Political Legitimacy of the New Elite in Contemporary Laos. Who Are the Today’s "Phu gnay"?
"La legittimità politica della nuova élite nel Laos contemporaneo. Chi sono i “Phu-gnay” di oggi?"
Résumé
Whoever is doing business, running a development project or conducting research in Laos today sooner or later faces a phu gnay (literary: "important people.") It is essential to go through a phu gnay to obtain necessary authorizations; whether to set up a business, to import or export goods, to work with local authorities or simply to have free access to villagers. So what does this term really mean and whom does it classify?
To Laotians, the phu gnay are, first and foremost, government authorities—either national or local—who, by virtue of their positions, make the decisions and implement them across the various administrative levels in the country. The term is clearly relative to the position that each occupies in a community from a social standpoint: for a simple peasant (70% of the country's population lives in rural areas), the phu gnay are members of the Party and of the local administration as well as the "rich" (often the same people); for a city dweller, phu gnay are those who occupy privileged political and economic positions and who have the power to grant business permits and authorizations usually denied to ordinary citizens. No matter what their level—national, regional or local—, all phu gnay are members of the government and the single Party of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
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