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This Land is Our Land
Land Grab in Thailand

Victims claim land grab plot
Say officials colluded with private company

ANUCHA CHAROENPO of the Bangkok Post - May 5

A group of tsunami victims in Phangnga has accused provincial land officials of colluding with a private company and some individuals to deprive them of their land rights.

About 50 tsunami victims from Takua Pa district protested at Government House yesterday, asking the Senate committee on social development and human security to look into the legality of Nor Sor 3 Kor land papers issued to the private firm and individuals who claimed to own the land held by the protesting villagers before the Dec 26 tsunami.

The protesters said they represented 30 families in the Hat Laem Pom community, 43 families in Tap Tawan community, and another 180 families in Ban Nai Rai community. Some of the protesters said they also knew of about 25 other villages facing similar land problems.

Ratree Kongwatmai, 32, said Hat Laem Pom villagers had lived on the land in question for four decades. However, one day after Dec 26 tsunami, a private company staked a claim to the land held by the villagers, said Mrs Ratree.

The firm put up signs warning the villagers to keep off the land. As a result, the villagers could not get into the area to look for the bodies of their relatives who were still missing and presumed dead, she said. Also, power and water supplies to the area were cut off.

Mrs Ratree said the villagers tried to cope with the situation until the end of February when they decided to return to their land and start rebuilding their houses. Soon after, someone from the company came to take their photos. Gunshots were also heard in the area at night.

Mrs Ratree said a senior government politician was a major shareholder of the company which planned to develop the 418-rai area in Hat Laem Pom into a golf course and a luxury hotel.

Sewbee Leesakul, 52, a villager from Ban Tap Tawan, said she had never realised before that the land she and her ancestors had lived on for so long might belong to other people.

After the tsunami, she said, a woman and land officials came twice to take measurements of the 24-rai land plot held by her family. The woman claimed to be the rightful owner of the land.

''We don't believe the woman is the real owner since we had never seen her before that,'' said Mrs Sewbee, who admitted she had no land ownership deeds.

Yupin Choetpraphan, 36, another resident of Hat Laem Pom, said most of the tusnami-hit villagers had received little assistance from the government to date.

''Why did the government refuse to accept foreign donations when it is short of money to help the villagers?'' she said.

The woman said most of the affected villagers wanted to get back on their own feet as soon as possible but they had no money to set up even small businesses.

Nirand Pithakwatchara, chairman of the Senate human security committee, yesterday said Interior Minister Chidchai Wannasathit and Phuket governor Udomsak Atsawarangkul would be invited to testify before his panel next week about the land right dispute and state assistance to tsunami victims.

Choice of homes upsets survivors
News on $$$ - the Phuket GazetteFr Joe's Story
Efforts to Stop FOREIGNERS from "working" / helping ??
"Give back what the waves washed away"

 

Go to THAILAND for many concrete strategies being used by the Thai grasroots networks

TSUNAMI AFTERMATH / HELP OR HURT ?

This LAND is our land
One woman epitomises the struggle of tsunami survivors
fighting to reclaim their land

Story and photos by SANITSUDA EKACHAI       Bangkok Post

Ratree Kongwatmai carries two pictures of her eight-year-old daughter. One shows the girl smiling, glowing with happiness. The other shows the girl 10 days after the tsunami, the body decomposed beyond recognition.

  "Look at my daughter's body," Ratree insists. The deep pain in her voice makes it hard for anyone to refuse.

  "If you don't, you won't understand my pain and my rage."

  After surviving the killer waves, Ratree rushed back to find her daughter at Laem Pom, which is part of an old tin mine site in Ban Nam Khem, the worst-hit seaside village in Phangnga.

  She found the devastated area had already been sealed off by a group of armed men hired by the nai toon (money baron), who has claimed ownership over the beach-front community of some 50 families.

  The land dispute dates back three years, when the nai toon presented the villagers with a land ownership document. The villagers contested the legality of the document, yet today the case remains unsettled. When the tsunami struck, land speculators hired men to stop the villagers from going into their neighbourhood to find their loved ones.

  "I begged them in tears to let me in so I could find my daughter and my relatives. They said the tsunami could not kill me, but they could.

  "I knew my daughter was near the big pond that used to be a mine sink. She was seen running away together with her friends in that direction.

  "Had I found her earlier, my daughter wouldn't have been in this condition," she says, her voice full of rage. "Look! Look at what they did to my little girl. Look at her!"

  No longer able to contain herself, she breaks down in tears.

  After 10 days of intense searching, Ratree finally found her daughter at the Yanyao Temple where rescuers had brought in the corpses from tsunami-ravaged sites for identification.

  Had it not been for the girl's dental records the 31-year-old mother says she would have never recognised her daughter's body.

  One of the leaders of Laem Pom, Ratree is channelling a mother's rage into her fight against the money baron's company, a proxy of a powerful national politician.

  "In the past, they've tried to steal our land and were so angry that we put up a fight. They sent tractors to demolish our homes and have made death threats. So when the tsunami struck, they thought it was an opportunity to keep us out for good."

  Ratree says local authorities did nothing to help Laem Pom villagers in their search for missing relatives.

  "This made me even more determined to fight," she says, her voice matching the intense, fiery look in her coal-black eyes. "I can no longer stand their inhumanity; I can't bear the injustice."

  Laem Pom is part of Ban Nam Khem, a seaside settlement of ex-labourers who came from all over the country to work in the tin mine. When the mining concession ended they established their owncommunity, which villagers have called home for more than 40 years.

  "This place used to be a mine _ state-owned land _ how could it become personal property unless there was some fishy business involved?" queries Ratree. "If anyone should have the right to stay at Laem Pom, it should be the villagers who built this community."

  Her father and mother worked in the tin mine long before she was born at Ban Nam Khem, she recalls.

  "Back then, there was no road, no electricity. Nothing. From living in thatched-roof huts, we developed our homes and our community and we finally got our house registered with the province in 1990.

  "But three years ago, out of the blue, we were ordered to leave. This is plain theft. Plain injustice."

  Ratree and the Laem Pom villagers are not alone in their anguish. According to the Coalition Network for Andaman Coastal Community Support, more than 30 villages in the six tsunami-hit provinces are now facing similar eviction problems.

  In Trang, for example, the villagers at Ban Sangka-oo on the island of Ko Lanta were ordered to relocate though their homes were not destroyed.

  In Phangnga, where 14 villages face the threat of eviction, the fishermen at Ban Nai Rai cannot return to their homes because the money barons say the land is theirs.

  In Ranong, district officials have barred the villagers who have been living at Kamala beach for more than 50 years from returning to their homes on the grounds that the area is public land. Five other villages in Ranong have had similar problems since the tsunami.

  Many villagers are afraid of speaking out for fear of being blacklisted and cut off from government assistance, which is supervised by the same local administrators who had often conspired with speculators to take over public land in their communities.

  "I still cannot imagine how I am going to make a living when they move us inland to live in a small concrete box," says Kong Yaikwai, a fisherman from Pakarang Jut. He lost his wife to the killer waves and is now the sole bread-winner for his four children.

  "They said the relocation is necessary for our own safety, but I suspect our beach will soon be taken over by resort investors," he says with a big sigh. "I don't know what to do."

  In desperation, many villagers put up a sign with their names on their old properties to declare ownership, not knowing if their voices would be heard.

  While many tsunami-hit villages are in disarray, the communities that some Thais consider backward _ the sea gypsies _ turn out to be the most united in the fight for their land rights.

  A tribal society based on close kinship, the Moken, or sea gypsies, are drawing on their collective strength to reclaim their land.

  The Moken at Ban Tung Wa and Ban Tap Tawan in Phangnga, for example, refused to be relocated to small, oven-hot concrete boxes far from the sea. Despite resistance from the land officials, they fearlessly returned to their old sites to build new homes.

  "We are one big family and we speak and move as one," says Hong Klatalay, leader of the Ban Tung Wah community.

  "Our ancestors lived here. I was born here. So were my children. It is our home. We could not live elsewhere," says Larb Harntalay, 47, a Moken mother.

  Their unity and courage is liberating and contagious, says Ratree after visiting the Mokens' villages at Ban Taptawan and Tung Wah.

  "I've learned from them that we can prevail if we are united," she says. "I've learned that where there's a will, there's a way."

  The Laem Pom community has already petitioned the National Human Rights Commission to investigate the legality of the speculator's land documents in an effort to annul their dubious claims. But after visiting the Moken, Ratree and her peers now realise they cannot win their case unless they _ like the Moken _ speak and move as one.

  "I told my neighbours I would be willing to put my life on the line for them to reclaim our land, that all I need is their support because unity is crucial to our struggle," she says.

  On February 25, some 40 families moved back with Ratree to Laem Pom. Despite ominous glares from the land speculator's men, the atmosphere was full of exhilaration as the villagers helped one another clear the debris, set up tents and prepare to rebuild their homes and their community.

  Each family chipped in 1,000 baht to set up a communal kitchen and to buy initial building materials.

  "We will move forward together," says Ratree, her long, curly hair stubbornly defying the strong wind from the sea.

  "I am not afraid of anything now." Ratree tightens her lips to hold in her heartache. "I have lost everything to the tsunami: my daughter, my father, my sister, my brother, my aunt, my nephew and my home. Everything. My duty to my family now is to keep their land.

  "I felt incredible warmth upon returning home, although it's only empty land now. We will rebuild our lives here and I feel as if my daughter and my father are watching from above, giving me their love and support.

  "I feel proud that I am not doing this for myself, but for the whole community. I am willing to bet my life on this land, because it is ours."

  The Laem Pom community is in need of building materials and food. To help, call community leader Ratree Kongwatmai on 09-727-9454.

  For more information about the tsunami-hit coastal villages that are facing eviction threats and to offer help, contact the Office for the Coalition Network for Andaman Coastal Community Support in Trang province on 07-521-2414. Bank account information: Krung Thai Bank, Talad Muang Trang branch, account name 'Fund for Andaman Coastal Community Support', account number 372-0-01396-0, swift code KRTH THBK.

In Thailand   - a 'land grab'

from the Christian Science Monitor April 8 2005
By Simon Montlake | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

TAPTAWAN, THAILAND -   Three months after his house was laid low by surging waves, Somchai Porsakul is in a hurry to rebuild. If he can reoccupy the modest plot of land here that he calls home, he might avoid being evicted by a rich Thai family that claims to be the rightful owner.

  In February, the purported owner came and told the villagers to clear out or face the consequences. Instead, after he left, defiant villagers chased away his team of surveyors and went back to rebuilding.

POST-TSUNAMI:   Somai Mokit rebuilds his home near Khao Lak. He has a land title, unlike many here.

"I know they say this land belongs to someone, but we've lived here a long time already," says Somchai, gesturing at his dirt yard. "Look at those coconut trees. We planted those. This is my land."

Up and down Khao Lak's tsunami-stricken coastline, hundreds of families are embroiled in similar rows over land ownership. Most lack legal title to their land, giving opportunistic tourism developers the upper hand in what critics are calling a land grab of lucrative beachfront.

Until the tsunami struck, Khao Lak's gently sloping beaches were among Thailand's hottest destinations. Thousands of hotel rooms mushroomed alongside rickety fishing villages and rubber plantations.

The tourist sparkle has died for now, but Thai developers are betting that it will be back, and that when it does the owners of prime beachfront will reap the rewards.

"When the tsunami came, it was a good chance to clear the land. They [the developers] have tried before to chase people away. The tsunami has done the job for them," says Sen. Chirmsak Pinthong, who visited the area last month to investigate land rights.

Under Thai law, squatters can apply for legal title to a plot of land after 10 years of continuous use. In practice, few succeed, and millions of Thais live on what is technically public land. Speculators exploit this ambiguity by bribing officials to backdate land purchases, then accuse villagers of encroaching. Battles over land title are common in Thailand, particularly when tourist dollars are at stake.

The district chief says he's aware of the disputes in Taptawan and other villages, and advises residents to stand their ground for now. "We need to take these matters to court. The villagers shouldn't listen to what the [purported owner] tells them," says Chalosak Wanitchalern.

In Baan Naam Khem, a fishing port that was almost wiped out by the tsunami, the battle lines are drawn more sharply. Fifty households on the western beachfront left destitute by the giant waves are locked in a bitter standoff with a developer linked to a prominent Thai politician.

The dispute has turned nasty. The developer reportedly sent armed men to stop former residents from returning to sift through the ashes of their homes and threatened those who resisted. Even before the tsunami, the developer had sought to evict the families, insisting that it had the law on its side.

Residents say it was a trick sprung by a village headman who was in cahoots with the developer. Three years ago, the headman collected the names and addresses of everyone in the community and said he was petitioning the government for land titles. Instead, he gave the list to the developer who then launched legal action against the residents.

The government has offered to resettle the villagers on public land, but the site is several miles inland and few are satisfied. Guson Pitlak, a mother of three whose flimsy wooden house was swept away on Dec. 26, is gloomy about their chances of reclaiming what was theirs. "If I want to rebuild my house, I'm sure [the company] will sue us again. They want to build a resort on the land, for all the foreign tourists that come here," she says, resting on the floor of her room in a temporary plywood shelter.

Other communities have managed to see off the developers. Baan Waa, a fishing village of 72 households, was told that their land was needed for a new hospital for Khao Lak that the German government had agreed to build. The villagers dug in their heels and appealed to a visiting group of senators, including Senator Chirmsak, for help. A call to the German Embassy revealed that the scheme was a fiction.

Choice of homes upsets survivors
(Article by Onnucha Hutasingh, from the Bangkok Post, February 23, 2005)

Thousands of new houses being built for tsunami victims could go to waste if survivors abandon them. Some residents of Ban Nam Khem, one of the worst-hit areas, are unhappy about the designs, which they say have been foisted on them by government departments.

They say the houses are cramped and do not suit their lifestyles. They stand in contrast to the spacious houses which another group of survivors, the Moken people ("sea-gypsies"), have designed and are building for themselves.

"It is so narrow and dark. It must be really hot in there. I want the one built on pillars such as the Moken are building, but the army engineers say they can't change," said one resident. She referred to a shophouse measuring four by nine metres with one bedroom, one multi-utility room and one toilet. It is one of three designs available on a budget of 120,000 Baht for villagers who opt for houses designed by the state.

About 6,000 houses will be built and donors have paid for them all. Porntip Thiansai, of Ban Nam Khem, said she wished she could make modifications so the house suited her needs. "I envy Moken sea people. Their houses are spacious with an open area on the ground floor. We just wonder why our houses are so different when the cost is pretty much the same," she said.

The houses the Moken people are building are elevated on pillars. They use the open area underneath to raise pigs and chickens. "Our new homes are better. They give natural cooling," said a 37-year -old Arkhom Saman, a Moken of Ban Thung Wa.

Traditional houses are open to air

The preferred Molken designed and built house.

Komet Boonthongchoo, of the Network for Development of Southern Communities, said people should be allowed to choose their homes. "We give only technical support and advice to the Moken people. No one knows how to design and build a house better than they do," he said.

Houses built by state agencies following the Kratoon floods a few years ago were eventually abandoned by survivors who left to build their own community.

For donors, the Moken houses are cheaper, as they pay for materials only. Labour costs are spared because the Moken people build the houses themselves.

An official from the Social Development and Human Resources Department said villagers can still build to their own design, but the houses must come in under budget. (February 23, 2005)

 

Photo left
A house, built with donations for the Moken "sea gypsies", in Ban Thung Wa of Phang Nga's Takua Pa district.
This design, chosen by the Moken themselves, is the envy of other villagers who hate the pre-fabricated shophouses that they have been given after the tidal waves swept their homes away.

 

 

 

 

Friday, February 18, 2005

Missing millions probe to finish 'within 15 days'

PHUKET: Vice-Governor Supachai Yuwaboon has pledged that the commission set up after the theft of more than 2 million baht intended for tsunami victims will complete its investigation within 15 days.

The commission has already summoned two people for interview but, V/Gov Supachai said, "To be fair to everyone, we cannot give any more details until we have finished the investigation process."

The commission's primary role is to establish the facts surrounding the case, and its inquiry is separate from the criminal investigation being carried out by the police.

"[The task of] our commission is to investigate the theft of this money, but it's too early to say how many people we will want to talk to - that depends on the information we receive from elsewhere," said V/Gov Supachai.

The money - 2,050,000 baht in total - was reported missing from a safe in a strongroom at Phuket Provincial Hall on February 15, by the chief of Phuket Office for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), Metha Mekarat.

Only two people are believed to have had a key to the safe and the strongroom was under video surveillance. However, the police have yet to make an arrest.

The Deputy Commander of Phuket Provincial Police, Pol Col Kokiat Wongvorachart, told the Gazette the ODPM had asked for more time to re-check accounts relating to the money, which was part of the 45 million baht given to ODPM by the government for tsunami relief.

The chief investigator, Pol Lt Col Sian Keawthong, added that police had eight video surveillance tapes to view, and that it would take time to watch them thoroughly.

Visit Phuket Gazette for more news

A Thai academic ponders ...

" We can say that the "contractor business" is dominating our society including many Ministers. So we have to be cautious of not getting the contractor - politician nexus to be too mean. - about the way different kinds of people, affected by the tsunami, should live.   - I think I can say something like that."
This quote was posted Jan 10.

 

 

Feb 18

B18bn lent to tsunami business owners - so far

PHUKET: By the end of January the island's commercial banks had lent 18 billion baht to 660 Phuket individuals and businesses hit by the tsunami, the President of the Banks of Phuket Association, Somchai Pikulthong, has told the Gazette .

- a local in Phuket who sent us this article adds that the common folk who lost all are not in line for the loans

B2 billion tsunami memorial proposed  

  PHUKET CITY: On February 15 the Cabinet was due to consider a proposal to spend up to 2 billion baht on building a memorial to the victims of the December 26 tsunami.

  Plodprasop Suraswadi, Adviser to Deputy PM Suwat Liptapanlop, said that he would propose a dome with a high-tech "crystal" prism to display the names of known victims.

a local in Phuket who sent us these articles adds:
"people without house registrations (which is just about everyone) are denied assistance and the right to rebuild on land they have occupied for generations in many cases.

 

Letter from Fr Joe

Dear Everyone: - talking of the Thai Tsunami
 
"Hands on" stuff.  No smoke.  No mirrors.  If we didn't see, hear, taste, smell, touch, it ain't here. No second-hand reality. 

We hired a fabulous local lady living with AIDS to point us in the direction of those experiencing the hardest reality of all - people living with HIV/AIDS whose family and livelihood have been devastated by the Tsunami.

Our lady is twenty-six years old and widowed. Sixth grade education, five daughters, and always, still, the prettiest girl in her village. Her virus came from the only man in her life - from an arranged marriage when she was twenty. Her kids are almost okay: no HIV and smart in school, but sickly, always the first to catch any new germ.
 
She herself survived the three waves in spectacular fashion. On the beach at the time, selling trinkets to tourists with her in-laws and all five  kids, she stopped and watched the tide go out half a mile in three minutes and then suddenly, she told us, "it got all quiet." She stacked "her youngest four" on her old puttering motor scooter. Said she didn't dare look back for her nine year old with grandma and grandpa. Motor trouble, jumped off the bike, run it along to gain speed, restart the bike, and jump on again. The bike quit on her again, half way to high ground, but she and her kids, in-laws, everyone, made it up two  trees in time.

She's out of a job.  No tourists to buy her trinkets.  No construction work.  No motor scooter. Her shack escaped the brunt of the waves  (she's too poor to live in the higher rent beach area) but it was still damaged and later some vandals trashed it. She has no man to protect her.

The community leaders asked, "Can you help her? Can you help others like her?" so we have. Her five are back in school with new uniforms and books bags and pencils and shoes and sports uniforms and lunch money. We're also helping 20 other poor kids get back to that grammar school and 60 more in four neighboring village schools. We're working with school head masters and teachers on this.  They have chosen the neediest children and, quietly, the HIV/AIDS children. We double-check visit the children.  This support will be ongoing for one year. Plus we're supporting a handful of teachers with their salaries, the ones who are replacing teachers who died in the waves.

A Hundred Kilometers away, in a remote beach fishing village area, we are helping another 120 children.  Lots of HIV AIDS there.  These are really poor kids.

Ms Yao, the mom with the scooter who stayed just ahead of the wave to save her children - that's her name - has the smallest of the 26 houses we are helping to repair or rebuild in partnership with her slum village leaders. We also bought a water filter system as the ocean had "salted" the well for the village and the school. We cleaned the village well so the villagers once again have water to wash clothes and take a bath. Also we bought a serious water purification system for drinking water. Ms. Yao found a second hand scooter, we helped with that. Now she visits other folks and children with HIV/AIDS - quietly - provides outreach, and suggests whom we should help.

In another area where many folks have AIDS (about 10%), we're repairing the fishing boats of AIDS families - small one-man boats, eight meters long, about one meter wide, a long-tail engine, one man boat where the fisherman stands up and casts a net.  Plus new nets for those whose boats have been patched up. Plus repaired several boat engines.

Plus Public Address systems for 5 villages.  And a few boards and used five gallon buckets as make shift school benches.

Plus lots of Community Meetings – hours and days of listening and listening and listening.

And emergency aid, clothing, dry foods, powdered milk, and whatever else the community leaders together with our outreach community service and medical teams are finding lacking and necessary to make the people, their schools, and their community whole once again.

In short – a small quiet helping – hopefully the Redemptorist way. 

 Prayers Joe Maier C.Ss.R

 

 

Father Joe extends a helping hand

Father Joe Maier, the American priest renowned for his work with the poor in the slums of Bangkok, has got involved with humanitarian assistance for tsunami survivors.
The Redemptorist missionary, who has set up about 30 schools in the Klong Toei slums over the past 30 or so years, said yesterday his organisation – the Human Development Foundation – had received about Bt2 million in donations for communities in the South.
“People have said they would prefer to give money to us [the foundation] and for us to distribute it directly down there … to the kids, people with Aids, mums and babies, street kids, school kids and for education.
“We’ve had a school and community assistance team down there for a week. They have been to over 50 places and spoken to lots of people [to assess and address needs],” he said.
“Our [HIV] Aids team is also going to some remote villages. We’re helping people do paperwork so they can get government assistance.
“We are stressing remote villages – from Satun up to Ranong. And we’re taking our orders from the people. After all, they will be the ones who have to do everything once the military goes.”
A small chunk of the money will go toward a loudspeaker system in Baan Nam Khem – a small fishing village that was one of the hardest hit – “so they can communicate with each other”.
Father Joe, who set up one of Bangkok’s largest Aids clinics – the Mercy Centre – in Klong Toei, said he visited the region last week to get an impression of what needed to be done.
Meanwhile, the Law Society has sent a team of more than 20 lawyers to offer pro bono assistance.

From The Nation January 11, 2005

The Nation

Thai Authorities Efforts to Stop FOREIGNERS from "working" / helping ??

PHUKET: Foreign volunteers assisting in tsunami-related charity work are required to hold work permits, regardless of whether they are being paid for their efforts or not.

Sayan Chuaiyjan, head of the Phuket Provincial Employment Service Office [ESO], told the Gazette yesterday that there could be no exceptions and that his office would begin to enforce the regulations soon - possibly in March.

"There can be no exceptions. Work is work, even if it is for charity," he said.

He urged relief workers to apply for work permits, adding that those working for recognized charitable organizations would find them easy to obtain.

"They can just present a document certified by the charity organization they work for and we will issue them with work permits, then they will be able to work legally," he said.

He pointed out that any foreigner caught working with out a work permit is liable to hefty punishment.

"If our officers, police   officers or immigration police learn [of foreign volunteers] who don't have work permits, the maximum penalty is three years in jail, a 30,000 baht fine [or both]," he warned.

"We did not enforce this law too rigidly [in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami], because we knew that everyone wanted to help out.

"But now that the situation is returning to normal, we will have to start taking it more seriously," he said, adding that a crackdown could begin as early as next month.

Phuket Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit, who is charged with overseeing work permit procedures in the province, agreed with the ESO stance and said that the law needed to be enforced both in Phuket and throughout Thailand.

"Now that the post-tsunami relief operations are slowing down, they should have work permits to continue working. Otherwise, government officials will have no idea what they are actually doing here - and this could result in trouble in the future," he said this   morning.

Brought to you by:

The Phuket Gazette

 

Some friends in Phuket tells us foriegners are not only helping out, but standing up to many injustices in terms of LAND rights for fisher-folk

They also less tollereant of the CORRUPTION levels which are evident in Thailand.

This column appeared in the Bangkok Post on 27 January, 2005

Ask the tsunami-hit fisherfolk what they want and they promptly will tell you they just want their say. Dig a bit deeper, and they will tell you they want to start afresh as a community in which they can stand on their own two feet, and can turn to one another for support, not as individualists, to each his own.

"Our urgent need is to repair our boats and replace our lost fishing gear, so we can earn a living again, but we're not getting that," said Ahlee Charnnam of Krabi, echoing other fishermen's frustrations. They also want the state and private agencies to get their act together by coordinating their assistance efforts, instead of swamping them with endless form-filling, interviews and projects that often answer to the agencies' different agendas but not the villagers' real needs.

What they don't want, said the fisherfolk, is to see help from the outside destroy or divide their communities at a time when they most need to stick together. Money, they said, can be explosive when it is up for grabs. "For our part, we must get organized to identify our needs, our priorities, so we can best use the money to help one another," said Mr. Ahlee. "Also, all help coming to our villages must first get community consent. For help is not sustainable if those offering it do not heed our say."

Too bad the government and many private agencies never bother to ask. Consequently, the tsunami-hit fisherfolk are reeling under the weight of daddy-knows-best, top-down aid policies which are not only too little too late, but also destructive. Examples abound on the ground, they said, during a seminar on Monday [January 24, 2005] where the fisherfolk finally had a chance to voice their concerns to the public.

Despite the government's promises, many still have not received money to repair their boats, thanks to red tape and corrupt officials. For those who have, the amount is too nominal to help them set sail again.

Worse, they live in fear of relocation because the government wants to move fishing villages inland and open the beaches to tourism investment. The government is also going all out with house-building schemes, despite the fishermen repeatedly telling the authorities that they want boats and fishing gear, not oven-hot houses inland that do not suit their way of life.

Lack of coordination and chaos are understandable during emergencies. But a month has passed. The shock is subsiding. So are the public donations and the help from volunteers who must return to their normal lives. The challenge now is how to provide the affected villagers with support that lasts. "It's not that difficult to do if you listen to us," Mr. Ahlee said.

Apart from getting back their livelihoods and housing security, the fisherfolk want to restore the coastal environment which has been damaged so severely by the tsunami. Mangrove forests, for one, need rehabilitation because they are not only nurseries for marine life, but also effective tsunami barriers. Artificial coral reefs, they say, can help their seas return to good health sooner.

Sadly, these calls go unheeded as the fisherfolk - already bruised black and blue by the tsunami - must watch as trawlers [the big commercial fishing boats] with their destructive fishing gear ravage their seas illegally with impunity. Their hearts also bleed to know that many damaged trawlers will also get ready government assistance so they can return to sweep the coastal seas clean once more.

If they can earn a living and can keep their mangrove forests and the seas from harm, the communities could take care of most of their widows and the children affected by the tsunami, they said. "We may have lost our family members and our posessions, but we have not lost our life-long experience, our knowledge and our sense of community, which we want to keep," said fisherman Samae Jemudo. "We know what we want. The problem is how to make the government listen to us."

This column appeared in the Bangkok Post on 27 January, 2005

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