Legitimate power of Vietnamese Thais in Suratthani Town

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the legitimate power of the Vietnamese Thais people in Suratthani Town. Qualitative methodology was implemented in the study with the documentary researches, in-depth interviews of 9 case studies and 1 group interview under the discussion topic of although Suratthani Town is a new town and far away from Mekong River, the Vietnamese Thais still has potentially established the legitimate power by themselves.

The results found that the legitimate power of the Vietnamese Thais was identified into three types. The first type was charismatic authority which was formed through Vietnamese’s working behaviors in cluding diligence, providence, honesty and tolerance. The Vietnamese-Thai have conducted occupations such as refrigerator mechanic for over 40 years, tailors for over 20 years, and traditional treatment as a Vietnamese physician, until they received acceptance from local people. The second type was traditional authority which was established through culture of Vietnamese foods and the preservation of Vietnamese language. In Suratthani, there was a person who received the decoration from Vietnamese government due to his effort to preserve the traditional language. The last type is rationality legal authority which was given by Thai government as a representative of Vietnamese people in Thailand in order to coordinate between government agencies and the Vietnamese. For instance, some Vietnamese Thais had chance to work in the provincial hospital as the volunteer, while some of them worked as the probation volunteer at the Suratthani Probation Office.

According to such case, the rationality legal authority could be compared to the ideal for developing youths and peoples in society so that they could follow the right path and maintain their legitimacy.