People should be given deeds for their land

As a farang, I have resided in northernmost Thailand for nearly 20 years. All round Chiang Rai, are tens (perhaps hundreds) of thousands of small parcels of land with farms and houses which don’t have chanod (title). You could talk to five people and get five different answers why not. If you ask me, I’d say it’s because the Land Department heads are lazy.  As bureaucrats, they do as little as humanly possible, to get a pay cheque each week. Those houses and farms should be given title.  The alternative: those tens of thousands of families continue to reside (many generations) on properties with no title. The government is not doing its job, which is to serve the people who pay their salaries.

As much as anyone in Thailand, I love the idea of protected forests and parks situated throughout Thailand.  However, just because vast tracts of residential properties are not titled, should not automatically mean those properties belong to the forest service. People need places to reside, particularly in towns where there are many houses and shops already built, some of those having been there for generations. Just because bureaucrats have been lazy or remiss in doing their jobs (granting chanod) for decades, should not be reason for government to take possession of those many parcels of land.  

For large tracts, particularly those owned by absentee VIPs based in Bangkok – that’s a different scenario. Each should be looked at individually to gauge their veracity.

Kip Keino

Chiang Rai