Drop Pak Bara port plans

Drop Pak Bara port plans

Government inertia can be a problem, though sometimes it is a good thing. It puts on hold projects with huge destructive potential. The government is trying to give new direction to many programmes and projects of the past. One of these is the plan to develop Satun province. An early and important part of this old and ongoing plan is to build an Andaman Sea deepwater port at Pak Bara, a small village in Satun's Langu district. At a time when the military regime is claiming credit for recovering parkland from law-breaking encroachers, it is actively planning massive encroachment on a wonderful national park.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha mentioned the project in his weekly TV show on Friday night. The Pak Bara seaport concept, however, has a history. It goes back two decades, but it gelled under the Democrat government of then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. On June 29, 2010, after extensive discussion and several studies, the cabinet approved an integrated plan which centred on the necessity of a deep seaport along the Satun coast. It was part of a plan that also involved the projected Myanmar port at Dawei, to the north, and a cross-Thailand railway from Satun to Songkhla.

These projects have been moved forward, both by the administration of Yingluck Shinawatra, who followed Mr Abhisit into office, and by the military. Ms Yingluck's government pushed Myanmar and Japan hard to build the Dawei port. Gen Prayut's regime has effectively signed the agreement for China to build the cross-peninsula railway.

There has been one constant in all the planning, consulting, projecting and changes of government. That is the unswerving, virtually unanimous opposition of everyone in the Pak Bara region to the port project. There never has been a local group anywhere near Satun that has supported the building of a port.

In 2010, while the Democrats and the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) were enthusing about plans for a new seaport, residents were noisily protesting. In 2012, a Muslim prayer festival at Pak Bara turned decidedly political. Imams and mullahs prayed that Allah would protect them from "this major threat to the livelihood and environment" in Langu district. Yesterday, residents told the media they took Gen Prayut's speech as a threat, and were quite ready to "cause problems", even if the prime minister invoked his draconian Section 44 powers to try to suppress them.

That is drastic talk. But Pak Bara residents and their supporters are mostly right, and Gen Prayut and his government — like their Democrat and Pheu Thai predecessors — are wrong. On the government's side is one motive, summed up as: What is good for development is good for the country.

This is an outdated concept and no longer deserves much respect. Pak Bara and its huge surroundings are one of the few remaining parts of Thailand not trampled, exploited, encroached upon and "developed" for industry and the almighty tourism dollar. It is a massive irony that Gen Prayut is wrongly trying to sell the country under the guise of development.

Pak Bara is the gateway to the Phetra Islands Marine National Park. The plan for a seaport would mean the government having to take over the area, and removing its national park status. In other words, the government would have to encroach upon the entire 4,734-rai national park.

This comes when the military regime is reclaiming 110 rai from the Bonanza resort. The government can pass new laws to make it legal of course, but it still would be just encroachment by another name — it is just an intrusion into this jewel in the Andaman Sea.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (2)