Group demands immediate attention
Yingluck must 'keep her promise to hear complaints of affected people'
The People Movement for a Just Society (P-Move) is demanding that the government agree to hold an official negotiation session with it to address its members’ grievances.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra should preside over the negotiation as she promised last October, a statement released by the P-Move said yesterday.
“We will give the government three days to respond,” the statement said. “This government’s development projects and policies have been hurting us.”
P-Move has been complaining about several issues, including landlessness and adverse impacts from dams, and the members began rallying outside Government House yesterday demanding a response.
Many members tried to get into the complex to submit their petitions but were denied entrance. They were asked to wait outside the gates for officials to come out and accept their petitions. While waiting, some demonstrators started banging the gates to pressure relevant officials to act fast, however tensions rose when a Lamphun resident cut his thumb. Officials immediately rushed him to a nearby hospital for treatment.
PM’s deputy secretary-general Suporn Attawong met the demonstrators briefly yesterday. He also met Democrat MPs and farmers to accept a petition related to the dropping prices of oil palm and rubber.
Democrat deputy leader Thavorn Senneam said that when his party was leading the government, the price of rubber stood at between Bt120 and Bt195 per kilo.
“But now, the price has fallen to between Bt65 and Bt70 per kg,” he said, adding at the price of oil palm has also dropped from Bt10.5 per kg to just Bt2.6.
Thavorn said he hoped the government would take action or seek advice from his team within 15 days.
“Otherwise, a pile of oil palm or its sap may suddenly appear outside Government House or the prime minister’s residence,” he said.
Democrat MP Wittaya Kaewparadai said he had contacted the Agriculture Ministry earlier and the ministry had promised to have a relevant minister on hand to meet the palm and rubber farmers.
“But nobody showed up,” he complained, suggesting that if the government did not treat affected people with respect, it would likely face a lot of pressure.
