An alliance of thousands of poor people began a protest in front of the parliament on Wednesday, demanding earnest implementation of the government's pro-poor agenda policy before politicians become pre-occupied with election campaigning.
(Photos by Pattanapong Hirunard)
Several thousand urban and rural poor converged on Bangkok today, joining 300 villagers from Chaiyaphum, Ubon Ratchathani and Buri Ram who have already been camping in front of the Forestry Industry Organisation (FIO) for nearly two weeks.
Nutchanat Thaenthong, from the Four-Region Slum Network, said the urban poor would stay put until the politicians really do something.
"We have been talking a lot about reducing social inequality and reforming this and that. This government is also preaching about their pro-poor policies, but we don’t see it in real terms," said Ms Nutchanat.
Villagers are still at loggerheads with state agencies despite government policies to deter them through legal action.
Nearly 900 criminal and civil lawsuits were filed against the urban and rural poor in land disputes, mostly by state agencies. The community land title deeds issuance process, supposed to be a quick fix for the poors’ problems, was slow and cumbersome, she said.
"It’s the villagers who have been talking about a variety of resolutions for our land disputes for decades and community title deeds is one of the answers.
"But the Abhisit administration has only offered sweet talk to calm us or appease us temporarily without seriously solving our life and death problem," said Poon Pongsuwan, the 72-year-old core leader of Boh Keow community from Chaiyaphum’s Khon San district.
The Khon San villagers, whose land rights overlap with the FIO, lost the initial civil court case and were forced to leave the land.
They sought PM’s Office Minister Sathit Wongnontoey's intervention last October, proposing that the FIO allocate 1,500 rai of the overlapped land to some 170 families — in line with the government’s community land title deeds scheme.
They have been urging Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Kunkitti to order the FIO to suspend the lawsuits, but their demands were not met.
The Chaiyaphum Court was today due to read a verdict from the Appeals Court on a request by the villagers to postpone their eviction.
"Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told us just last Saturday during the Klong Yong community land title deeds ceremony that he learned about our grievances and would discuss the matter with minister Suwit," said Mr Poon before moving from the FIO headquarters on Ratchadamnoen Avenue to the new encampment in front of the parliament this morning.
Ms Nutchanat added that she would like society and the government to pay attention to not only border disputes and colour-coded political protests, but the real issues of the grassroots, too.
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