Page 58 - Rights beautiful : collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

Rights Beautiful Collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

to the same social objective, and could be said to be complementary to one
another. While the former, “dispute resolution”, deals with day-to-day affairs,
the latter, “peace studies”, is basically concerned with bringing about a
process towards long-term solution of sustainability and peaceful coexistence
in society with dignity, freedom, and justice. In this sense, what is being
termed “conflict management” is both structural and institutional, involving
people at all levels of society, indeed a truly democratic process that is so
lacking in Southeast Asia. And that is the crux of the whole problem that
urgently needs to be looked into.

Getting to know Southeast Asia
To begin with, it is the question of how Southeast Asia is to be
looked at and objectively understood. So a brief description may be in order
here. The region has generally been known for its geo-political and military
position as the strategic sea route from the Middle East to the Pacific
coast. That is only part of the whole story, however. Of more import still,
and inherent in its strategic status, Southeast Asia constitutes one major
part of the world’s biologically diverse tropical forests. With less than 7 % of
the Earth’s land surface, these habitats accommodate more than half the
species in the entire world biological resources and diversity. Of some
estimated 3 to 10 million species that exist globally, about 70% are in the
1
tropical forest areas. As we all know, these plant species serve as the vital
sources of food, medicine, shelters, and clothing: in short, all the necessities
of our daily life dubbed “four-fold livelihood” in a Thai jargon. For all the
vast quantity of the tropics’ genetic resources, fortunately or unfortunately,
the state of human knowledge is still extremely limited. Of some 125,000
known plant species in the tropical forests, researchers have taken a
cursory look at barely one in 10, and a close look at only one in 100. It means

1
E.O. Wilson, “The Current State of Biological Diversity”, and Ariel E. Lugo, “Estimating
Reductions in the Diversity of Tropical Forest Species”, in E.O. Wilson, ed., Biodiversity,
Washington D.C, Washington Academy Press, 1988 pp. 8 and 60.

52 OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THAILAND