Locals oppose deep sea port project, fearing a repeat of Mab Ta Phut problems
Over 500 Satun residents oppose the Pak Bara deep-sea port project for fear of impacts on the environment and local livelihoods, as has happened in the Mab Ta Phut Eastern Seaboard.
On 2 July, the local people in Satun held a demonstration around the town in opposition to the Pak Bara deep-sea port project, and went to the provincial hall to submit a petition to PM Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Dr Samruam Danprachankul, of the provincial public health authority, received the petition on behalf of the provincial governor.
According to the opponents, a huge development scheme is planned for the province, following the deep-sea port. They fear that it will have irreversible impacts on the local people in terms of religion, culture, livelihood and the environment.
The opposition is led by Aree Tingwang and Phuron Malasai from an artisanal fishery network, Sayun Srinoi from the Council of Political Development, Somyos Tohlang from the People’s Network for Development Watch, and Ananya Sanglee from a local consumers’ group.
They said the development scheme would massively exploit natural resources, including sand and quarry material, and damage the environment.
They found that the Marine Department is seeking a permit to use 7,000 rai of the Phetra archipelago, which is a national park, for the construction of the Pak Bara deep-sea port.
They asked the PM to review the project and delay construction to allow scrutiny according to the law and the 2007 Constitution.
The scheme includes the construction of a dual-track railway to connect the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Coast, a coast-to-coast oil pipeline, an oil depot occupying 5,000 rai at La-ngu Gulf, large-scale industrial estates, and an underground tunnel in the province.
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(moved) john francis lee For
(moved)
john francis lee
For some reason you are not allowing comments to Locals oppose deep sea port project, fearing a repeat of Mab Ta Phut problems so I am commenting here...
This is the reason there must be an election quickly.
The present government represents the interests of global capital... as can be seen in its incessant push for the toxic operations in Map Ta Phut to resume and in its utter disregard for the consequences of those operations to the Thal land and people... and so must not be allowed to make such momentous decisions.
Decisions of this moment must be undertaken by an elected government, and the sooner an election is held the sooner we will have one.
The peoples of Lanna, Isaan,
The peoples of Lanna, Isaan, and Patani... all of Thailand outside of Siam... have a common problem : the Siamese Amat. The Siamese Amat are the compradors of global capital. They have no real links to Thailand, other than the fantasy that they own it and can "dispose" of it as they wish.
The peoples of Lanna, Isaan, Patani, the peoples of all Thailand need to make common cause to take back their country from the clutches of global capital administered by the Siamese Amat.
Reinstate the 1997 Constitution, strengthen its decentralization provisions, deconstruct Siam and reconstruct Thailand.
Gothom to lead peace march
Gothom to lead peace march
Short notice but an excellent opportunity for folks from Lanna and Isaan to join iin and make common cause with their brothers and sisters all along the way as well as at the end of the road!
Anyone seen Anand's list and
Anyone seen Anand's list and report, rejected by the NEB?
See List of harmful activities faces further review
The Administrative Court put a halt to the expansion of Map Ta Phut because, although the pollution of the surrounding area was totally out of control, the government had not implemented the mechanism for monitoring and controlling polluting industries required by the 2007 constitution.
What was specifically required was a review board including local participation independent of government control.
This Comprador Regime immediately set about trying to restart the lethal, laissez faire non-system under government non-control established to service its patrons, the multinationals who had relocated their most toxic operations to Thailand rather than retool them as required by countries with democratic governments.
The National Environment Board (NEB) called on the reliable Anand to "form a committee" to create a list of activities to be overseen independently of government control, as specified in the 2007 constitution.
Anand's committee reported, delivered its list, and the multinationals had the NEB reject it.
The NEB remanded the list to be emended to the multinationals' specifications at the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry.
The Bangkok Post did not print Anand's list, no doubt prohibited by the Comprador Regime from doing so.
Anyone seen Anand's list and report, rejected by the National Environment Board?
Sanan confident of dam's
Sanan confident of dam's approval
Kaeng Sua Ten back into the field of play
A Dinosaur of Thai Patronage Politics
Villagers burn effigy of pro-dam Sanan
Nothing counts for The Regime but lining their pockets at the expense of the Thai land and the Thai people.
Checking in on the Map Ta
Checking in on the Map Ta Phut industrial estate impasse
Thailand’s Air: Toxic Cocktail
Cut Map Ta Phut pollution
Cut Map Ta Phut pollution now: expert
Residents have DNA damage
Environmental Problems in Map
Environmental Problems in Map Ta Phut
In Industrial Thailand,
In Industrial Thailand, Health and Business Concerns Collide
Air contamination in Map Ta Phut still exceeds standard
Is twenty years of degradation of Thai health, Thai lives, and Thai land a a pressing business-related issue... or an urgent question of human rights?
Villagers oppose coal-fired
Villagers oppose coal-fired power plant
The regressive "elite" push forward with another viciously polluting lignite fired power plant, further despoiling Thailand and the lives of Thais in order to keep the Amart wearing sweaters in their frigid offices in the colonial capital. They sit safe behind closed, bullet-proof windows, and ride in air-conditioned cars to air-conditioned homes at the end of the day.
Let the Thais breathe sulphur and ash amid the ruined countryside... paradise lost!
Willfully destroyed for a few pennies gain, to allow the construction of inhuman dwellings, mortagaged, uninhabitable without air-conditioning, stupidity on stilts, alienating a deracinated people in the midst of what should be paradise regained.
Show of hands against oil
Show of hands against oil projects
Tens of thousands? The Bangkok Post is given to minimizing dissent at all costs... yet it says tens of thousands?
Clearly "oil spills" are topical with BP's ongoing debacle in the Gulf of Mexico having released hundreds of millions of barrels of oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, with decades of damage done and ongoing, but still... tens of thousands... in Surat Thani : home of mobbed up mafia boss, Democrat politician Suthep himself?
If we put one and one together, two will finally flash in our brains and we will realize that the the present Military + Democrat Regime = the compradors of global and domestic capital, and have zero interest in Thailand other as a resource to exploit and despoil, the Thai people included.
Then real resistance to The Regime can arise and arisen, can drive the compradors from power, inaugurate democracy in Thailand, and turn the government's attention to the needs and concerns of the Thai people, who overwhelmingly live outside of the present, colonial capital in Bangkok.
Revolutions are not brought about by old people but by young people. Let them arise and take back their country before the truly old and decrepit of the ancien régime have irrevocably destroyed it.
Oil exploration off Samui to
Oil exploration off Samui to go ahead: Energy minister
Of course the question is whether The Regime has breached the law in offering oil exploration concessions in the face of such opposition from the people.
Clearly the government has gone "over the heads" of the local people once again, as it has done at Map Ta Phut, as it intends to do at Keng Sua Dten.
The concessions so granted are no more valid than if they had been granted by the de facto regime in Burma rather than the de facto regime in Thailand.
Causing possible harm The
Causing possible harm
I post the above because the
I post the above because the information therein was contained in a "picture" published by the Bangkok Post.
This is the BPost's latest and preferred means of making information hard to copy. One must re-type by hand the information contained to make it available as ordinary text. The BPost is truly a despicable organization.
Note the last line :
The despicable BPost doesn't even publish the seven items excluded from the list!
As well, Anand cut 2 more items before sumitting his list to the NEB:
It seems clear to me that golf courses are home free because they're built by generals, and that genetically modified organisms are home free(!!!) because the US will break your legs if they're not.
The Thai land and people have been set up once again for devastation and exploitation.
It seems clear to me that communities will have to file a complaint to conduct EIAs and HIAs for the vast majority of projects the Bangkok "elite" will try to push through on behalf of their patrons : domestic and international capital.
Top 20 Environmental
Top 20 Environmental Depredations
by Abhisit and his Compradors
Map Ta Phut activity could
Map Ta Phut activity could resume in 2 weeks
The Regime certainly seems to be public enemy number one in Thailand.
Clearly The Regime has no interest at all in Thai land or Thai lives. It's only interest is in acting as a good and loyal comprador for domestic and international capital, which flocks to Thailand to build chemical plants because other countries' governments value their environment and their people and would never allow them to poison both with absolute impunity as they do here.
What can be said of a Regime like this? It is plainly contemptuous of the people of Thailand, in line with the foreign origin of all of the Bangkok "elite". They have been plundering Suvarnabhumi and murdering the "Thai" people for a thousand years at least and feel that it is their right and "duty" to continue to do so.
The Regime certainly does seem to be public enemy number one in Thailand.
The People's Network of the
The People's Network of the East will rally in Rayong tomorrow in protest of The Regime's sell-out at Map Ta Phut of their health and the Thai environment to global and domestic capital.
Korbsak in Rayong to resolve MTP problems
The Bangkok Post has NEVER even published the 7 industrial activities identified by Anand's committee as "having a serious impact on people's health and the environment" that the toady, capitalist compradors in The Regime summarily dropped from Anand's committee's recommendations on orders from their neo-liberal capitalist bosses.
Cannot Prachatai publish the full, original list of the Anand committee?
I had to reach back to July to find a story even obliquely referring to Map Ta Phut to hang my RFC upon.
I realize that Prachatai has a very full plate, yet I still make an RFC, a Request For Coverage, of The Regime's continued depredations of the Thai environment and the health of the Thai people.
An article arguing that anthropologists ought to consider journalism as an application for their training and expertise states :
Muckrake Your Town
Thailand can be put back together again. It's the government, not the environment, that needs deconstruction.