PM’s Office promises action as landless activists object to policy

[webfact]

PM’s Office promises action as landless activists object to policy
By Pratch Rujivanarom
The Nation

 

Rieng Khongthum cries as she talks about her hardship from loss of land due to the forestland reclamation campaign in Krabi at the meeting at Public Sector Development Commission Office yesterday.

 

BANGKOK: -- POOR AND landless people from 25 provinces yesterday petitioned authorities, asking them to address long-standing problems, while the Prime Minister’s Office promised the government would expedite solutions.

 

Around 100 members of the People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-move) yesterday met with Minister Ormsin Chivapruck and related agencies to discuss and find mutually beneficial solutions to address people’s chronic problems regarding forced relocation and land loss nationwide.

 

After travelling 800 kilometres from Krabi to Bangkok, 80-year-old farmer Rieng Khongthum looked weary from the long journey, but she said her feelings could not compare to the fatigue from a decade-long unsettled dispute over 15 rai (2.4 hectares) of land with authorities from the Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park.

 

“My home and my rubber plantation were all destroyed in August 2014. I have no land and I have no home now. I can only fight to take my land back,” Rieng said.

 

“This has had a big impact on the final stage of my life, as I lost my home, my land and my income. I have to live with my relatives, but since I have no income, I have many debts.”

 

Rieng’s was one of 30 households on 359 rai of land in Krabi’s Muang District that were forced out.

 

She said she and other community members had fought for their land in the disputed forestland for nearly 15 years, but no progress had been made despite her claim that people had occupied the land since 1967, long before the establishment of the national park.

 

The situation worsened when the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) took power and initiated the forest reclamation policy, which led to authorisation to clear entire plantations and structures in disputed areas.

 

“I have come to Bangkok several times to fight for my rights to my own land. I hope that this time the government will understand the burden of the people and sincerely solve poor people’s problems,” she said. “I still hope that I can regain my land before I die.”

 

Due to the delayed progress, P-move yesterday issued a statement urging the government to expedite policies to solve people’s land-related problems by establishing a land bank and issuing communal land deeds.

 

The group also asked the government to stop further actions that would harm people’s livelihoods, such as forest reclamation, and postpone projects that would have a significant impact on communities, such as the Tak Special Economic Zone.

 

PM’s Office Minister Ormsin Chivapruck said at the meeting that authorities understood people’s hardships, adding that he would report to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to find mutually agreeable solutions to the problems.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30310846

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-03-31

[Srikcir]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

“My home and my rubber plantation were all destroyed in August 2014. I have no land and I have no home now. I can only fight to take my land back,”

Sorry but you and others like you are just collateral damage from junta's reforms and it will continue. But if Prayut can get some good PR by feeding you some platitudes and promises, he may try to lift your spirit.  But no commitments for anything to improve your physical situation. There are more important investments to be made such as submarines, high-speed trains and Chao Phraya Riverfront improvements.

[Ricardo]

The whole problem of land-rights in Thailand, where governments (military or democratic/populist are all at fault) have dragged-their-feet for decades over documenting land/farms/homes/villages which have been there many years, is a mess which needs sorting out IMO.

 

Yes, there have been cases of connected-people building homes or resorts on NP or Forest-Department land. Some have been forced to restore the land to its previous condition, others have had their buildings removed by the authorities forcibly, this can sometimes set a good example and maintain the Parks or Forests as-designated..

 

On the other hand there is the example of the poor lady mentioned here, she and her friends claim that they were on the land before the Park was formed, if so then this should be sorted sympathetically and probably in her/their favour.

 

I myself know of one local case, where a whole thriving village now exists, paved-roads & local-water-supplies & electricity/phones in-place but still nobody has proper chanot-papers, and they had allegedly to pay  at short-notice  certain  'fees' for a survey over a week-end of their various small plots of land.  They are still waiting for papers to be forthcoming.

 

Unfortunately this leads to the (doubtless wrong) impression that the granting of land-rights is being handled deliberately-slowly, because this then enables local-officials to 'milk' the owners/occupiers for contributions, on an ongoing long-term basis.

 

There are IME several different types of land-ownership here, the whole system is a mess, which requires top-down action to solve.  Meanwhile the uncertainty of security-of-ownership/possession acts as a barrier to investment & development, and thus harms the economy, that's even before one gets into the rights-&-wrongs of non-Thais ever becoming allowed to own small plots of land here, which I'm certain is of interest to many TV-posters.

 

Let's hope that this will not take many more years to be sorted out, but I fear that it will.

[seajae]

love the way these squatters think that if they just claim the land without ever paying for it or getting the chanotes for it they own it. They seem to think that they can clear govt land/national park land and it is theirs when it is totally illegal. Borrowing money against land you have never owned is their own fault  and the fact they have been caught out and it has been taken back is the law working as it should, whether rich or poor, claiming land that is not yours is not the way to go.