Free Market Economy Slammed For Bringing Heavy Debt to Innocents by Truong Hong Khanh 24-2-2000 The free-market economy was strongly criticised for bringing heavy debt to innocent Thais and violating their human rights, NGO officials said on February 9, 2000. The issue was discussed during an NGO Forum on Alternatives to Neo-Liberalism, held for a brainstorming of ideas in the days before the UNCTAD conference in Bangkok. Speaking at a workshop on the free-market economy, Kamol Kamoltrakul of Forum Asia said free trade had caused a sharp increase in global foreign debts. He cited World Bank statistics which indicated that between 1970-1996, debt in Latin American countries increased 20-fold, in South African countries 35-fold, in Third World countries 100-fold, and in Thailand from 1960, debt increased 120-fold. Mr Kamol said that industrialised nations had used debt as a tool to create conditions to control developing countries. "The saying that free trade could bring prosperity is not true. Actually what we need is not free trade, but fair trade."Worapol Promikabuth, of Thammasat University's faculty of sociology and anthropology cited a Bank of Thailand report which said that after the implementation of a free trade policy, the country's total deficit increased from US$37,354 million in 1992 to $ 79,854 million in 1996. He said $63,049 million of this figure was private sector debt. Mr Worapol said the arrears were caused by financial institutions owing money to overseas lenders. He claimed interference from organisations such as the IMF and World Bank had led to new laws being implemented in order to transfer debt from the private to the public sector, so the state was made responsible for repayment to foreign institutions through taxation. Mr Worapol said the public had no right to deny debts they did not cause, which was a clear violation of their human rights. Saneh Chamarik of the Local Development Institute called on Thai people to be more active in striving for personal freedoms by pushing for community rights and the land reform system. He said this would enable local communities to manage their own resources and create a strong base for a sufficiency economy.