There are reasons why this is not linked but they are tedious to explain. Anyway this saga continues. Death and corruption on a nasty scale. This is a strange country. When I am in the countryside I can live with the illusion that it is not that different from, say, rural France thirty years ago; and in Bangkok-well it is certainnly not a tiers-monde city like Manila or Jakarta. The boy says to me it is surreal. Everything appears OK but actually everyone is living and acting by a set of norms, rules and beliefs that have nothing to do with France or America.

Bangkok Post Thursday 11 July 2002 - This land is their land


COMMENTARY
This land is their land

Sanitsuda Ekachai
If you believe the rule of law and political repression are
incompatible, the Thaksin administration is happy to prove you
wrong.

Just look at the way Mr Thaksin's government has handled the
``people's land reform'' in Lamphun. It clearly shows how
convenient it is for the powers-that-be to use the rule of law
to punish any poor who cry for justice.

This is what the landless farmers in Lamphun did: They saw
their public land being taken unlawfully by land speculators
with help from corrupt officials and local leaders, so they
petitioned the authorities for a legal investigation.

The investigation revealed that the issuing of land title
deeds for these areas was questionable. Yet nothing was done
to punish corrupt officials. Nor to nullify the dubious
private ownership of the villagers' common.

Meanwhile, the common lay fallow as collateral on
non-performing loans at banks. So the landless farmers decided
to make use of their community's old, rightful property by
tilling the land.

They knew all along that the ``legal'' owners and the police
would be after them while vilifying their efforts as
encroachment on private land.

So, together with nationwide grassroots movements, they asked
the government to refrain from arresting Lamphun villagers and
to use their ``people's land reform'' to find common ground on
how to tackle corrupt land deals.

The Thaksin government agreed. But then shortly after, the
government gave the green light to police to arrest these
``lawless'' people.

Lightning raids snared 26 landless farmers and destroyed their
crops. Sixty-seven others are on the arrest list.

What's more, the police _ obviously with the backing of
higher-ups _ are using legal technicalities to prevent the
farmers from getting bail.

This is possible because speculators have divided the common
into small plots with individual title deeds ready for sale.
So, if a farmer, for example, occupies an area covered by five
title deeds, then he or she can face five charges.

That is why farmer Songmuang Potapan now faces 22 separate
charges. And it is why he needs 4,400,000 baht in bail money.
And it will take more than 100 million baht to bail out all 93
farmers.

Where on earth can poor, landless farmers get that kind of
money?

Mr Songmuang, meanwhile, is seriously ill. By locking him in
jail for over a month now, the authorities have denied him the
basic human right to proper medication. The police also
violate the constitution by setting an unreasonably high bail.

But who cares? Those who challenge the status quo deserve a
beating with a big stick, don't they?

Interestingly, while the Thaksin government's crackdown has
fanned outrage among farmers and civil society movements, the
public at large hardly hear about what is going on.

This is understandable. Apart from occasional reports in some
newspapers, the media have treated the Lamphun controversy as
a non-event.

While the rich abhor land reform because it hits them directly
in the pocket, many members of the middle class also cringe
because it hits at our dreams.

Don't many of us believe that if we work hard enough, we, too,
can buy some land as an investment on behalf of our children?

This dream is severely shaken if there is no guarantee that we
can own speculative land. And when everyday life is tough, who
wants to have their dreams shattered?

Few, however, realise that land speculation has made it
impossible for most of us to afford a decent house, not to
mention land.

If we realise this, we can see the Lamphun farmers as in the
vanguard of change for most of us. If not, we remain wrapped
in our apathy and our dreams _ which is exactly where the
powerful want us to be.

- Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor, Bangkok
Post.sanitsuda@bankokpost.net

© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2002