Creating reconciliation after the election: Case Study of the election of village headmen Stuk District, Buriram Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study the situations and characteristics of conflicts including the process and ways of the development of reconciliation after the election of village headman in Stuk district, Buriram province. This research was the qualitative research with in-depth interview to collect data of participants. Purposive sampling method was used to select a total of 24 participants from two different groups: community and government sector. The data was analyzed based on the concept of conflicts and the concept of reconciliation. The research found that the situations and characteristics of the conflicts in terms of disengaging village activities, criticizing others, and complaining the performance of the village headman, and also the violence among the village headmen candidates themselves, between the candidates’ relatives and the candidates, and among the colleagues of the candidates. The causes of the conflicts were from all personal issues, work-related issues and the issues related to the competition of the village headman position. The analysis of the process and ways of developing the reconciliation after the election of the village headman revealed that the government sector played crucial roles of solving the conflicts, creating harmonization in three ways: (1) the mental retreatment by increasing the awareness of the situations, the utilization of local resources, and implementing the retreatment along with the creation of new things; (2) the dialogue by using the true storytelling method; and (3) the mental and emotional management by applying the tools of the religious concepts and beliefs. Although some groups of the people did not believe that the conflicts could be solved, but the creation of role models and public communication for further research could be the ways to prevent the conflicts in the community.

Keywords: Reconciliation; Election Village Headman; Stuk district in Buriram province