On the Road in Laos. An Anthropological Study of Road Construction and Rural Communities

108 Pages·1993·15.4 MB·English

by  Ing-Britt Trankell

Ing-Britt Trankell
ON THE ROAD IN LAOS
An Anthropological Study of Road Construction
and Rural Communities
Uppsala Research Reports in Cultural Anthropology, No. 12
1993
Cover photo: Children in a Tai Messy village
Publication of this work
has been financially supported by Vilhelm Ekmans universitetsfond
Published and distributed by
Department of Cultural Anthropology
Uppsala University
Tréidgiirdsgatan 18
S-753 09 Uppsala, Sweden
. . . . . . .
© Ing-Britt Trankell 1993
ISBN 91-506-0966-1
ISSN 0348-9507
Photos, typesetting and lay~out by Jan Ovesen
Printed in Sweden by Go tab, Stockholm 1993
CONTENTS
PREFACE vii
INTRODUCTION 1
Research Design 6
Methodology '7
GENERAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION 12
Ethnicity 12
The Socio-Political Position of Women 19
Subsistence Production Systems 25
Socio-Economic Description of Selected Villages in Vientiane Province 34
Marketplaces and Commercial Centers 52
Forestry and Agriculture in Bolikhamxai 56
Socio-Economic Description of Selected Villages in Bolikhamxai 64
SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CHANGES 80
Forestry, Agriculture and Land Use in Relation to the Road 80
Land, Labour and Gender 81
On-Farm and Off-Farm Transportation Needs 83
Changing Landholding Patterns in Roadside Villages 85
Political and Socio-Economic Changes at Village Level 88
Wealth Ranking and Political -Economic Power 92
BIBLIOGRAPHY 95
v

PREFACE
This work is the result of three months' research, the focus of which was
the impact of a road construction programme on local communities, ethnic
groups and gender relations in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The
work was undertaken as an anthropological study within the Lao-Swedish
Cooperation in the Road Transport Sector with regard to the rehabilitation
of the National Road 13 South from Vientiane municipality to Pakkading
district in Bolikhamxai province- The study was commissioned by the
Gender Office of the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA)
in collaboration with SIDA's Infrastructure Division.
The research team, of which I was a member, was led by a Swedish
consultant recruited through the Development Studies Unit, Department of
Social Anthropology, Stockholm University and consisted further of a male
Laotian road engineer, a female Laotian secretary from the Ministry of
Transportation, and myself as an anthropologist, also recruited by the
Development Studies Unit. For the necessary transport of the team a
Landrover with a driver had to be hired, whatever the mechanical
shortcomings of this vehicle, its driver turned out to be an important asset
for the team, not only for our travelling but also in terms of the research
itself.
The fieldwork for the study was carried out during seven weeks, from
November 1 through December 20, 1991 under the direction of the team
leader, Ms Agneta Hakangiird. I also acknowledge the assistance and
cooperation of Mr Kharnphet, Ms Viengsamay, Mr Daravong and Mr Sun.
The study was my first experience of working within the time constraint
which unfortunately is the norm for much development anthropology,
sometimes - and here rather appropriately .... referred to as 'hit-and~run
anthropology Because of the very limited time allotted for fieldwork, the
data from the various villages must necessarily appear rather sporadic and
somewhat uneven. lt was a question of gathering as much material as
possible during a short time, and at the same time to ensure a reasonable
vii
viii
reliability of the data. This means that a detailed and systematic comparison
of data from the various villages is not always possible, since circumstances
and even chance encounters partly determined the kind of information I was
able to gain in each village. To make up for such shortcomings, I had
recourse to various 'short-cut' methods, briefly discussed in the
Introduction. But the obvious incompleteness of the brief 'village studies'
should be noted.
The present publication is a revised and expanded version of the report I
submitted to the Development Studies Unit in April 1992. Since completion
of the fieldwork within my assignment, I have had the opportunity to visit a
number of villages in the northern provinces of Luann Prabang, Oudomxai
and Phong Saly, and the comparative perspective gained from these
experiences has implicitly contributed to the final shape of this work.
I am grateful to my colleague and companion, Jan Ovesen, for his helpful
comments on various drafts of the manuscript.
Vientiane, February 1993
In-Britt Trankell
\
I. INTRODUCTION
The main objective of the Lao-Swedish Cooperation is to assist in providing
the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) with a national
transportation system and to improve the capacity for the country to build
and maintain roads and bridges. As for Road 13 South, the idea is to
upgrade the existing dust road, built by the French during the colonial
period, to an all-weather main road. The road is considered an important
link in the national transportation system, since it together with Road 8 -
also scheduled for upgrading - will connect Laotian and Vietnamese
territory. Construction is partly funded by SIDA through a Swedish
construction company, which supplies the technology in terms of road-
constructing equipment, technical know-how, and training of Laotian
-
engineers. From the Laotian side, the State Enterprise 13 S which is a
subsidiary of the Ministry of Corrnnunication, Transport, Post, Construction
and Aviation (MCTPCA) is in its turn financially and practically
- .
responsible for the actual construction work as well as for supplying the
labour.
An assessment of the socio~econornic effects of the road was considered
relevant in order to provide a planning basis for a possible expansion of the
programme to include feeder roads, as well as to provide information for
future road construction policies.
*
Road construction is subject to important national and international
economic considerations. The importance of the economic 'opening up' of
the country through infrastructural development, as well as its political
concornitants, was realized already by the French colonial administration.
As Gunn observes, "[ t]he colonial State project [. . .] served a direct political
role (assisting troop movement and the pacification of the country) and an
economic role (facilitating the extraction of raw materials and trade
1
2
flows)"(Gunn 1990:55). The advent of decolonization, national liberation
and a socialist regime has done nothing to invalidate Gunn's statement.
Infrastructural development remains a precondition for economic
development, and from a macroeconomic point of view (Swedish assistance
in) road construction is generally deemed highly desirable. One
international economist expressed his enthusiasm in the following way :
[O]ne of the major obstacles faced by the new [economic] policy is the
deficient road infrastructure. By preventing the creation of one national
market out of several provincial markets, this obstacle prevents the
liberalization of internal trade from having its positive effects on economic
welfare. By the same token, the deficient road network makes difficult the
transport of products to export markets, implying higher transport costs and
less export. Swedish assistance to road construction in Laos can therefore be
considered most useful to the implementation of the new policy (Bourdet
1989: 47).
There is no doubt, however, that also foreign economic interests - in the
first place Thai and to some extent also Vietnamese are served by the road
...-
construction. With the comp eton of the bridge across the Mekong River
immediately east of Vientiane, which is currently being constructed with
Australian aid and which will be directly linked to the Road 13 South, trade
flows will indeed be facili rared, and foreign observers have coimnented that
the bridge will in the first place promote the continued and increased
exploitation by Thailand of the natural resources of Laos. One western
diplomat is reported to have said that the bridge "will make it much easier
for the Thais to rape and devastate Laos" (quoted by Lohmann 199012).
*
From the point of view of the sociology of transportation, Cook (1985) has
noted that both ordinary people and those who devote their time and effort
to designing roads and transportation systems may want roads, although for
rather different reasons. Road planners tend to think primarily in terms of
the movement of goods and the efficiency to be achieved by motorized
transport (Cook 1985:299). Villagers, on the other hand, may be in favour
of an improved road not SO much because of the prospects of better
individual travelling facilities, but because of the anticipation of the arrival
of more consumer goods at lower prices, and because of the wish for other
3
.
\ \ Bn \U,R*H` iPl1. l*iV u' WC-H Ig\N *nAu1 -51r1 l5I I rI r.' .I*rr\ l " -p_h `o\"\ n\ i e1s. * .nJ S*L \ a __l *es 1 .\ .' -. w. 1II rx II H.ano i 1. 1 'sIII \ \.*_*_`1 I1 1 -I I* *|»,*s»*1 r.°1|.**7' ,*5, -
.»* Lr up 'inx .L uann prab\ 'as ngs \ "¢-* ** i r_ 1'Lfh u%" f*q*.,H. "'|'.l* .1 .f1 rI\. Q.r .\4 ''I NI 1I , VIETNAM\ 1.0°.1 _ -9* \"- .* inr*.1*,1* ';. H"_' 1 11.i-»n1 P . \'_ ',i a,n,'lQ=Hll.l »I '*'/ o_QE'- \ r»JU$ \ *r' 1I. -' 5l.;*' 1|*I` I- 1}. t.;; ° * .1*1 '.A. " 1" '"II""-l¢...g." i |.'g ~ , L*" °
I'r* \4 .."1 r.Ir" x'1 r r l _ \r 1\ l .r.1 .. _,, I r J* r Vie"'irnV . r . tr, .r»i a...n»e'.f rI///xy. fPafkx/(cid:127)a r: /I "\ Z,* * 4;x "»' a i -tko* `k4* lla'.cu d * ininq".". v . C InT \h 1-I |1a_ I. m k hve* ik1 n "LI .'! L\ 1\ '*J 1 *.Juc 1hr i' li.. i\. .el.r *-x-1 g *\_ 1* .-.1 ,§ L' .- *|\1 _. L:. *' *J|Q *'* | 1 'H .-i ..*n " .1 .i1 , *l 1. H QI1~ l\Q .\I f 13I2I II'». . °* " I '°¢ <._o4i ; fi` ".st_If n ¢*t.-r €q *GiJ**:,. » l-»- I.-_i, :Q- ; '*2 i~- 1- _ " . a F'.|4q.» 1- ,* -:5E:",gr .'. . He.*lu'4 "-." "°r l*I ' ¢\-f\ " .xr3**n '-I'{-;. .
0 Savararmakhe L *sx \ \
* 'u
THAILAND \ L '.sr
1*
J'
J
I
|,
1.
l False 'L \ n-.*\
r 1
Irw . ¢d ll4 '
1. 1
r I | 11
r I
*i'*""*- '*.,,**¢°*\¢'¢rr rr - »##* - f *It
,I r f I .l-n CAMBODIA* kg*H ~ . (u. i II'4 *r .rr ""-- H. *.t1r 1 l
I
Map of Laos showing area of szudy
kinds of services, such as those provided by nurses, doctors and teachers
that are expected to arrive along with the road. However, road access alone
does not, of course, ensure the supply of services in other sectors such as
those of health and education.
The design of the Road 13 South is a very obvious example of the fact
that the needs and interests of road planers on the one hand, and of the
inhabitants of the villages along the road on the other, do not necessarily