The government can let out a sigh of relief now that the Red Shirts have dispersed from Khao Yai Thiang and in so doing have cooled political temperatures.
Red jamboree: A woman greets the crowd from the stage during a protest by the Red Shirts in Khao Yai Thiang on Monday.
But the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship protesters have not actually packed their bags and gone home.
Instead, they are heading to Chanthaburi where, they claim, the influence of amartya thipathai (regime governed by aristocratic mandarins) has resulted in encroachment on another mountain peak, with land being grabbed unchecked for years.
The Khao Yai Thiang fiasco has put the normally reserved Privy Councillor Gen Surayud Chulanont on the defensive. He has so far refused to return to the Royal Forestry Department some 20 rai of land in a forest reserve overlooking the scenic Lam Takong reservoir in Nakhon Ratchasima province.
The land was intended for landless farmers under a 1975 cabinet resolution. But that principle apparently was abused, as the tracts changed hands and some were developed into resort properties.
The Red Shirts ran through a list of owners of the Khao Yai Thiang plots and stumbled upon the name of Gen Surayud. Their demand is that the former premier cough up the illegally occupied land and hand it back to the proper authorities at once.
The UDD has fired a fresh salvo not only at Gen Surayud but at the entire institution of the Privy Council. The movement loyal to ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has consistently attacked Privy Council President Gen Prem Tinsulanonda on account of his being the "chief amartya" on the council. Although there is no record of Gen Prem engaging in any land grab, the Red Shirts accuse him of links to alleged encroachment in forest reserves in Chanthaburi province.
Gen Prem is the honorary chairman of Bangkok Bank, said to be closely associated with the interests that invested in a golf resort on Khao Soy Dao in the eastern province. Private possession of the plot - as is the case with those on Khao Yai Thiang - is unlawful although the Red Shirts appear to have muddled through by holding only Gen Prem culpable in the Khao Soy Dao resort development.
The UDD is bent on whistle-blowing the "double standards" applied and the preferential treatment given to a certain crop of people.
The government, on the other hand, has been dealing with the red-shirt problems as they arise and can at best only control the damage, despite its struggle to thwart the pretexts for the UDD to rally.
A source close to Gen Surayud has affirmed the general will give up the Khao Yai Thiang plot as soon as the Royal Forestry Department sends him an official notification reclaiming the land.
The reported reassurance from Gen Surayud to return the land, however, did nothing to keep the Red Shirts from organising the rally on Khao Yai Thiang at the weekend, where they camped out for two days outside Gen Surayud's holiday home.
The Office of the Attorney-General explained that Gen Surayud is not legally accountable for purchasing the land originally owned by a Mr Bao Chanya in defiance of the cabinet resolution dated April 29, 1975. The resolution allowed farming on the land by landless individuals who are able to transfer the ownership to their children. The land, however, cannot be sold. But, as the prosecution determined, the buyers in this case are spared the consequences of the law because the April 29 resolution did not specify any legal punishment against violators.
That was how Gen Surayud escaped prosecution and why the Red Shirts were enraged. The Royal Forestry Department lessened the escalating tension after it announced it would get to the bottom of the Khao Yai Thiang saga by reviewing the ownership of every single plot of land there. The department said it would name a fact-finding panel within seven days of its receiving the prosecutors' view on the Surayud case. The ownership review is likely to extend over a period of two months. The arduous task is to examine all 400 plots on the mountain before it can be established which owners can continue farming and which must vacate. The illegal occupants will be given 60 days to dismantle any building on their plots.
According to the Forestry Department, the "problematic occupation" of forest land exists in 30 provinces. If all such occupants are to wind up with the same fate as Gen Surayud, where a reassessment of respective land ownerships must be carried out, an upheaval could ensue. Such trouble on a massive scale could trigger a major crisis for the government.
The government may choose to try to limit the land encroachment wrangle to Khao Yai Thiang, to prevent the matter from getting out of hand.
Declaring war on nationwide encroachers who are believed to hold more than 100,000 rai of land among themselves could be a losing battle for the government. Nonetheless, it realises it must call a spade a spade in screening out the Khao Yai Thiang occupants who are not qualified to pick a piece of the property in the first place.
The government knows the UDD is watching. A selective and discriminatory enforcement of the law against encroachers would give the movement fresh political ammunition to attack the privy councillors and the government.
The Red Shirts' retreat from Khao Yai Thiang is simply tactical. The UDD wants to muster enough vigour for a major rally in Bangkok later this month ahead of judgement day for Thaksin on Feb 26, when the Supreme Court will rule on whether or not to seize the 7.6-billion-baht assets of the ousted premier. According to the prosecutors, the assets were acquired through Thaksin's abuse of power while in office and the prosecution has pressed for their confiscation. If the verdict goes against Thaksin, the Red Shirts will not take it lying down.
Nattaya Chetchotiros is Assistant News Editor, Bangkok Post, and former President of the Thai Journalists Association.
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