Officials battle with century-old Phuket land issue

[Lite Beer]

Officials battle with century-old Phuket land issue
Nattapat Tuarob

Wan Muhamad Firdao is making claim to one of the 700 rai in dispute.

PHUKET: Provincial officials yesterday (March 26) sat down to examine possible solutions to a land issue in Phuket that has rumbled on for almost a century.

It involves some 700 rai of Royal land in Cherng Talay, just to the south of Laguna Phuket, some of it beachfront – and therefore potentially very valuable.

The issue began in 1920, during the reign of King Rama VI, when Thailand was still an absolute monarchy, all land belonged to the Crown and tin was the mainstay of Phuket's economy.

There were some land rights, however, for ordinary people, who could be registered as occupying land in a system similar to today’s SorPorKor rights, though more flexible as to use and leasing.

In 1920, 202 occupants of a total of 704 rai were forced off the land by the provincial government headed by Governor Jamras Svasti-Xuto, Lord Krungsri Sawadikara. The expropriated land was then leased out for tin mining.

Depending on how long they had occupied the land, the occupants received between 50 satang and one baht compensation per rai.

Today the land in that area is of course worth millions of baht per rai. In the case of seafront, it would be tens of millions of baht.

Damrong Choothong, a senior officer from the Phuket Office of the Treasury Department, which now holds the land on behalf of the Crown, explained at yesterday’s meeting at the Cherng Talay Municipal Offices, “The land was expropriated by the government and a concession given to a tin mining company.

“Once the mining concession expired, the land was supposed to revert automatically to the Treasury Department, which was then supposed to return the land to the original occupants.”

The mining concession expired 38 years ago, in 1977.

“When that happened," Mr Damrong said, "the heirs of the original occupants complained to the government that the land had not been returned. Nine years later, on November 11, 1986, the Cabinet passed a resolution agreeing that all the land should be returned to the original occupants.”

The occupants would qualify for Chanote ownership papers on the land.

“But the Treasury Department could not return the land because the original occupants were all long dead," Mr Damrong explained.

"Then in 2000 the Cabinet agreed that the land should revert to the heirs of the original occupants.

"But the Department still could not comply because it requires an Act of Parliament to transfer ownership of Royal land to ordinary people.”

Vice-Governor Somkiet Sangkhaosutthirak asked, “Why does it need an Act for these people to get their land back? When they were forced to sell, no Act was required.

“This is depressing for the families who lived there before the mining concession was granted. When they want the land back, they have to wait for an Act to be passed. This really hurts.”

Wan Muhamad Firdao, who claims one rai of the land and who represented the families at the meeting, said that he had been fighting this issue for a long time, and for years had been making weekly calls to all the departments involved.

The issue is currently ping-ponging between Phuket Province, the PM’s Office and the Office of the Council of State.

The task of the Council, which comes under the PM’s Office and is composed of “wise men” and law experts, is to examine proposed legislation to see whether there are legal or other problems that might stand in the way of implementation.

Mr Damrong explained, “The issue has been with the Council of State for interpretation since 2013 but nothing has been finalised because there has been so much political instability. I think [the interpretation] should be completed within three years.”

V/Gov Somkiet replied, “I understand that the Council of State has plenty of issues to interpret but I would like the Prime Minister himself to address this issue directly because the locals feel that it has already consumed too much time and caused too much trouble."

Once the Council of State has decided how the issue should be handled and an Act has been drafted enabling it to happen, there is still another potential hurdle, V/Gov Somkiet noted.

“We don’t know when it is going to finish but once the Council of State has come up with its view, the government has to put forward the Act for approval by the House of Representatives.

“But at the moment we have a Legislative Assembly [instead of a House of Representatives] so it may be necessary to study whether the Legislative Assembly has the constitutional power to pass the Act. If it can, that would be great news.

“In the meantime the families are in trouble because they can’t do anything with the land. They can’t sell it or get permits to do anything with it, so I would ask local authorities to help them as much as is within their power.

“For example, the municipality can allocate house numbers, so please do so. Please be sincere and transparent and try to solve their problems as much as you can.

He turned to The Phuket News and said, “This is astonishing. This issue started long before I was born and we are still trying to solve it almost a century later.”

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/officials-battle-with-century-old-phuket-land-issue-51617.php

-- Phuket News 2015-03-27

[NeilSA1]

Well, the one rai of Muhamad Firdaoof's can consider itself as being well pointed at. In fact its a rather unique point.

[NongKhaiKid]

Yes it's down there somewhere. i don't have a clue why I'm pointing but a reporter told me it's the done thing.

[Valentine]

Like the way the reporter put " around the words wise men.

[steelepulse]

>>but I would like the Prime Minister himself to address this issue directly because the locals feel that it has already consumed too much time and caused too much trouble."

That's it then. Locals feel it's taken too much time and trouble. Case closed, give it to the troubled locals...................

>>“This is depressing for the families who lived there before the mining concession was granted. When they want the land back, they have to wait for an Act to be passed. This really hurts.

Hmmm, I do believe it is the law, no matter how "depressed" these familes four generations later feel.

[maidee]

the wannabe millionaires need to have some more patience... maybe till they all are dead ?