Thai govt 'has gone too far siding with companies over ALRO land'

[webfact]

Govt 'has gone too far siding with companies over ALRO land'
By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM
THE NATION

 

 

Critics hit selective use of Article 44 but ALRO chief says poor farmers will benefit.

 

BANGKOK: -- THE MILITARY government has gone too far with measures that benefit big corporations, experts have cautioned, as the government has used its special powers to overturn the Supreme Administrative Court’s verdict allowing non-farming economic activities on land held by the Agricultural Land Reform Office (ALRO).

 

Meanwhile, the ALRO argues that the permission is for the greater good of the country and there will be a proper profit-sharing system to benefit local farmers.

 

In June, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) exercised its special powers under Article 44 of the interim charter to allow corporations with activities on ALRO land to resume their operations. Many people have condemned the move, which they said unacceptably favoured rich corporations and ignored the land rights of poor farmers.

 

NCPO order 31/2560 overturned the Supreme Administrative Court’s verdict, which had found that the use of ALRO land for activities such as mining and petroleum drilling rather than farming was against the law. The court ordered that an ALRO regulation that permits such activities be revoked.

 

Somchai Preecha-silpakul, a lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Chiang Mai University, said the NCPO order was intended to benefit specific groups of people but did not provide any profits for landless farmers.

 

“This is another confirmation that the government does not really care about the land issue for the poor farmers and gave more attention to securing the benefit of the energy conglomerates,” Somchai said.

 

“This is the use of power without good governance principles, which will lead to more severe land problems.”

 

Somchai said using the special power to overthrow the court verdict and permit mining and petroleum drilling on ALRO land was unacceptable. It showed that the government did not care about the existing law and order, he said.

 

 

Former Bangkok senator Rosana Tositrakul also said the government’s claim that the country would lose a lot of money if petroleum and crude oil could not be drilled on ALRO land was an invalid argument because such activities were against the law in the first place.

 

The government has previously stated that the country would lose Bt125 million from royalties per day, with a daily total loss of Bt950 million to the economy if existing petroleum drilling operations were halted.

 

Rosana said the law must apply equally to everyone and the original intent in creating the ALRO was to |distribute land to landless farmers, not to provide more benefits to big |conglomerates.

 

“There are many inappropriate issues in this NCPO order. First, Article 44 of interim charter does not include the use of power like this. It is the selective use of power, because in the cases of people in the forest, the government chose to harshly drive them away instead of using the special power to evade the law like this,” she said.

 

However, ALRO secretary-general Sompong Inthong said the NCPO order was right to allow the existing corporations to resume their operations. The order applied to only around 4,000 rai (640 hectares) of land, or 0.1 per cent of all 40 million rai of ALRO land, he said.

 

“We would like to assure that there was proper consideration to weigh the benefits for everyone,” said Sompong. “And this way the country, and also |the farmers, will benefit from these activities, as the operators on ALRO land will have to pay royalties to an ALRO fund, which will be used for assisting the farmers.”

 

He said that if in the future there was more land used for mining or the petroleum industry, there would be proper compensation for farmers and regulations to oversee the operations.

 

The ALRO chief said the land would be returned to farmers for use as water retention ponds or other purposes.

 

“We need this order to amend our laws and modernise our practices to fit with the current situation and society,” he added.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30320316

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-07-10

[lamecn]

 

The ALRO chief said the land would be returned to farmers for use as water retention ponds or other purposes.

[ChrisY1]

Patronage...alive and flourishing in Thailand.....gotta keep the mates happy!

[seajae]

so, who has shares in these companies or relatives/friend running them, very suss

[tracker1]

Show me a Government that doesn't favour big buisness ! at the expense and unfairness to the ordinary people !

Edited July 10, 2017 by tracker1

[Prbkk]

We are to draw a distinction between the govt and the company-controlling elite? They are inextricably and forever linked through financial interests, membership, political persuasion, birth, just about every aspect of life. Not a surprise to anyone. Even the "but Thaksin, Thaksin, Thaksin" parrots on this forum understand that.

[lamecn]

4 hours ago, Prbkk said:

We are to draw a distinction between the govt and the company-controlling elite? They are inextricably and forever linked through financial interests, membership, political persuasion, birth, just about every aspect of life. Not a surprise to anyone. Even the "but Thaksin, Thaksin, Thaksin" parrots on this forum understand that.

Yes, we Westerners have to learn to understand Thai culture.

[Srikcir]

12 hours ago, webfact said:

NCPO order 31/2560 overturned the Supreme Administrative Court’s verdict,

The Thai people should be very, very concerned about this NCPO order.

Prayut's use of absolute power that can legally overturn Supreme Court rulings goes way beyond unilateral change of land use and presents an ominous future for the next election and the Thai electorate.

 

The NCPO will hold its powers under Article 44 until the next elected government has been endorsed and installed at which point the NCPO will be dissolved. That means until dissolution Chief NCPO Prayut has sole discretion to supersede any law, the 2017 Constitution and court rulings for ANY PURPOSE without review. It would be conceivable that should Prayut be elected as PM, he will ensure continued access to absolute power and not held accountable to the Thai electorate.

[halloween]

Ask yourself this, does Thailand need any more subsistence farmers?

 

How about this idea, reduce the number of foreign workers allowed so that companies will have to raise wages to attract Thai workers, creating an alternative to low paid farm work. It might even be happening now!

[ratcatcher]

7 hours ago, lamecn said:

 

The ALRO chief said the land would be returned to farmers for use as water retention ponds or other purposes.

Is there any connection between the Niger Delta oil spill and the topic at hand?

[Pridilives]

13 minutes ago, halloween said:

Ask yourself this, does Thailand need any more subsistence farmers?

 

How about this idea, reduce the number of foreign workers allowed so that companies will have to raise wages to attract Thai workers, creating an alternative to low paid farm work. It might even be happening now!

You not no too much bout Thai. All big company just want cheep person work cannot talk or must go back home country. All comping take munny for eat and sleep and just give little keep after work much not safe.  Why so bad loose election no more because now just armi and big comping say everything cannot talk or 44 mean must go  jail. Just yingluck bring munny for work up 300 baht for one day when she do every big company compline more. Thai farm want work but armi don't care anything just like mummy for own pocket