LABOUR-THAILAND: Anti-Privatisation Protesters Show Their Strength

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 28 2004 (IPS) - Thailand’s rapidly expanding movement against privatisation is placing its faith in democracy to prove it has the edge over the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

At a public rally over the weekend here, which drew close to 10,000 supporters, activists reiterated a demand that has converted the government’s planned privatisation of the state-owned power utility into a political hot potato.

The government should seek public approval of the privatisation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) by holding a referendum, say the leaders of EGAT’s trade union, which has been at the vanguard of the anti-privatisation drive.

And if Thaksin is averse to a referendum, he can test the popularity of his privatisation drive by making it an election campaign pledge, says the president of the EGAT union, Sirichai Mai-ngam.

”If the government is confident that it is doing the correct thing for the country, it should seek people’s support for its privatisation policy at the next election,” Sirichai told IPS. ”But we don’t think it will get public support, since more and more people are with us.”

Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai) party, which came to power in January 2001 following a massive victory at the polls, is due to face a national election in less than a year. During the past three years, Thaksin has continued to enjoy high levels of popularity despite a slew of government polices that faced a battery of criticism.

The demand for public participation in the decision to privatise EGAT appears to resonate beyond the world of labour unions, as demonstrated during Saturday’s rally that was held in a field close to one the country’s symbols of political and civil liberties, the Democracy Monument.

Throwing his weight behind the unionists is Sulak Sivaraksa, one of Thailand’s champions of grassroots causes and a trenchant critic of the political establishment.

The public should decide at a referendum if the privatisation policies of the Thaksin administration are healthy for the country, Sulak asserted at the rally, which was held under the banner, ‘To Sell Or Not To Sell: Let the Public Decide’.

That the government can ill afford to ignore this snowballing issue stems not only from the fact that an election is coming up, but that the EGAT labour union has succeeded in sustaining the momentum of its drive against privatisation for over a month, which is significant in the Thai labour scene.

Following its first show of strength on Feb. 23, when it took to the streets with close to 10,000 people, the union has held daily, unbroken protests, with one gathering attracting as much as 50,000 people. Support for the EGAT union has also come from the unions of 41 other state enterprises, labour rights activists from the private sector and representatives from an estimated 130 civil society organisations, ranging from consumer groups to environmentalists.

Even academics, students and non-governmental organisations championing the concerns of Thailand’s rural poor have lined up with the EGAT union.

Since Feb. 23, the government has issued mixed messages about its EGAT plans that are under fire. Thaksin, for instance, went from striking an uncompromising stance that he would not meet with union leaders to sitting with them for a 20-minute meeting in mid-March. But that brief encounter failed to resolve the growing differences between the two sides.

In the main, Bangkok has not budged from its declared motive to privatise EGAT, which not only monopolises the country’s power sector but it is also the most profitable of Thailand’s state ventures. For the government, privatising EGAT is part of a plan to convert state enterprises to private entities. By registering it as a public company in the stock market, the government was hoping to raise 1.8 billion U.S. dollars.

That money, officials have argued, will go to pay for new projects to meet the country’s power needs, rather than having the state borrow money if EGAT remains a state utility. Retaining the status quo would only burden taxpayers and increase the public debt, their argument goes. But up against that are the counter-arguments. Critics say that consumers will be hit when the price of electricity goes up, that the new company will be a monopoly in the hands of private owners and that select people connected to the government will be able to gobble up the lucrative EGAT shares.

”There is no independent regulatory body in place to check on this EGAT deal,” Chuenchom Sangarasri Greacen, an energy researcher, pointed out during an interview. ”A regulatory body is important to monitor possible manipulation of share prices and other abuses that can take place.”

Attempts by the government to project itself as an appropriate alternative to an independent regulator are unacceptable, she said, ”because we cannot trust the government”.

Such suspicion arises from the backroom deals that enabled a few people with close links to the government to buy up large amount of shares when another state-owned utility, the Petroleum Authority, was privatised earlier. Further objections to privatisation range from the fate of the hydroelectric power plants currently under EGAT – which if privatised would go to the new company that would now have the power to control water in the dams – and its having the power to infringe on private property to pursue its work.

”The government has been forced on the defensive due the show of strength by the EGAT union and the arguments against privatisation,” a foreign labour rights activist who spoke on condition of anonymity told IPS. ”There appears no way out at the moment.”

The government’s attempt to isolate the unions has thus far failed, he added. ”Unless the government offers a deal, I don’t think the unions will stop their campaign. They are well organised and determined to stand their ground.”