THAILAND: ‘Final’ Decision on Dam Flouts People’s Rights – Critics

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 16 2003 (IPS) - Grassroots activists are challenging the Thai government’s ”final” decision over a controversial dam project, saying it undermines the people’s right to participate in development that the country’s own constitution upholds.

The government’s Wednesday announcement that it is going ahead with its plan – to open the sluice gates of the Pak Mun dam in north-eastern Thailand for four months of the year – has disappointed thousands of villagers who were hoping to get their views heard and to have the gates open permanently.

”It is clear that the government doesn’t believe in some of the articles of the constitution,” says Prasittiporn Kan-Onsri of the Assembly of the Poor, a national network that champions the causes of Thailand’s underclass.

”We are very worried about the way the government excluded the views of the people affected by the Pak Mun dam,” adds Chainarong Sretthachau, director of the Thai chapter of the Southeast Asia Rivers Network, a regional environmental lobby. ”The people have a right to participate in development programmes.”

Press reports Thursday echoed these concerns. One columnist praised those institutions that had stood up to the government’s effort to marginalise efforts by villagers and activists to push public participation in the ‘development’ done in their name.

”The National Human Rights Commission must be applauded for its courage in speaking the truth – that the government violates people’s constitutional rights (when it tried to destroy the credibility of villagers protesting against the dam),” writes Sanitsuda Ekachai in the ‘Bangkok Post,’ an English-language daily.

This feature of Thailand’s 1997 constitution is among those that stress citizens’ rights, which is why it is dubbed the ”people’s constitution”. Over 50 years, this South-east Asian country has had 16 new constitutions – none of them save the current document underscores the citizens’ role in development efforts.

The constitution ”recognises that civil society, both on the national and local levels, is a legitimate player in new politics and must have a say in natural resources management,” Sanitsuda argues in her commentary.

The government, however, sees it differently. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told the local media that this week’s final decision about opening the gates of the dam was made ”in the interest of the majority” of the affected villagers.

”Villagers have different needs. I finalised the decision to accommodate their differences. I wasn’t swayed by noisy protests,” Thaksin was quoted in the English-language daily ‘The Nation’ on Thursday.

In December, the premier met the villagers who were demonstrating in Bangkok to have direct discussions on the dam – an event that was televised nationally.

Later, he visited Pak Mun dam, which is built on the mouth of the Mun river – the largest tributary of the Mekong river – in the north-eastern province of Udon Ratchathani. On both occasions, the premier attempted to cast himself as a national leader willing to listen to the villagers’ grievances.

The World Bank-supported dam, which was completed in 1994 to provide 136 megawatts of electricity, disrupted the lives of more than 20,000 villagers when the water stopped flowing. The number of fish species dropped, depriving many of their traditional means of living.

After his visit to the dam site, Thaksin sought the findings of a survey conducted by the government’s statistics office on the villagers’ views about the project.

According to this survey, 41 percent of the people living on the banks of the river wanted the government to open the dam’s sluice gates for four months of the year.

The Thaksin administration is supporting that view – which the government survey says received the largest support.

But the Assembly of the Poor says this survey was achieved by ”manipulating” the people. Like other activists, it is throwing its weight behind the findings of another government-funded study that has won much support among the villagers.

This study, conducted over 11 months in the dam area by a team from Ubon Ratchathani University, states that the sluice gates must be open year round for five consecutive years for the river’s ecology and the nearby environment to be restored.

It also said that Thailand would not be deprived of power supply during these five years, given other existing sources of power available to feed its national electricity grid.

The controversy over Pak Mun has hounded the Thaksin government from the time it took office in early 2001, and even the government before it.

Last year, there were over 10 protest events over the dam, including a march through over five provinces in north-east Thailand, where villagers tried to raise awareness about the controversial project.

Later this month, 3,000 to 4,000 villagers are expected to converge outside the prime minister’s office to join hundreds of others protesting against the government’s decision.

The tempo of the protests have picked up since late October, when the government first went ahead with its policy to open the dam’s sluice gates for four months of the year. These demonstrations are proving to be potent, says Thai sociologist Banton Ondam, pointing out that the demands of the rural poor are getting a sympathetic ear from the country’s affluent.

”More and more, the middle class people are sympathising with the poor affected by the dam, and that is a good sign,” adds Banton. ”They have the right to demonstrate against development that is detrimental to them. The government must listen.”