Death has helped Korn-uma Pongnoi learn and grow. Since her husband, Charoen Wat-aksorn, was gunned down on the night of June 21, 2004 at Bo Nok intersection, the 45-year-old has found inner strength to carry on the mission they started together two decades ago: to protect their community and its natural resources.
Korn-uma Pongnoi has run a seafood restaurant and bungalows called Krua Chom Whale since 2001. Today the accommodation is closed for renovation. She opens the restaurant only at weekends.
Last Saturday marked a decade since Charoen’s high-profile murder spotlighted their environmental cause.
“Charoen and I had stepped over the fear [of death]. We fought together with thousands of villagers in Bo Nok and Ban Krut because we knew our lives would have changed forever if the two coal power plants had been built. We must defend our hometown. This is the land we have lived on since our ancestors. It has been and will be our source of food and income to raise us and our families,” she said.
Korn-uma, better known by her nickname “Karok”, was born in Bo Nok sub-district of Prachuap Khiri Khan. At present she is a chairperson of Bo Nok Conservation Group.
“My grandfather and father were kamnam (headman) of Bo Nok. They were both tough and had justice in their hearts. My elder sister was also an activist when she was in university,” she said. Korn-uma might have inherited those characteristics — she never hesitates to stand her ground whenever she faces unfairness or unreasonable situations.
In high school, for example, she led her classmates’ protest against her teachers rule of female students having to wear their hair short. She also refused to fold her socks as required and wore them at ankle height instead. She was always punished. She always had a rebellious streak in her.
After finishing high school in Kui Buri, her sister encouraged her to study hotel management. She finished a one-year certificate from the International Hotel and Industry Management School in Bangkok with a major in hotel food and beverage. She recalled that during the six-month trainee period in a five-star hotel in Hua Hin, she always fought with her food and beverage manager whenever she was forced to follow irrational orders.
“I know I can’t be in a system. I didn’t want to work in a hotel nor to go back to Bangkok for my original plan to pursue my university degree. I know I could survive,” she said.
Taking advantage of her cooking skills, she operated a stall selling food such as noodles, pork soup and soy milk in her hometown until she got bored with people. When she was 22, she decided to spend her life with Charoen Wat-aksorn and they became farmers. She preferred to live in a modest home surrounded by trees on a 70-rai plot of land where they grew plant seedlings to sell, and raised 6,000 chickens.
“I loved solitude. I really liked lying in a hammock and reading magazines like Dichan and Ploy Kam Petch,” she said, laughing as she knew those fashionable bourgeois glossies were a sharp contrast to her humble village-girl appearance. She does not wear cosmetics, let alone buy beautiful dresses. A bookworm, she just loves reading. “Our house was full with stacks of my books and magazines until Charoen complained when they were eaten by termites,” she recalled.
But her peaceful life ended when husband and wife learned that coal-fired power plants were to be built in Bo Nok and Ban Krut. They left their farm to join the protest and borrowed some money from her sister, who has business in Samui, for the movement.
The plan for the power plants originated from the government’s policies to develop the Western Seaboard. According to the plan, Prachuap Khiri Khan would become a steel industry zone. The aim was to boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The two power plants were to be built under the Independent Power Producer project in order to generate electricity for the industrial zone and the region. Each power plant required about 900 rai of land and the total investment of both plants was about 76 billion baht.
“When the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board pinpointed that the coastal area of Prachuap Khiri Khan was suitable for the industrial zone, I doubted its criteria. The project needed a deep-sea port, but our coast is very shallow,” she said.
“Our communities around the coast are fishing villages. We can earn our living without being employed by any manufacturers or power plants. We [run] SMEs (small and medium enterprises), too,” she said.
Bo Nok and Ban Krut are quiet villages with long, pristine beaches, barely an hour’s drive from Hua Hin. At present, the area has begun to attract mild tourism, with small bungalows and resorts looking out to the Gulf of Thailand.
Back in the 1990s however, the situation was markedly different. Villagers started to protest against the project in 1995 — nine years before Charoen was killed. Charoen accidentally became a second-generation leader of the protest after those who originally started the movement changed sides. Many believed they had been lured away by money, and the fight Charoen led had a specific tension because a number of people in the area, even his own relatives, were eager to welcome the plants in exchange for compensation. Still, with his personality and courage, Charoen lifted the spirits of the villagers who wanted to fight. He continued the protest beside his wife Korn-uma, who at that time preferred to support him behind the scenes.
The movement gradually became bigger with national and international supporters from environmental groups and activists. The message was clear that the villagers did not want their sustainable community to be replaced with the industrial zone. They knew that the sea around Bo Nok and Ban Krut were their lives, as it had been for decades. The sea was also rich in biodiversity, including coral reefs, clams, fish and even whales. Naturally, the idea of the seaside air being polluted by fossil fuel was unbearable, and the villagers were worried about the health risks and ecological devastation that could come with the plants.
Thousands of villagers wore their bright green T-shirts and waved green flags in objection to the construction of the power plants in the province. The protesters also put the green flags on their houses (while the project supporters put up red flags). Led by Charoen, the protesters rallied at City Hall, protested at and sealed the construction sites, blockaded Phetkasem Road, clashed with project supporters and demonstrated at Government House in Bangkok. Charoen’s life was threatened, but he felt they must fight to stop the project that could ruin their lives.
In 2003, after eight years of protest, the government decided to relocate the plants to another province. It was a victory for the villagers, but it led to frustration and hatred of local influential figures, especially when Charoen and his Ban Krut Conservation Group continued their campaigns on illegal encroachment of public land.
Charoen and Korn-uma were aware of being targeted and so they agreed not to have kids. Charoen also knew that if he died, it would not be by natural causes.
“I remembered when Charoen encouraged me to speak to the public or the media, I joked to him that I would do it after you die,” she said. Her husband was later shot dead by waiting gunmen when he got off a bus at Bo Nok intersection after testifying at parliament about illegal land encroachment. She then led 300 villagers in a walk to the Minstry of Justice in Bangkok with the coffin containing the body of Charoen to ask for special investigators to probe the case.
Circumstances, or fate, have turned a quiet housewife into an outspoken activist. The villagers came together to support her in persuing a case against Charoen’s killers — without them, she would not have pressed the issue on her own, as she felt that the mastermind would remain unpunished. “I never liked talking in public and never thought to speak through a microphone or to the media,” Korn-uma said. But with her inner strength she learned to speak her heart out — all the more so as Charoen’s murder case is not totally over. The police caught two suspected gunmen and the alleged mastermind, but just before the gunmen’s appointment to testify, they died in prison. The alleged mastermind was thus acquitted by the Appeals Court due to lack of evidence.
At present, the case under the consideration of the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Korn-uma, along with other villagers have been charged with physical assault during an altercation at a protest.
One way she reduces her stress is to spend a couple of days in forest temples to recharge her energy. Korn-uma still continues campaigning for the sustainability of her hometown. She also assists other local movements if asked. As a chairperson of Bo Nok Conservation Group, she also joins forces with the Thai Sea Watch Association campaign against illegal fishing. They have worked together to open a learning centre called Suan Suebsan Charoen Wat-aksorn as a memorial to the remarkable fight of her husband, the local hero.
Officially opened last Saturday to mark of the 10th anniversary of the death of Charoen, the centre features a building to exhibit the story of the fight and his life, information about food safety and how seafood is harvested legally and illegally in order to educate visitors about the food they consume. There is also a shopping area where local farmers and fishermen can sell their products direct to consumers.
“We have sorted out local products produced from those who are aware of food safety. We guarantee that seafood sold in the centre is not contaminated with formalin,” said Korn-uma.
The centre is located at KM300 on Phetkasem Road at Bo Nok intersection, the same place where a bronze statue of Charoen has been erected. The land is part of Wat Si Yaek Bo Nok where the coffin of Charoen has been kept in its prayer hall. His body will be cremated after the final judgement of the Supreme Court.
In the future, Korn-uma expects that the centre will be a place for people to learn not only about the environment, but also about politics and how to protect their land.
Today Bo Nok and Ban Krut are safe from heavy industries and are gradually opening up to the tourism industry.
“It is true that the coal power plants can’t set foot on our land during our generation. But we won’t know what will happen next if our national development policy still focuses on GDP growth,” she said.
“We, however, have learned to stand our ground and will be ready for whatever may come.”
Prachuap Khiri Khan residents rally outside the Appeals Court in March last year to protest the acquittal of the final suspect in the killing of Charoen Wat-aksorn.
