Doi Suthep will need more time to recover

[webfact]

EDITORIAL

Doi Suthep will need more time to recover

By The Nation

 

FILE photo

 

Unanswered questions mar a deal that might otherwise have soothed critics of the judges’ housing estate

 

If Sunday’s decision regarding the controversial residential estate for judges on Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai proves to be final, it will represent a lesson learned  – that forestry resource management is badly in need of revision.

 

Suwaphan Tanyuvardha, Min-ister attached to the Prime Min-ister’s Office, announced that a deal had been reached with a citizens’ network protesting the encroachment into prized forestland. It was agreed that the 147-rai site, where most of the homes have already been erected, would be returned to the Finance Ministry’s Treasury Department. What hasn’t yet been determined is the fate of the houses and condominiums there. The minister could only say that construction would be completed, but no one would be allowed to occupy the residences.

 

Chiang Mai residents objecting to the project expressed satisfaction with the outcome, but in vowing to monitor implementation of the agreement, implied they don’t fully trust the authorities. They have been at loggerheads with the administrators of Court of Appeals Region 5 ever since the existence of the 45 houses and other buildings on Doi Suthep – widely regarded as a sacred mountain – first emerged. 

 

The controversy garnered national publicity, prompting Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to put Suwaphan in charge of finding a solution. Opponents staged a series of protests to vent their anger at the perceived misuse of protected forestland and the allocation of Bt1 billion of taxpayers’ money to develop the site. The Court Region’s claims that the site is state property and the project entirely lawful failed to assuage critics.

 

Sunday’s deal eased tensions, but this is unlikely to be the end of the story. The fate of the structures and of the forestland stripped bare to make way for them has yet to be determined, and new homes needs to be found for the judges promised their own residential community. 

 

The government will have to demonstrate its belief in the importance of citizen participation by calling public hearings, if only in regard to forest rehabilitation plans. Comprehensive measures should be mapped out accordingly to make sure everyone’s best interests are being met, which includes preserving the woodland as part of the national heritage.

 

Suwaphan said the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry would take the lead in this, and soldiers of the Chiang Mai-based 33rd Military Circle would begin planting new trees at the site on May 27, Visaka Bucha Day.

 

The public further expects clear answers about how tax money came to be used to erect luxury homes for the judiciary and what will happen to the structures now. Someone needs to step forward and bear responsibility for costing the country a billion baht.

 

Even if we accept that the project proceeded lawfully, we cannot accept that the authorities went ahead without first seeking public opinion or even informing the public in advance. Public hearings should be a basic requirement for all projects of this kind, and by this we mean genuine public hearings, not rigged assemblies of citizens where voices and votes don’t count. 

 

As well, senior officials have to stop defending their failures by saying previous administrations did the same or were to blame for problem now at hand. We need to prevent such situations from recurring, not passing the guilt and the greed forward or backward.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30344836

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-08

[Odysseus123]

A total scam and complete persiflage.

 

There has been no victory.

[yellowboat]

It just seems highly unlikely that these houses will ever be torn down.  It was a bone headed, damaging move to build the housing estate.

[YetAnother]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Someone needs to step forward and bear responsibility for costing the country a billion baht.

wishful thinking, this is thailand

[Odysseus123]

4 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

wishful thinking, this is thailand

Only a billion?Pshaw...peanuts..

[tracker1]

1 hour ago, Odysseus123 said:

A total scam and complete persiflage.

 

There has been no victory.

Well not as far as the protesters are concerned !

[Lungstib]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Public hearings should be a basic requirement for all projects of this kind, and by this we mean genuine public hearings, not rigged assemblies of citizens where voices and votes don’t count. 

Now wouldn't that be nice. But do you really think everything is going change and the people will finally be given a voice to overthrow damaging, polluting and unwanted schemes? This scar on the landscape will take decades to disappear and another such debacle will be front page news before that happens.

[robblok]

1 hour ago, Odysseus123 said:

Only a billion?Pshaw...peanuts..

Yea i know a certain program implemented by a former party that had 33 billion of corruption damage yea.. so peanuts. 

 

Still I would like to have those kinds of peanuts on my bank account 

 

I don't think that the houses will remain unoccupied.. i highly doubt it.. they should be demolished and the site should really be turned back to nature. 

[klauskunkel]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

it will represent a lesson learned  – that forestry resource management is badly in need of revision.

I doubt that was the lesson learned, but then again I'm a cynic...

[CharlesSwann]

Forest is being eaten away all over Thailand - you can see it on Google Earth quite clearly happening everywhere, including national parks. This example is just a drop in the ocean.

 

It's too late for these places, but the activists should at least milk it for all the publicity they can get. They should keep it in the news by ratcheting up the pressure right now with maps showing thousands of other examples and some investigative reporting. International conservation agencies should be helping them. Bringing it out in the open will make it more difficult for underhand forest encroachment in future.

[MaeJoMTB]

Nobody mentions the new forest clearance and preparation for building between the judges homes and Huay Tung Tao lake.

I must have imagined all the earth diggers and lorries full of landfill as I walked by last month.

There is a massive new road being cut between Judges housing (far left) and HTT lake (far right).

 

Edited May 8, 2018 by MaeJoMTB

[Eric Loh]

Who's going pay for the failed project and rehabilitation costs and will anyone in the junta government be charged for malfeasance and negligence? Looks like the public will have to foot the bill again to no fault of them but the junta. 

[Odysseus123]

1 minute ago, Eric Loh said:

Who's going pay for the failed project and rehabilitation costs and will anyone in the junta government be charged for malfeasance and negligence? Looks like the public will have to foot the bill again to no fault of them but the junta. 

No-one will have to pay.The judges will be in there post election time.=or before.

 

This is a charade.A shadow puppet play.

[Psimbo]

There's a lot of wailing and beating of chests for no reason. Of course the first pictures showed a stark building site. Once it is landscaped the houses will blend in and hardly be noticable.

 

Here's a more recent picture- it looks far less obtrusive already.

 

I'm not condoning what happened, it was clearly a neptistic project but it WAS legal and tons of money has been squandered.  Once everything has grown in it should look quite nice. 

Edited May 8, 2018 by Psimbo

[holy cow cm]

42 minutes ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Nobody mentions the new forest clearance and preparation for building between the judges homes and Huay Tung Tao lake.

I must have imagined all the earth diggers and lorries full of landfill as I walked by last month.

There is a massive new road being cut between Judges housing (far left) and HTT lake (far right).

 

Oh my. That is super terrible. I went to Tiger Kingdom with US visitors yesterday. Saw some of the devastation on way back. there is no more need for extra newly built homes in CM. Let them buy old or go live somewhere else. CM is full already. 

[thaibeachlovers]

Given the predilection of humans to destroy everything they touch, perhaps they should be allowed to carry on unimpeded till they exterminate themselves in a tide of trash and pollution.

The planet will restore itself and perhaps come up with a better species in the future.

[Psimbo]

4 hours ago, Lungstib said:

Now wouldn't that be nice. But do you really think everything is going change and the people will finally be given a voice to overthrow damaging, polluting and unwanted schemes? This scar on the landscape will take decades to disappear and another such debacle will be front page news before that happens.

Decades to disappear? It's blending in nicely already. Most building sites are stark to begin with. Edit :apologies for 2 similar posts but there doesn't seem to be a 'delete post' option.

 

Edited May 8, 2018 by Psimbo

[Lungstib]

36 minutes ago, Psimbo said:

Once it is landscaped the houses will blend in and hardly be noticable.

That will be a first. Are you confusing this was those pictures of the Bali bungalows, people who do a far better job of blending things in.

[fakename]

So, how many judges are there? 

[Odysseus123]

19 minutes ago, fakename said:

So, how many judges are there? 

3 ,543,327.