Rights Beautiful Collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik true and ultimate purpose of the whole dialogue, which we could not afford to lose sight of. This point just cannot be overemphasized. In view of the current trends of global disorder and transnational threat to biological resources and indigenous knowledge, the time has now come for a real and urgent need for the common people’s direct action in order to protect their own legitimate rights and liberties, and thereby rectifying the existing imbalances in political and economic relationships. It is the question of how social learning and action could possibly be made to proceed in constructive and peaceful manner, with a view to setting out the path towards a new social order based on freedom and justice at all levels of human society. Presumably this is going to be a very hard and long, long process that requires a high degree of tolerance, perseverance, and wisdom. Nevertheless, it is the nature of things and common challenge we all should have in mind. Meanwhile, there is the other side of the coin, too. As one western writer pertinently voices the call for an alternative global economic order that is geared to the real needs of people and the Earth, and which “must accept that the era of ‘the wealth of nations’ is past, and treat the 21st century as a multi-level one-world economy.”1 The rationale is none other than the neo-liberalism’s own built-in indulgence in overproduction and over-consumption for the sake of profit maximization, ostensibly dubbed economic growth. This line of rethinking and articulating is getting more and more hearings all over, East and West, as the time goes by. That, mind you, should not too naively and conveniently be construed as consolation and reason for rejoice. It is essentially to serve as an objective understanding of the dynamics of life, and then to get prepared and be ready for constructive changes. This is going to be quite an enormous task for the oppressed and the oppressors alike. 1 James Robertson, Future Wealth: A New Economics for the 21st Century, London, Cassell Publishers Limited, 1990, p. ix. 24 OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THAILAND