When the Yingluck administration took the reins of power last year, the premier made several promises to the farmers' movement. Had they been kept, the country's first female prime minister would have been immortalised by her land reform projects when her gregarious brother was long forgotten.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's promises included the setting up of a Land Bank to acquire land for landless farmers; the amendment of five draconian forest laws to being them into line with the constitution which endorses villagers' community rights to co-manage forests and other local natural resources; more support for community land ownership to prevent farmland from being bought up by speculators; and the setting up of a justice fund to help villagers who have been prosecuted by unconstitutional forest laws.
That's not all. Ms Yingluck also promised to bridge land ownership inequity through a progressive land tax which is long overdue.
Farmers had good reason to pin high hopes on Ms Yingluck. In her policy announcement to parliament last August, the prime minister included all those promises as part of her policy pledges to prove her commitment.
A year has passed. High hopes have turned to deep disillusionment. And the landless farmers are ready to take to the streets again.
The government has not only failed to keep its promises, it has also tried to fix the land bank law to give the newly acquired land to investors for industrial and commercial uses. This is equivalent to stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
Thailand's land distribution is among the worst in the world as 80% of the land in the country is in the hands of only 10% of land owners.
Thailand has long been the world's biggest rice exporting country. Yet more than 80% of rice farmers are tenants. Undeniably, making land reform a reality is an uphill task. It is also a political minefield when MPs are big landlords themselves.
According to their asset declarations, MPs own nearly 30,000 rai combined, worth nearly 16 billion baht.
Many in the farmers' movement are red-shirt supporters who voted for Pheu Thai because of the party's fierce campaign attacks on income disparity and promises to bridge the gap. Had Ms Yingluck failed after trying to bring about land reform, her supporters would have understood. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
The many committees and subcommittees set up by the Yingluck government to deliver the reform promises have been largely idle. But even the status quo is still better than what is happening now. The plans to give villagers community ownership in exchange for forest conservation have not only been shelved, but forest communities have been violently harassed by the authorities without Ms Yingluck lifting a finger to help. Worse, she has allocated a 50 million baht budget for the crackdown.
Meanwhile, the Land Bank regulations have been tampered with to allow commercial and industrial use of land intended for the landless poor. The change betrays the original objective of the Land Bank.
The appalling land distribution inequity underlines the grave social and income disparities between Thais which have exploded into political violence. With or without pressure from the landless movement, Ms Yingluck must bring about land reform to save the country from future political instability. If not, her government will inevitably face political turbulence.