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Green light for disputed Thai-Malaysian
pipeline
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Construction of a controversial
Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline will begin despite the
firestorm of protest that has plagued the project for
five years.
The 225-kilometer offshore pipeline,
which will carry 1 billion cubic feet of gas a day from
the Gulf of Thailand to Malaysia, was initially expected
to be completed by this year, but opposition by people
in four of Thailand's southern provinces had stalled the
project. The project, a joint venture of Malaysia's
Petronas and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT),
is estimated to cost US$565 million, stated a study by
Thailand's Working Group for Human Rights Defenders
(WGHRD). In addition to the pipeline, a two-unit
gas-separation plant will be built in the Songkhla
province.
The pipeline - for which joint
contracts between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur were first
signed in April 1998 and then in October 1999 - is now
slated to be complete by mid-2005.
The
announcement to build the pipeline will only harden the
people's resolve to mount a stronger struggle, said
Bantorn Ondam, a sociologist working with the Assembly
of the Poor, an umbrella group of grassroots movements.
"There will be more tension in the south," he said.
"People are discussing how to get their point across
after the government ignored them."
"The local
communities are opposed to the [Thai-Malaysian pipeline]
project, and they will never give up their protests,"
said Penchom Saetang, coordinator of the Campaign for
Alternative Industry Network, a non-governmental
organization that champions environmental causes. "The
people still want the project to be reviewed."
This opposition is reflected in the daily
meetings and the 24-hour vigils the villagers have at a
point along the path of the planned Thai-Malaysian
pipeline, she said. "They fear their environment will be
destroyed once the pipeline is built."
December
revealed the intensity of this struggle when a peaceful
demonstration by community activists in the southern
district of Hat Yai resulted in a harsh police
crackdown, in which 38 demonstrators and 15 policemen
were injured.
On that occasion, the villagers
had wanted to hand over a letter to Thai Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra, asking him to listen to their
concerns and conduct a review of the project. "But the
government is not listening to the people. From December
till today, no attempt has been made to consult the
people about their worries over this project," said
Ananta Boonsopon, a medical doctor and community leader
in Hat Yai. "This is unjust and people cannot accept
it."
Local residents are worried about the
impacts of the pipeline project on their livelihood as
fishermen, and about inland water pollution brought by
industries expected to move into the area after the
pipeline is ready. The pipeline is expected to pass
through 23 villages along its route, and the
consequences, say activists, will affect the lives of
some 10,000 people.
"The government has never
told the people nor answered the questions why we need
the gas pipeline," said Ananta. "They have not done an
environment-impact assessment for the industries to be
built."
That charge is not aimed at Thaksin
only, but at the government that preceded his, a
coalition under the leadership of Chuan Leekpai of the
Democrat Party. "Since the days of Prime Minister Chuan,
the governments have been reluctant to listen to the
people," said Ananta. "And that is a violation of our
constitution."
Under Thailand's 1997
constitution, the government is expected to conduct
public hearings and seek the views of local communities
before it embarks on development projects.
For
Pornpen Khongkachonkiet of the WGHRD, this week's
decision to start building the pipeline needs to be
perceived from a constitutional perspective, too. "The
government is clearly ignoring the people's rights
recognized in the constitution," said Pornpen. "In doing
so, it may create political trouble in the south. We are
worried that villagers may be targeted by the government
in its attempt to go after dissenters."
But this
view of the political mood in southern Thailand is a far
cry from what has been painted by the joint venture firm
that will build the pipeline.
The communities in
the southern Thai province of Songkhla have "scaled back
their opposition to the project", a senior official of
PTT told the English-language daily The Nation on
Tuesday.
"The project is being undertaken along
with our campaign to explain to local people what is
going on," Prasert Boonsamphan, PTT's deputy managing
director, had told the Bangkok Post on Tuesday. "We
think there will be no problem with construction because
the project will benefit local people."
(Inter
Press Service)
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