security, publichealth assistance, nationality
verification, access to education, cultural promotion,
elimination of racial stereotypes, and budget allocation to the
Network for Sea Gypsies. It also outlines a longterm plan to
create the “ Special Cultural Zone ” for the sea gypsies to
accommodate their specific cultural traits. However,
the resolution has never been fully implemented. As
demonstrated in 19 this report, the Moken in the Surin Islands
still face issues of forced eviction/settlement and racial
discrimination. CrCF, therefore, echoes the requests of
the Network of Andaman Seafaring Ethnic People and
specifically urges the Thai government to follow-up on its
commitment to protecting the Moken’s human rights by
ensuring effective implementation of the resolution.
Moreover, the solutions proposed under the 2010 Cabinet
Resolution may not sufficiently protect the Moken from
the structural human rights abuses that they face.
CrCF believes that the Thai government should follow the
international human rights standards, to which the
Thai government has committed itself, as a guideline to
create measures to protect the Moken. For example, as a
party to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (ICERD), Thailand is obligated under the
international law to create measures to ensure that the
Moken, as well as other indigenous groups, enjoy full human
rights, especially the right to self-determination, which is
directly related to the situation of the Moken in the Surin Islands.
Article 4 of UNDRIP provides “ Indigenous peoples,
in exercising their right to self-determination, have
the right to autonomy or self-government in matters
relating to their internal and local affairs,as well as
ways and means for financing their autonomous
functions. ” In her analysis of the concept of
“ self-determination ” in UNDRIP, legal researcher
Anna Cowan asserted that it entails the following elements :
1.) Meaningful participation in decision-making
processes (Article 18);
2.) Freedom from racial discrimination
(Article 1,2, and 9).Article 2: “Indigenous peoples and individuals
are free and equal to all other peoples and
individuals and have the right to be
free from any kind of discrimination,
in the exercise of their rights, in particular
that based on their indigenous origin or identity”Article 18: “Indigenous peoples have
the right to participate in decision-making
in matters which would affect their rights,
through representatives chosen
by themselves in accordance with their own
procedures, as well as to maintain and develop
their own indigenous decision-making institutions.”– United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)
Even though there is a mechanism for indigenous peoples
to participate in decision-making processes that determine
their future, it still would not be “meaningful” if they are
still stereotypically perceived as “incompetent” and,
therefore, not worth taking seriously. Likewise, even though
the society may be more or less free of racialized prejudices,
the indigenous people who have been historically subjected
to political disenfranchisement by colonialism and state-making
projects will not be able to determine their future because they
lack institutional access to decision-making processes. Cowan’s
analysis draws on a close reading of UNDRIP to demonstrate
that indigenous peoples can never truly determine their
own future without the symbiotic combination between
meaningful community participation in decision making
and freedom from racial discrimination.
Apart from UNDRIP, Thailand has several obligations under
the ICERD. In 1997, the Committeeon the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination (hereinafter “the Committee”)
has issued the General Recommendation XXII,
which specifically urges State parties to “ensure that members
of indigenous peoples have equal rights in respect of effective
participation in public life and that no decisions directly
relating to their rights and interests are taken without
their informed consent.” Moreover, the recommendation
suggests that state parties “recognize and protect the rights
of indigenous peoples to own, develop, control and use their
communal lands, territories, and resources.” During the review
of Thailand’s commitment to the ICERD in November 2012, CrCF,
together with its partner organizations, submitted a shadow
report that points to the lack of indigenous community
participation in local resource management. In the Concluding
Observation, the 21 Committee raised similar concerns about
the violations of indigenous people’s rights and recommended
that Thailand respected its commitments to indigenous
rights in accordance with ICERD and UNDRIP.22
Under these international legal commitments, Thailand must
ensure that the Moken have the right to self-determination,
with full ability to participate in decision-making processes
related to their rights and freedom from racial discrimination
and negative stereotypes. Accordingly, CrCF proposes
the following recommendations:
- Every development plan must receive free, prior, and
informed consent from the Moken villagers before it
begins. The government should create a mechanism for
the Moken villagers to govern themselves by taking a lead
on designing, delivering, and monitoring development
programs in their local community. - The government should facilitate regular participation
of the Moken in decision-making institutions and local
governments, both at the national and local levels.
Moreover, the government should provide financial and
linguistic support to ensure the effectiveness of such
participation. - State officials must undergo training about anti-racism
training to eliminate negative stereotypes and prejudices
about indigenous peoples.
Disclaimer: This document has been produced within the context
of financial assistance from the European Union (EU)
and UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect
the official opinion and policy of the EU and OHCHR.
They never ask us what we want”_Moken’s Human Rights Situation Report by CrCF[:]