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Why are state agencies unconcerned with the plight of landless farmers? Will they ever help?

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COMMENTARY: Endless quest for land justice by Sanitsuda Ekachai

Can progressive land tax for people who own more than 50 rai of land help ease the heated land rights conflict that is engulfing the country? The answer is no.

Just ask the victims of state injustice who are now camped out at the Royal Plaza, and they will tell you why.

"It's the state agencies that are our main enemies," said Nit Tortoon, 63, a farmer from Chaiyaphum's Khon San district. "They took our lands and used unjust laws to turn us into criminals as forest encroachers. The government must fix this injustice. Otherwise there is no end to our suffering.

Nit's assertion that the state is the villagers' biggest threat is not without grounds. A survey by the National Human Rights Commission in 2005 revealed that more than half of the 700 land rights conflicts nationwide involved state landlords.

The biggest of them all is the Forestry and National Parks departments under the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, thanks to the set of forest laws written by the ministry to make itself the sole owner of all forests, including all land without title deeds.

Land rights conflicts flared up nationwide following the ministry's aggressive expansion of national parks and the money-making schemes to rent out "degraded" forests to commercial tree farm investors. Before, eucalyptus was the rage. Now, it is para rubber and oil palm.

"They burned down our natural woods for their eucalyptus plantations, you know," he recalled painfully.

Nit is among the numerous villagers across the country who have been evicted, arrested and jailed for farming their own lands. The draconian forest law prohibits all human settlement and gives total power to forest officials to evict and arrest "forest encroachers."

For farmers like Nit, the progressive land tax for those who have more than 50 rai - one of the land reform proposals from the National Reform Committee - may well help pave the way towards a more equitable land ownership system, but it doess not deal with the crux of their land rights problem.

What they are up against, they said, are state landlords, unjust laws, the collusion between corrupt officials and land speculators which put the commons in private hands, and the top-down natural resources management that defies the villagers' community rights - their constitutional rights.

Another major hindrance is the utter lack of political will on the part of all governments so far to right the wrong.

Nit's painful experience echoed the plight of forest villagers in various parts of the country. His forefathers had been living in Khon San for generations when the Forestry Industry Organisation evicted them and turned the community farmlands and natural woods into commercial eucalyptus tree plantations.

They fought their case for 30 years to eventually get a ruling from the NHRC in 2007 that the eviction was unlawful and the villagers must have their land back.

Last year, the Abhisit government even included the Khon San community as one of the 35 communities to receive communal land ownership to fix land rights conflicts once and for all. The FIO feigned deafness to both initiatives.

Most of the communities under the pioneer programme of communal land ownership are in conflict with the ministry. If the government could not even tell an obsolete organisation like the FIO to follow its orders, how could it expect the all-powerful ministry to listen at all.

Communal ownership is actually just one part of the National Reform Committee's land reform package, which includes progressive tax, online land ownership data, land bank, amendment of forest laws, and the end of lawsuits against villagers who were wrongly arrested.

When the government cannot even implement this one small part, there is little hope the whole package will materialise.

There are plenty of negative signs. When the ministry fiercely countered the land reform package in the cabinet meeting last week, the government meekly retreated.

Which is why the Khon San villagers and other victims of state injustice from across the country are in Bangkok again, knowing that they cannot rely on anyone else but themselves to make change happen.

Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor, Bangkok Post.

Email: sanitsudae@bangkokpost.co.th

(Source: Bangkok Post, COMMENTARY, Endless quest for land justice, 24/02/2011, Sanitsuda Ekachai, link) 

quest - a long difficult search for something การสำรวจ, การค้นหา, การสืบค้น
endless quest - a search for something that never ends (never getting what you are looking for)

justice - when people are treated fairly and equally and their rights are respected (See Wikipedia) ความยุติธรรม
injustice - failure to treat someone fairly and to respect their rights ความไม่ยุติธรรม
unjust - not fair or reasonable ไม่ยุติธรรม
land justice - when people  are treated fairly in issues of land use and ownership

progressive tax - a tax in which the tax rate increases as the amount subject to taxation increases, this means rich people (higher income) get taxed at a higher rate (See Wikipedia)

ease - to make or become less severe, difficult, unpleasant, painful, etc ทำให้ง่าย บรรเทา

rights - what the law allows you to have and do สิทธิ์ (See Wikipedia)
land rights - the land that you are allowed to have, use or own

conflict - an angry disagreement between people or groups ความขัดแย้ง ความไม่ลงรอยกัน การต่อสู้, ความขัดแย้ง
engulfing - covering or surrounding in a harmful way
victims - people who are killed injured or harmed in some way from an accident, natural disaster, crime, etc.
state - government รัฐ
camped out - living outdoors at a place for a long period of time (like "camping" in the forest for fun)

encroachment (noun) - using something that does not belong to you, using land that is not your land การบุกรุก
encroach (verb) – to gradually cover more and more of an area of land บุกรุก, ล่วงล้ำ
encroacher (noun) - a person who encroaches (who uses something that is not their's
forest encroachers - people who use forest land that they do not own

suffering - physical or mental pain or problems ความทุกข์ทรมาน
assertion - a statement or claim that something is true
threat - a danger อันตราย
grounds - reasons for what you say or do บนมูลเหตุว่า บนพื้นฐานว่า
X not without grounds - there is a reason for saying X (meaning: X is at least partly true)

survey - gathering information about what people think about different subjects (public opinion) by asking large numbers of people questions and counting their answers, and then using statistics, graphs, and tables to present results (See Wikipedia)

human rights – the basic rights which it is generally considered all people should have, such as justice and the freedom to say what you think สิทธิมนุษยชน
commission – a group of people who have been formally chosen to discover information about a problem or examine the reasons why the problem exists คณะกรรมการ, คณะกรรมาธิการ
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) - the indepdendent commission set up by the 1997 constitution to investigate complaints of human rights violations (See website and Wikipedia)

revealed - made known or showed something that was surprising or that was previously secret เปิดเผย
conflicts - angry disagreements between people or groups ความขัดแย้ง
nationwide - throughout the whole country ทั่วทั้งประเทศ
landlords - the owners of land or real estate  

ministry - a government department dealing with an area of activity กระทรวง
sole owner - the only one owner

deed - a written agreement signed in a formal way, usually for the sale of real estate or a house
title - the legal right to own land or property (real estate) and also the document that shows and proves ownership
title deeds - a formal signed document that gives a person or company the legal right to own land

aggressive - done with great energy and intensity, determined to win or succeed and using forceful action to achieve victory or success, ซึ่งมีความมั่นใจสูง (See glossary)
expansion - when something increases in size, number or importance การขยายออก

national park - a large area of land (often with forests) set aaside by the national government to be public property, for people to travel to, hike and camp in (See Wikipedia)
schemes - systems (ways, steps, procedures, methods) for achieving some goal
money-making schemes - ways to make money, ideas for making money
rent - to pay money for the use of something for a period of time เช่า
degraded - became low quality
commercial - for business purposes

eucalyptus – a big tall straight tree with many small leaves from Australia that produces an oil with a strong smell, that is used in medicine ต้นยูคาลิปตัส (See Wikipedia)
was the rage - was very popular

rubber - a highly elastic substance used to cushion blows (See Wikipedia on natural rubber from trees and synthetic man-made rubber and rubber standards at UNCTAD)
elastic - a material that stretches easily and returns to its original shape quickly (See Wikipedia on physics and deformation)
cushion a blow - reducing the force of one thing hitting another thing (example: the rubber bumpers on the front and rear of the bus reduce damage if the bus hits something)
para rubber - a species of rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) that "is of major economic importance because its sap-like extract (known as latex) can be collected and is the primary source of natural rubber" (See Wikipedia)

natural - found in nature (not made in a factory by humans) ตามธรรมชาติ
woods - forest, an area with many trees ป่าไม้, ป่า
natural woods - a forest with trees that grew naturally (were not planted by people)
plantation – a large farm where crops such as tea, coffee, cotton, sugar or, in this case, trees, are grown ไร่ นาขนาดใหญ่

recalled - remembered นึกทบทวน จำได้
numerous - many มากมาย
eviction – the process of forcing someone to leave a building or place where they have been living or working การขับไล่ออกจากพื้นที่   การไล่ที่
evict (verb)

draconian - a law with a very harsh and severe punishment
human settlement - people living in a place ชุมชน
power - ability to control and influence events or some activity and the people involved อำนาจ
total power - can completely control people and events

landlord - a person who owns buildings or land that other people rent

reform - a change that is intended to correct a situation that is wrong or unfair การแก้ไข การปฏิรูป
land reform - a government program to take the ownership of land from large land owners (the rich, the government) and give it (redistribute) to poor small farmers (See Wikipedia)
reform - a change that is intended to correct a situation that is wrong or unfair การแก้ไข การปฏิรูป

proposal - a plan or suggestion about what to do in the future การเสนอ
pave - put a hard cover on a road or flat area, to cover an area of ground with a hard flat surface of pieces of stone, concrete or bricks
pave the way towards Y - help event or situation Y happen in the future

equitable (adjective) - fair and reasonable, situation in which everyone is treated in the same way
equity (noun)

crux - the most important part or aspect
the crux of their land rights problem - the most important part of their land rights problem

What they are up against,... - the people or forces they will have to fight against and defeat (in order to achieve their goals)
collusion - secretly working together to do something dishonest or to break the law การสมรู้ร่วมคิด
speculators - investors who put their money at risk in hope of making more money when an asset increases in value

the commons - land shared and used by a group of farmers, not owned by one farmer (See Wikipedia)

put the commons in private hands - taking what has traditionally been shared by many and giving to one person to own (not a good thing)

top-down - 1. starting at the top and working downwards, 2. when an organization is controlled by the people with the highest status
(top-down bureaucracy), 3. starting at a general level and then moving to more specific details

bottom-up - 1 starting from the bottom and working upwards, starting at the lower levels of an organisation or society (grassroots) and working upwards to higher status people, 3. starting with details rather than a general idea

natural resources - things such as coal, trees and oil that exist in nature and can be used by people ทรัพยากร

rights - what the law allows you to have and do สิทธิ์ (See Wikipedia)
community - local people, the people living in one particular area ชุมชน
community rights - the things that local people are allowed to have and do
constitutional - correct or allowed according to the constitution ถูกต้องหรืออยู่ในขอบข่ายที่ระบุไว้ในรัฐธรรมนูญ
constitutional rights - what people are allowed to have and do according to the constitution

lack - does not have ขาดแคลน
will - the energy (determination, resolution) that a person puts into making something happen, into achieving their goals ความตั้งใจ
political will - the energy and determination used to achieve political goals

X on the part of Y - X is true of Y
right the wrong - after a bad thing happened to people, do something to help them again

X echoed Y - X repeated Y (X said once again what other people Y had already been saying)
plight - in a difficult situation full of problems; an unpleasant condition, especially a serious, sad or difficult one สภาพเลวร้าย
eventually - at the end of a period of time or at the end of a process ในที่สุด
ruling - a decision by a court of law คำตัดสิน คำชี้ขาด
eviction - the process of forcing someone to leave a building or place where they have been living or working การขับไล่ออกจากพื้นที่ การไล่ที่

communal land ownership - when all the member of a community own the land (so any one person cannot sell the land for a profit)

feign - pretend to do something but not really do it, fake it
feigned deafness - pretended to not be able to hear
initiative - an important action taken to solve a problem
pioneer - be the first one to do something
obsolete - not in use any more, having been replaced by something newer and better ล้าสมัย หมดยุคไปแล้ว

online - connected to the internet
data - facts or information used for making calculations or decisions ข้อมูล
online land ownership data - when the details of who owns what land are available to the public online (so that there are no hidden secrets in the land office files)

land bank - 1. "the practice of purchasing raw land with the intent to hold on to it until such a time as it is profitable to sell it on to others for more than was initially paid. Land is popular as an investment as it is a tangible asset as opposed to shares or bonds," 2. "the intended increase in value may come from inflation, conversion for use as housing, or potential for extraction of raw materials, 2. governmental or quasi-governmental entities dedicated to assembling properties – particularly vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties – and putting them to productive use" (See Wikipedia)

amendment - a change to a law
lawsuits - a case in a court of law to end a dispute between two people
implement - put a plan into action, to make something such as an idea, plan, system or law start to work and be used นำมาใช้ นำ แผนหรือนโยบายมาปฏิบัติ
materialise - to happen or become real กลายเป็นจริง

plenty - many, lots of
negative - bad ที่เป็นด้านลบ
fiercely - very strongly อย่างรุนแรง, อย่างดุเดือด
counter - go against something, work against something that happened (that they do not agree with)
meeting - when a group of people come together to discuss issues and make decisions การประชุม
meek (adjective) - quiet, gentle and easily persuaded to do things
retreat - when an army moves away from a position because of danger (or defeat, possible embarassment, etc)
meekly retreat - retreat very easily (even when there doesn't seem to be much danger at all)