Five: The Magic Number of a Sub-group
Nong Kanea Saving Co-op,
Chumpae, Kon Kean Province

"Well, everyone knows one another very well here, it's hard to cheat and corrupt," says Mae Nong, a plump lady in her late 50s who also runs the community saving co-op. She turns towards another lady who is sitting next to her.

"Isn't that right?" she asks.
"I guess so," says the adjacent lady.

Her saving group got started back in 2004; it has 48 members and the entire group is subdivided into 5 subgroup consists of 5-6 members each. So when someone proposes something, it is always noted by his fellow members under the watchful eyes of his own relatives.

"When you operate on such a small scale, there's no room for corruption - even if you wanted to!" says Mae Nong as she laughs.

She says that governments throughout the world should learn from her experience; they should disperse and operate on a smaller spontaneous group of 5-6 people.

"But they do that all the time," says a mild-manner man with thick glasses who is relaxing across the table. He has a very soft and erudite tone of voice and when he utters a sound, the rest of the group stops to listen.

"Where?" asks Mae Nong matter-of-factly. She looks a bit annoyed.

"The army!" says the bi-spectacled man. "The fundamental operational unit of most armies is a collection of subgroups; each of which has about 5 to 6 people - so do most primates when they go out for a raid," he says.

"This is true," he continues. "And it's not just the army or the primates, you know; rock bands, software development teams, and auto assembling teams all work in 5 to 6 person teams."

"Five," the bi-spectacle man continues, "is also the number of your fingers in each of your free hand. You must be able to easily count and remember your group members. And five is what most people can remember without too much brain workout."

Mae Nong ponders it for about a second then she laughs and waves her hand back and forth around her neck; fanning his remarks away with the afternoon heat. "Well, if it's true, then where is my cooking team for tonight?" Mae Nong sighs. "I need 5 to 6 people to help ground the chili paste!"

Everyone laughs. The bi-spectacle man adjusts his wrist watch; then he looks over his shoulder as if anticipating someone to arrive.

Mae Nong says that the land she's living on now belongs to the Treasury Department; they are now on a 15 years lease contract with them.

"So how much are you guys paying for the lease?" I ask.

"It's 665 baht per year for our community here," says Mae Nong. "The total cost is 280,000 baht. We renew it every 3 years because if you do a long term lease - say 30 years - the processing fee would be 6 times the fee of doing a short-term lease. It's just agreed upon informally - like everything else in Thailand - that the community would be allowed a 15 year renewable lease."

The land is 1.6 Hectare; about 4 times the size of a small soccer field. There are a total of 40 houses on the site. Mae Nong says that they also got 3,510,000 baht infrastructure grant from CODI after they had saved up to about 10% of the amount.
"The cost of electrical upgrade and utility grid expansion is very costly," says Mae Nong. "It's almost 300,000 baht; and that's just electrical upgrade, you know. We still have water supply upgrades along with utility line extension; it cost us 400,000 baht

"And you guys take out housing loan from CODI as well?"
"Yes, the housing is a separate cost; right now we're paying 480,000 baht per month," says Mae Nong. "

"Is there any free-rider in your saving group?" I ask.

"No," she stops to think for a second. "The ones that don't pay regularly have their own problems," says Mae Nong. "Some jobs just don't generate enough income for some of our residents here, so they went to work elsewhere and sent their sons and daughters to live here instead. And there is this lady who is always drunk; she has a handicapped child that required extra care. When she's on one of her drunken rampages, she would always want to withdraw her money from the saving group - she needs more money for the drinks," laughs Mae Nong.

I look around the place, the entire community is lined with plants and neatly paved walkways; the houses have bright blue roofs. "Things fade," says Mae Nong sullenly. "So we have to choose bright primal colors to start with."

"Do you build your own houses?" I ask.
"Not in a sense of laying the actual bricks ourselves; but we do meet and plan a lot; we design how and where they will go. But we hired outside contractors to do the actual construction," she says.

"So only in the sense that you guys participate in the designing of the houses and their master plan"

"Yeah," she nods. Mae Nong tells me that the folks here are trying to do a cross-subsidy scheme where housing units for higher income residents are leased out first. These units will be a bit more expensive so that the profit could go back to fund units for lower income residents. If this idea goes through, it would be the first few examples in Thailand.

"Rental apartments are becoming more expensive; there's a trend towards more high-end apartments and condos. If this trend continues, people like us will not have to place to live; even people who live in regular apartment; they will have a hard time,' says Mae Nong. "So why not build those expensive units right here now and have the profit goes to the community?"

The bi-spectacle man stands upright and look over his shoulder.

A large van comes to stop in front of our pavilion; it bears the logo of CODI. As Somsook Bonyabancha, CODI director-emeritus, steps out of the van, a large crowd of people suddenly appear out of nowhere to greet her.

"Our benefactor is here," shouts Mae Nong. "Here comes the giver of our houses!"

Somsook smiles - embarrassed by such flattering remarks - and says that she's only a facilitator and by no means a benefactor. But the people here still have the client-patron system mindset, so even though Somsook struggles in vein to initiate things in the background, the people still elevate her to the spotlight. They still see her as a benefactor who gave them their saving group and their houses, while their own effort in self-build housing is seen as secondary in importance. Somsook sits silently and listen as Mae Nong talks about the new updates within her community.

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