Fields of Desire: Poverty and Policy in Laos

Chapter 3: The Mobility of the Marginal

44 Fields of Desire 44 3 The Mobility of the Marginal In this chapter I describe some of the historical context in which the residents of Don Khiaw found themselves. I take as my example the historical formation of the current “regime of citizenship” (Kipnis 2004) that marks these people as Lao citizens, and limits and shapes their movements accordingly. This regime of citizenship is, in Deleuzian terms, a form of “capture”. But as I will also show, this capture is not complete, and the desires and lives of Lao rural residents continue to flow beyond it, although the channels they take remain profoundly shaped by it. While once Don Khiaw’s position in the Mekong’s busy flows meant that it was well enmeshed in the Kingdom of Champassak and the Tai world, Don Khiaw is now a place far from roads, offices and markets, the hallmarks of modern integration. Nonetheless, the people of Don Khiaw continue to live in a social world of connectivity and mobility. They cultivate social, economic and political networks that extend regionally and globally, and their travel to and fro across borders is an important part of these. Common-sense understandings of globalization, the impacts of transport and communications technology, and the splintering of the bamboo curtain might suppose that borders are less salient now than they used to be, and in some senses this is true. Yet, for the people of Don Khiaw, this is not necessarily so. Many of the recent modifications in border controls have eased the mobility of the rich more than for the rural poor. Some of the modifications that have affected Don Khiaw residents the most appear to have been aimed more at controlling than facilitating their migrations. Other forms of migration particularly common among the poor have been outlawed altogether—undocumented labouring, human trafficking, asylum seeking, insurgency and smuggling among them. Thus, although this region has historically been integrated and The Mobility of the Marginal 45 mobile, and although the people of Don Khiaw continue to constitute themselves importantly through travel and geographically broad networks, this cross-border mobility sometimes brings them into conflict with contemporary regulations of citizenship. The current regime of citizenship, as well as the political conflicts that have been a marked part of its establishment, are two of the most important contributing factors towards the poverty that is now characteristic of this place. Yet, despite the apparent firmness of this regime of citizenship it continues to be subverted by the cross-border activities of the rural south, sometimes in oddly casual ways. This contrast—between the bold assertion of the power of the state and its oddly casual subversion—forms one theme of this chapter, as it is a feature not only of border regulations but state relations in Laos more generally. This chapter approaches the history of the Thai-Lao border from four directions: first, a recent Lao propaganda document provides an “official history ” of the local border, one that insists on the unity and continuity of the Lao nation. Second, a family history: this lived experience reveals just how very recent and arbitrary this nation seems in the context of local lives, and how it “leaks on every side”. Third, I draw on conventional historiography to investigate the precolonial past of Champassak, the years of colonialism and war, the new regime and recent attempts at regional cooperation, all with an eye to the formation of the Thai/Lao border over time. The fourth is retrospective narratives of the southern Lao insurgency. Through this interweaving of historiography and narrative, I aim to show that residents of Don Khiaw live in a social world of mobility, that this mobility has changed over time, and that restrictions on mobility are an important contributing factor to the poverty that Don Khiaw residents now experience, even if these restrictions are—like so many of the spectacular manifestations of state power in Laos— often ignored or undermined. The lecture It was 21 September 2002, the day of Bun Khao Salak when the people of Don Khiaw wear their best clothes, gather at the temple and donate gifts, money trees and food to the monks at the temple in order to generate merit for deceased relatives, all amid excitement and bustle. Afterwards, when we were listening to the sutras in the temple hall, a bell rang. It was a signal that we were to go to another meeting. No one had thought it worthwhile to tell me prior...