P-Move optimistic after Government House talks
LAND RIGHTS protesters said yesterday that they are satisfied with the government’s measures to solve their problems, as the Cabinet had heeded their demands and ordered related ministries to push mitigation measures.
Hundreds of demonstrators from the People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-Move), who are victims of land rights problems across the nation, marched from their former rally site at the Finance Ministry to Government House on the ninth day of their protest yesterday. They were there to monitor the outcome of a meeting between P-Move representatives and government officials to discuss the protesters’ demands.
The 35 leading members of P-Move were invited to Government House to discuss what they claim are rights deprivations and unjust official policies, with a committee tasked with finding solutions, which is being chaired by the Minister Attached to the PM’s Office Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana.
Prayong Doklamyai, an adviser to P-Move, said that the results of the meeting were satisfactory. It was the first time that the problems of poor and marginalised citizens from the movement were brought to a Cabinet meeting, he said, adding that a Cabinet resolution ordered clear plans and mitigation measures be implemented.
“The stance of Minister Suwaphan towards our movement and demands was friendly,” he said, “as he even ordered the reconsideration of problematic policies such as forest reclamation, and offered swift remedies for the people affected by the creation of special economic zones in Tak province’s Mae Sot district.”.
However, he added that the protesters would extend their stay in the capital to make sure that the government kept its promise.
Suwaphan assured those at the meeting that every problem identified by the P-Move network was currently in the process of being mitigated. The Cabinet led by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha was brought up to speed at its meeting in Buri Ram last Tuesday on all of the major problems that the group had campaigned on.
P-Move has asked for swift solutions on six issues: unjust law enforcement against poor people, biased implementation of forest reclamation policy, laws allowing deforestation to open new lands for industrial expansion, allowing 99-year land leases to foreigners, lack of recognition of communal rights to manage local natural resources, and the inefficiency of official mechanisms in solving poor people’s problems.
“The Cabinet resolution from last Tuesday includes an official process to solve all P-Move’s problems, with ministers of relevant ministries ordered to rush the mitigation measures for each problem,” Suwaphan said.