That's awesome, I will have to learn about Zomia and what they are about!
Abstaining from voting is both important as well as damaging, I suppose. I personally do not vote because I don't feel the need to in my local government. We don't have enough of a stake locally to feel the need to. If we owned a house with land and all that, I would be voting to stay ontop of the local politics but we don't give much of a thought to what happens locally. Nationally, even less so. That being said though, I do see the value in participating in the local elections. I think the national ones are largely a waste but that's my personal opinion. If they want to do something, they will get it done whether we vote harder or not.