Abstract:
The objectives of this research include: 1) To study people's consciousness and opportunity in local governance process specifically on participation and transparency of Tambon administration organization, non-government organization and cultural organization in Ubonratchathani province; 2) To study the obstacles of people's consciousness and opportunity in local governance process specifically on participation and transparency and; 3) To study factors affecting people's consciousness and opportunity in local governance process specifically on participation and transparency. It is a qualitative research through in-depth interview with open-ended questions. The information was gathered from: 15 beneficiaries and representatives of Tambon administration organization; 15 beneficiaries and staff of non-government organization and; 15 villagers and temple's monks.
Findings of this research include:
1. People's consciousness and opportunity in local governance process specifically on participation and transparency: As each organization has its own approach, the levels of consciousness and opportunity in participation and transparency are, thus, different. For Tambon administration organization (TAO): A community meeting is organized once a year to open opportunity for villagers to express their views and make decision in prioritizing projects. Most villagers participate the meeting. However, there are some villagers that do not participate. Special activities are, thus, organized by TAO to motivate them to participate. After that there is a meeting on drafting TAO annual budget that villagers are neither interested in participating. For non-government organization: Participatory approach is used to get access to the disadvantaged groups, listen and value the views of the target groups, open opportunity for them to cooperatively identify problems and solutions, educate the target groups to find channels to get access to their rights and related agencies' services in relation to the issues transparently and equitably. For cultural organization: Participation is a result of people's consciousness and faith towards the temple. They voluntarily organize themselves to support the temple. Meanwhile, the temple open opportunity for the people to participate by listening and valuing the villagers' views since the appointment of the temple's abbot was under the consent
of the villagers. In addition, the temple opens opportunity for villagers to get access to information for decision making in its administration and financial management.
2. Obstacles of people's consciousness and opportunity in local governance process specifically on participation and transparency: The crucial issue concerning TAO is that the people and civil society do not have opportunity to search in-depth information for identifying problems and needs. The proposed projects are, thus, not from the awareness of the people within the community. This causes the lack of people's participation and transparency in other TAO processes such as budget draft, project implementation and monitoring. In addition, the gap of information and communication between TAO and the people affects the lack of people's consciousness in participation and cause the people to understand that all this process is under the responsibility of TAO and the people are only the rights holders and beneficiaries. The obstacle found with non-government organization is that it is not a long-term projects and it causes the lack of continuity of people's participation. The obstacle of the cultural organization is that the role of the temple is still limited in linking other organizations or institutions to commonly participate in the governance process.
3. Factors affecting people's consciousness and opportunity in local governance process specifically on participation and transparency: All the three organizations focus on structural participation and transparency. However, there are factors affecting the intensiveness of its participation and transparency. For the TAO: The lack of opportunity of the people to get access to information is the main cause that the people do not participate in in-depth brainstorming, making decision, implementing, and monitoring the projects. This causes the tendency of the people to think that the administration of TAO is not transparent and efficient. For non- government organization: Multi-levels of information are searched and used including through secondhand information from related agencies and in-depth information from the participation of the people. This helps clarifying the information of the disadvantaged groups. This process builds trust and voluntary participation of the disadvantaged groups in indentifying their problems and needs, realizing the principle of human rights, having information to get access to their rights and services from related agencies transparently, equitably, thoroughly and relevantly. For cultural organization: People's participation on reinforcing transparency is through two factors: The first one is faith of the people and their civil society towards the organization specifically the leader of the organization that was appointed through the consent of the people. In addition, the quality characters of the leader are also crucial including honesty, equality, sharing and non-discrimination; the second factor is the administration and financial management of the leader which is open and decentralized to the people to be responsible and transparently monitor the implementation of the organization."