The government's decision to go ahead with the controversial coal-fired power plant in Krabi is a disappointment. But what is far worse is the way it has allowed police to treat anti-coal demonstrators with cold blood and heavy-handed measures. The peaceful demonstrators, led by the Network of Saving the Andaman, began their protest on Friday as the National Energy Policy Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, met and finally gave approval to the 800-megawatt coal-fired power plant, fuelling the demonstrators' anger. They vowed to keep protesting until the government reviews the approval.
As the situation became tense, it happened that police resorted to dirty tactics to pressure the demonstrators to disband. In order to isolate them, police deployed heavy force, blocking the area around the protest site, cutting off food and medicine supplies, and removing mobile toilets. The protesters lost communication with outside supporters as their mobile phone batteries became dead.
Later on, three protest leaders -- Prasitthichai Nunual, Akkaradet Chakchinda and ML Rungkhun Kittiyakara -- were arrested and detained at a military compound in a bid to weaken the demonstrators. Police also questioned some core members and recorded their ID details in what was seen as harassment, if not intimidation.
The government may claim that these demonstrators had defied its order to ban a gathering. After all, we are still under the junta's rule. But the government seemed to forget its promise that it would pay heed to concerns of locals.
Government spokesman and acting PR department chief Sansern Kaewkamnerd yesterday defended the police action. He said the arrest of the three leaders was unavoidable as they violated a law on demonstrations and intended to prolong the protest. However, Lt Gen Sansern stopped short of mentioning the police tactics, which were as dirty as coal -- cutting off food and medicine supplies is just blatantly inhumane.
These people are not the state's enemy and the government must not treat them that way. They just want to voice concerns over a project that will harm their livelihoods and the environment.
The demonstrators have every reason to do so. They want the government to take a serious look at their research study, a green power development plan, which shows that renewables are a potential energy option for their province. The plan was presented to the government via a tripartite committee set up to solve the coal problem for almost a year but never received any attention from the state.
What has happened in the past two days shows that the government had just bought time and had no intention to solve the problem.
As the authorities heighten the pressure and suppress the anti-coal protesters, the government still owes them -- and members of the public -- an explanation as to why it had to rush the decision on the contentious power plant. Lack of energy security in the South is debatable as a group of academics still dispute the information supplied by Egat and state energy planners.
It should be noted that the government still dwells much on old information regarding renewable energy sources. Or it just ignores the fact that, with new technology, renewables are cheaper and more reliable.
Besides, it remains a mystery why the government took a misstep in this case. It gave the nod to the project while the environmental and health impact assessment study is still pending. In principle, it must be the other way round -- that we know all the impacts and make a decision accordingly.
By failing to adhere to that principle, the government raises the question of transparency, or lack thereof. That makes the coal-fired project as dubious as ever and, needless to say, it puts the government in a bad light.
Another important thing is that the government should be aware that coal is now a global issue. As a fossil-based energy source, coal is blamed for global warming and climate change. It's a pity that the government fails to take notice of the global trend as some advanced countries turn their back on this power source.
By going for coal, the government should know that its efforts to tackle climate change will be more difficult. Besides, Gen Prayut should not forget a promise he gave to the international community that the Thai government would make more of a contribution to combat global warning.
Given so many questions, and for the sake of public interest, the government should reveal all information behind its decision and allow the anti-coal group to discuss its option. In that case, we should have a public debate with live broadcasts on state-owned media that gives equal opportunity to both sides to convince the public of their case. However, there is still time for the government to make a U-turn and make the right decision on this crucial issue.