Lessons from Thai Melon

[Coss]

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EDITORIAL

 

Rows of thatch-roofed shacks set ablaze sent black smoke swirling into the sky, as passersby ducked for safety amid a thundering exchange of gunfire.

 

This was not a scene from a movie. It was a violent attack in broad daylight by some 200 armed men to evict a community of squatters from a deserted plot of land right on busy Paholyothin Highway.

 

The 616-rai plot of land in Pathum Thani's Khlong Luang district was where the textile factory Thai Melon Polyester once operated. Following the firm's bankruptcy the land was confiscated by the Thai Asset Management Corporation and the deserted premises were taken over by hundreds of landless squatters, who refused to leave when the property finally changed hands, making the new owner furious. Hence the violent eviction. [color:brown]He is now under arrest.[/color]

 

[color:brown]The Klong Luang police chief has also been transferred for allowing the eviction to occur right under his nose and for failing to arrest the gangsters on the spot[/color].

 

The occupation of Thai Melon Polyester and the violent eviction reflects the severe problem of landless-ness which has led to heated conflicts all across the country. Though accused of breaking the law, the encroachers' tears and painful cries as they watched their huts engulfed by the fire was heart-rending. They only wanted as piece of land to live on, they said. Why can't the government help the landless when there is plenty of idle land around, they asked. Why, indeed?

 

Disparity and social injustice has been the mantra of the Pheu Thai Party, which now has a mandate to run the country. Ironically, the party does not have any policy to effect land reform to help the landless.

 

Its priority is political reconciliation. But reconciliation among different power cliques cannot prevent future violent conflicts when structural inequalities are left unaddressed.

 

How can peace be possible when nearly 5 million farmers are landless, while 90% of arable land belongs to only 10% of the people? How can the landless not be furious when 70% of land is left idle when they desperately need farms to till? Or when 30 million rai of land is actually available for redistribution _ if only the government had the political will to free the plots from bankruptcy confiscation to help the poor, instead of selling these plots at firesale prices to the landlords?

 

How can politicians explain their inaction on land reform, when 134 of the MPs in the last government today own as much as 42,221 rai of land worth more than 10 billion baht combined?

 

Whichever political party is in power, the government cannot sweep land reform under the carpet if it wants to avert a land rights war and pave the way for social equity. During its tenure, the Democrat-led government made the right move in recognising community land ownership, to maintain farmlands within the communities, and to set up a land bank to buy idle land for redistribution to the landless.

 

But much more needs to be done, such as building an online database of land ownership, as well as implementing progressive land, property and inheritance taxes to free up unproductive land from the hands of the privileged few.

 

The country stands to lose if the momentum towards reform comes to a standstill. With Pheu Thai's emphasis on disparity and double standards as the country's main problems, it faces even higher public expectations to make equitable land distribution a reality.

 

Without land reform, equity remains a pipe dream and Pheu Thai's promise to eliminate disparity becomes nothing but empty rhetoric.