Born in 1927, Professor Saneh Chamarik, a household name among the Thai intelligentsia, is older than Thailand's democracy. The ups and downs of his 72 years mirror the political and social changes which formed part of the country's modern history.

At a time when Thai academics are fiercely debating how much they should get involved in politics and social activism and how to maintain their academic objectivity, Prof Saneh's life and work offers much food for thought.

As a lecturer at Thammasat University's Faculty of Political Science, he was at the centre of the tumultuous events in the '70s-the popular uprising on October 14, 1973 and the violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists on October 6, 1976.

Later, Prof Saneh and two other respected scholars, Dr Prawase Wasi and Dr Rapee Sagarik, helped form a conscientious voice which pacified and united people after the shock of the Black May incident.

The trio have thus been known as "the three senior citizens", a title of honour bestowed on them by the general public.

A successful academic, Prof Saneh has attained many of the top positions his field has to offer. He was, at different times, a vice dean of Thammasat, chairman of the Social Science Association, chairman of TU's Thai Studies Institute, and an advisor to the former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda.

Instead of carrying on his life as a high-flying academic in the policy makers' corridor of power, Prof Saneh took "the road less travelled", turning his interest to the neglected field of rural development.

Despite spending most of his life teaching in higher education, the professor discovered later in life that it is not a university, but the rural communities, that are the crux of development and the origin of the highest form of education.

"I became interested in rural development when I was a lecturer at Thammasat. I was invited to discuss different issues with villagers and non-governmental organisations. It dawned on me that what had been taught in the university did in no way reflect what is really going on in society," Prof Saneh said.

A TU political science graduate, Prof Saneh started his career in the ministry of foreign affairs.

In 1953, he won a scholarship to study administration at Manchester University in England. After he came back, the university asked him to transfer there to lecture.

Prof Saneh might become a teacher by accident, as he himself admitted, but he took to the new task with reform in mind.

"The political science study in our country was dominated by the needs of the government especially the Interior Ministry. The idea was to produce personnel to serve bureaucracy. Students had to memorise all the bureaucratic mechanisms, ministerial rules and regulations."

Believing that political science should be an independent school of thought aiming at academic excellence and inducing people to think, Prof Saneh single-handedly fought to reform the curriculum.

"It was a rather lonely pursuit," Prof Saneh noted. "Many people resisted the change."

Prof Saneh's attempt at reform resulted in the establishment of the Department of Political Science Study at Thammasat University in 1969. The one-man department, as Prof Saneh called it, was characterised by its interdisciplinary, liberal and thought-provoking approach.

The department ran for only three years. During its short life span, however, Political Science Study shone like a beacon. It produced a generation of thinkers who would later contribute greatly to society.

Some of the alumni include the October 14 student leader Dr Seksan Prasertkul, the foreign minister Dr Surin Pitsuwan and political scientist and proponent of peace studies Dr Chaiwat Satha-anan.

"Political science is like a crucible," Prof Saneh commented. "It demands a breadth of knowledge, both about politics, the economy, our own history and culture.

"The problem with our country's study of political science, as well as the system of formal education in general, is that it does not pay enough attention to the local conditions. We may have mastered all the theories and research methods but we don't know our roots. We don't know who we are," Prof Saneh said.

In 1980, Prof Saneh was invited to be an advisor to the former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda. He headed the working group on rural development policies.

"Again, the work came by accident. I have never believed an academic can make changes by seeking or sticking to people in a position of power. But I couldn't turn down the invitation," Prof Saneh noted.

Since his proposal for rural development was later superimposed by the government's stereotypical plan to patronise the "poor and backward" rural sector, Prof Saneh refused to be re-appointed after the government faced the April's Fool coup in 1981.

"I have sometimes told people my life is one of failures," the highly respected professor, often considered a pillar in rural development, said modestly.

"Many of my initiatives were somehow halted or did not proceed the way I planned. But that is probably life. Bad things happened but I took them as opportunities for learning. There are always two sides of a coin, I believe," the professor said.

If anything, his experience as a government advisor confirmed Prof Saneh's belief in the importance of the rural sector.

In 1989, his life took another turn. Instead of pursuing academia, Prof Saneh chose to go to sun-baked rice fields and remote farmlands to study the life of rural villagers.

In 1989, two years after his retirement, Prof Saneh became the director of the Local Development Institute, an organisation he helped found.

The LDI forges networks among villagers and non-governmental organisations working in rural development and conducts research on issues such as community forests or informal credit unions.

Through the organisation, Prof Saneh has done much to systematise folk wisdom, often neglected and looked down on, into an acceptable body of knowledge. With the help of systematic research, once-dismissed ideas about community forests, for example, is now being incorporated into national policy.

"Working first-hand with villagers revealed to me their enormous potential as well as limitations," Prof Saneh said, adding he learned more from the couple of years working with villagers than from the almost 30 years he taught in the university.

"So far, the government has underestimated rural communities. Any efforts at rural development, therefore, end up patronising them.

"If we look closely at these rural people, whom we often think of as poor, stupid and backward, we will find they are indeed owners of profound wisdom.

"Seventy to 80 percent of knowledge about medicine, for example, comes from local villagers. If we concentrate on this strength and help these rural people sustain themselves, we may end up creating a new market for our own production, without having to resort to foreign export."

Thailand, he added, can't compete with the West in terms of industry and technology. If we centre our development efforts on industrialisation and urbanisation, which we are, we will be at a disadvantage. "If we leave the rural communities out of our priorities, we will essentially dump a vast amount of intellectual property and resources for our future," the professor cautioned.

Asked about an increasing call for professionals to fix the country's economic and political problems, Prof Saneh warned society may not realise the strings that come attached to what they are requesting.

"We should use technocrats for what they are good at, which is fixing technical problems. But in terms of national policies, most technocrats, who are usually similarly educated, have the same mindset. Most of them would endorse a policy of emulating the Western model of development."

Academics, he warned, should keep a certain distance from politics.

"Academics should not work for the powers-that-be because we could only function within their framework. The role of academics should be that of thinking, studying and proposing a set of available options," he said.

At present, Prof Saneh sits as a director of the LDI's community network for sustainable agriculture project in the northeastern province of Buri Ram.

"The project began when I drove a villagers' leader home. He came to Bangkok to protest about the infertile cattle the government introduced to villagers. He mentioned that from now on, he would rather stay home and develop himself. It was exactly what I would like to see. So I conceptualised the project," Prof Saneh said.

The three-year project, commenced in 1987, seeks to recover what Prof Saneh termed the "capital for life"-reintroducing sustainable soil utilisation and integrated farming, learning about the balance of life such as how to eat healthily and how to increase capital by processing produce, initiating a savings group and developing new markets.

"Everything boils down to education. We sometimes call the project an Isan community school. It does not consist of buildings or text books. It is a concept of education based on the real life, the needs and culture of a community," Prof Saneh said.

Asked if he feels like an outsider in the Thai society for his different way of thinking, Prof Saneh said he feels very much inside.

"I think people who believe they are in the mainstream are in fact on the fringe. These are people who believe we should follow the West, the World Bank and the IMF. They think they are in the mainstream but the truth is these ideas are alienated from the 'mainstream' of Thai culture," he said.

And how about a real retirement?

The 72-year-old professor-turn-activist said he does not give much thought about it.

"I don't think of work as something I have to do. I only have an obligation to do it. These projects agree with my wish to see changes in people who deserve to have a chance to realise their potential and to stand proud on their own two feet."