Rare triumphs for the little man

Published: 18 Jan 2013 at 10.24
Online news: Opinion

The dawning of the Year of the Snake seems to augur well for the "Davids" -- the little men and women, the underprivileged waging legal battles to defend their basic constitutional rights against transgressions by the Goliaths in the business and bureaucratic empires -- thanks to the Administrative Court.

It took around a decade for the Klity Creek lead contamination case and the Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline protest case to finally bear fruit. The final rulings by the Supreme Administrative Court are indeed a welcome reprieve and a rare victory for the underprivileged.

In a period of just a week, the Davids finally won two hard-fought court cases against the Goliaths:
- After nine years of legal wrangling, the Supreme Administrative Court on Jan 10 issued its judgement, ordering the Pollution Control Department (PCD) to pay 22 Karen villagers in Klity village, Thong Pha Phum district of Kanchanaburi, a total of 3.8 million in compensation for its failure to clean up Klity Creek. The villagers' only water source, it was heavily polluted with lead waste illegally discharged by Lead Concentrate Company, exposing the community to deadly lead contamination and illness.
- On Jan 16, the Supreme Administrative Court delivered a final ruling on the Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline protest case, after 10 years of interminably slow court proceedings. The court ruled the police guilty of using unnecessary force to break up a demonstration by villagers in Songkhla’s Jana district and ordered the Royal Thai Police Office to pay 100,000 baht in total compensation to the protesters injured by the police.

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oldairman
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Discussion 7 : 19 Jan 2013 at 07.567
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This is one of the "problems" that the Thaksin owned and led PTP government want to disband. It is more or less independent of the government and they cannot stand the loss of control which in turn will allow them to do virtually anything they want in Thailand, including bringing the "Big Boss" home from his self inflicted exile pure as the driven slush.
If they DO succeed then Thailand will go back to the dark ages where Thakisin, his henchmen, hangers on etc will have complete domination over the whole of Thailand and ALL its people.
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bkposter
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Discussion 6 : 19 Jan 2013 at 06.306
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In fact nearly all cases in Thailand are appealed and go on to the next higher court, where the slow process starts over again so the original court is rendered 100% useless. So it is not really accurate to say that this lower court served justice, it nearly delayed it by being involved. The higher court will decide the case anyway. So what is the real reason for the lower court? seems they have no real function, most are corrupted by politicians so seems to me they serve very little actual function.
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facts_only
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Discussion 5 : 18 Jan 2013 at 23.115
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"...the police should have been more restrained in their handling of an unruly protest. In this case, although the Supreme Administrative Court agreed that some of the protesters were armed with swords and slingshots, the protesters as a whole were not systematically armed as claimed by the police. The court also reprimanded the police for not following proper mob-control procedure and instead using aggressive force to disperse the crowd." - above
Does this set a precedent for rulings on the 2009/2010 crackdowns?
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bobble
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Discussion 4 : 18 Jan 2013 at 15.594
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Excellent article..
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Renaissance
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Discussion 3 : 18 Jan 2013 at 15.393
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They won't succeed. While we know that the Pheu Thai politicians are doing their best to help the Boss to restrict the court's powers, if they were to succeed in doing so, it would mean that they had also managed to have Thaksin whitewashed as this is another of the main changes to the Constitution that they want. There will be such mass demonstrations that all of their changes to the Constitution will have to be abandoned, and Thaksin will have to unpack.
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barmine
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Discussion 2 : 18 Jan 2013 at 13.532
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Enjoyed your commentary Mr.Prateepchaikul.
Keep up the good work.
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jacksprat
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Discussion 1 : 18 Jan 2013 at 13.021
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"It is very disturbing indeed that many supporters of constitutional amendment want to clip the wings of the Administrative Court in a self-seeking desire to appease Big Business." Including the current government ...
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Rare triumphs for the little man | Bangkok Post: opinion