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Bangkok Post Jan 1 1999 Commentary Wasant Techawongtham Pessimism about the state of the environment ran through my last commentary of 1997. And the events of the past year did not prove me wrong, although there was cause for some hope in the form of the passage of the "people's constitution". The coming year is unlikely to be much different. Nevertheless, I like to be a little more optimistic and hope that there will be some progress on the environmental front. Last year saw the completion of the Thai-Burmese, aka Yadana, gas pipeline amid ferocious opposition from environmental and human rights activists. In spite of a drastic decline in power demand as a result of the economic crisis, more power plants are going ahead regardless of local opposition. The revelations of the Salween logging scandal, the largest in recent years, merely confirmed what had been widely known, that illegal logging remains a rampant scourge destroying this country's precious natural resources. The apparent involvement of civilian and military officials means that law enforcers will continue to turn a blind eye and only the small fry will be netted. The Salween investigation has, for all intents and purposes, come to a dead end. Factories continue to spew out pollution and influential people continue to destroy the environment with impunity. Politicians and their bureaucrat underlings continue to talk tough about environmental protection but do little if at all. The decision to ban prawn farming in fresh-water areas may be the only positive outcome of this government. And whether the rationale behind it stemmed from genuine environmental concerns or business-related intrigues is still in doubt. A truly positive development has come from the bottom. Common folk have become more conscious of the ill effects that so-called development will bring to their communities and are more willing to express their will to prevent it happening. They have taken their concerns directly to the seat of government and parliament and to the streets, sometimes with violent results as witnessed recently. This trend will continue as the people invoke their rights enshrined in the constitution to control development affecting their environment and way of life. The press will amplify the voice of the people by asserting their right to access public information as granted them by the constitution and the newly-promulgated Public Information Act. Forced transparency in government can be expected. As such, more confrontations are foreseen, not only between the government and the people but also among groups of people with diverging interests. A far-sighted government would immediately launch a process to come up with an effective mechanism to resolve conflicts over the use of natural resources and a means to disseminate public information before these conflicts arise. Unfortunately, no political party in sight has the vision or the public interest at heart to see the urgency in instituting such a process. But hope springs eternal. A general election expected later in the year may bring in more progressive elements who might convince their party elders that their survival, and that of the nation, depends on recognising the change in society and the danger that lurks behind. While bureaucratic reform and power decentralisation, which are another indicator of true progress, are still far from achieved, my hope for this year is that more people will join the fight to protect the environment using every legal or moral tool available. * Wasant Techawongtham is Deputy News Editor for Environment and Urban Affairs, Bangkok Post. © Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 1998 Comments to: Webmaster |
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