IN THE BEGINNING

       At first meeting with Worrawimon Chairut,she will tell you right away that she considers herself a chao ban (local folk)from Wat Ket. For her, the term reflects the sense of pride in one's roots and commitments to preserve the ancestral heritage.
       "In contrast, I take the word chum chon [community] as a politically-loaded import that was first introduced about five to six years ago with the arrival of the one-million-baht Village Fund projects and such. I have very little to do with those so-called community leaders. Actually,sometimes they chastised me because I had opposed the 'progress' brought by the
       government. But I see myself as an independentmind person who has to weigh the pros and cons carefully before accepting anything."
       For years, Worrawimon has been working quietly on her small campaigns to revive the spirit of her hometown on the eastern side of the Ping River. In the old days, the area around Wat Ket served as a key commercial port with goods shipped between Chiang Mai and Bangkok being unloaded here, thus its former name,Ban Tha (Port Village), which is also an intriguing melting pot of different ethnic and religious groups. In front of Wat Ket stands a Sikkh temple,and a few metres away is a century-plus-old Christian Church and a mosque."It's virtually a microcosm of Thailand," she said.
       Moreover, on both sides of the two-lane Charoen Rat Road are elegant teak or brick mansions, dating back to over a century ago and each with a rich trove of stories. Worrawimon shows a sample of her books, which unravel the fascinating varied human history of Wat Ket. In particular are two thick tomes, a collection of about 5,000 names of the extensive clans and kin networks from the area which she compiled over 10 years ago.
       According to Worrawimon, her neighbourhood is probably the last "living historic site"in Chiang Mai, where the majority of the current residents have been born and/or raised here,and unlike other tourist spots, outsiders still constitute a minority.
       Thus the petite woman felt she could no longer stay idle upon learning a couple of years ago that such unique cultural fabric might be threatened as the new Comprehensive City Plan of Chiang Mai was to be adopted without local input.
       Thanks to Duongchan Apavatjrut Charoenmuang, a researcher from Chiang Mai University who has been studying the social history of Wat Ket area and serving as the locals' adviser,Worrawimon received a copy of a CD (bought by Duongchan from a real estate company during a trade fair) that shows her community being classified as a high-population density catered to an intensive level of commerce (red colour zone).
       The figures in the draft city plan alarmed her. Calculations by staff at the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning stipulated that Wat Ket had about 108 residents per rai (roughly half an acre). But a re-calculation by Worrawimon, who incidentally was a geography major and has a master's degree in demography, shows a complete opposite picture:About seven people per rai.
       The ramifications of the different figures were serious. The quiet, rather laid-back Wat Ket as Worrawimon has known would be a dream of the past. Being classified as a "red zone" district would signal a march of condominiums, restaurants, karaoke bars and nightclubs, as well as a much bigger road as allowed by the law.
       As in the struggle over the road expansion project, Worrawimon had to face different techniques by concerned authorities to keep the public in the dark. One so-called public meeting was announced in a small column on page seven of a local newspaper. When she and friends learned about the event at almost the last minute, they hurried to the local school designated to be the venue, only to find there was no map to tell them which room the meeting was actually being held in.
       "But we found it after a frantic search. On a noticeboard in front of the room were pasted over 100 pages of the draft law, which we of course did not have time to read carefully. For such an important meeting, there were only 50 people in attendance -20 were the organisers;10 were student interns and the rest were stakeholders who came with me.
       "Their public relations mindset was extremely poor. They claimed that they had already announced the event in advance, so if people did not show up to debate the issue, then it must mean that they have already accepted it."
       On another occasion, Worrawimon said she was informed of what was supposed to be an important visit by the city planners from Bangkok, only the night before their arrival. Again,there was an insidious rush and a last-minute change of schedules on the actual day, as the committee members were apparently in a hurry to visit another Otop village.
       After two years, hundreds of petition letters,numerous rounds of meetings and an innovative survey that showed an overwhelming number of landowners in Wat Ket area who were against the red colour zoning label, the authorities finally agreed to revise the Comprehensive City Plan by re-classifying Wat Ket as a residential area for conservation purpose (yellow colour with white stripes).
       It has not been an easy road for Worrawimon,and she has suffered her dues (ranging from physical and verbal threats). But she is not alone. Her Wat Ket Non-Profit Alliance has attracted a growing number of active citizens,which later formed a province-wide network called the Raksa Ban Raksa Muang group (see main story).
       It all started from her volunteer work as a sattha wat (religious devout) at Wat Ket many years ago. Gradually, Worrawimon has learned the importance of self-reliance and the need to pass on the invaluable heritage to the next generations.
       "One of my elders said we have a nose to breathe [by ourselves], and not to let others drag it here and there according to their wills.
       "Many people have asked me what I have gained from doing all this. I say I don't know,but perhaps it is because I feel sorry if we can't preserve the good stuff for our future youths.I don't want the world to collapse right in front of my eyes when I can still do something about it.
       "All other countries, even those that were just formed not so long ago, would try their best to search and keep their roots. They would not destroy what's already there.
       "Money is not the answer to everything.What's far more important is peacefulness,[the ability to keep one's] spiritual essence and way of life. Yes, another reason I can give for doing what I do is simply because this is our home."