Chao-Kote And The Role Of Mediator In Contemporary Community Justice

Abstract

          In the past, Thai society had a perspective about conflict as undesirable matter because it was threat to peace. Therefore, it was considered the duty of people in the community to work together in order to stop the escalating conflict before expanding into trouble and chaos. According to Isan Culture, Jao-Kote is a person who is regarded by his family as the leader among the relatives. And the same word is also used to refer to community leaders or village scholars whom the whole community regards as the elders of the community. Consequently, Jao-Kote has been entrusted by Isan villagers to act as a mediator to relieve suffering when conflicts and non-serious crimes existed in the community in order to maintain the peace of the Isan community since the ancient time. There are two types of acting as the mediator of Jao-Kote which are 1) The role as mediator of the family, and 2) The role as a mediator to settle disputes within the community. That’s the reason why it can be considered that Jao-Kote is truly a mediator in the community justice in a consistency with Isan culture. The change of era did not erase Jao-Kote’s role of mediator in community justice, conversely; it caused a bit change in the conciliation process of the modern Jao Kote for adapting to the current community justice system which was guided by the government policies. The change in the role of Jao-Kote as the mediator in contemporary community justice is divided into 4 areas: performing the role of mediator; the dispute mediation process; preparing a memorandum of agreement in the form of documentary evidence from the mediation; and the aspect of following up after dispute mediation.