THAILAND: NO STANDARDS WHEN IT COMES TO "OWNING"

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 000207

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS, NSC FOR WALTON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2020
TAGS: PREL PGOV TH
SUBJECT: THAILAND: NO STANDARDS WHEN IT COMES TO "OWNING"
RESTRICTED LAND

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Classified By: DCM JAMES F. ENTWISTLE, REASON 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (U) Summary: In recent weeks, the United Front for
Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD, or "red-shirts") has
targeted Privy Councilors Surayud Chulanon and Prem
Tinsulanonda and their alleged encroachment on protected
national parks to highlight the issue of illegal land
holdings in Thailand, called attention to UDD claims of
judicial "double standards," and fired another shot against
the "elite" they seek to cut down to size. While Surayud
threw in the towel after the Forestry Department ruled
against him, giving up his house, it is becoming increasingly
clear that Prem and Surayud are not the only former Prime
Ministers or members of the Thai establishment who have
benefited from lax land registry standards in recent decades.
Indeed, two political patrons of the red movement, current
Puea Thai chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyut and fugitive former
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, both have been accused of
similarly shady land deals in the past. The problem is
actually much wider than that, potentially involving tens of
thousands of Thai of various social standings and political
affiliations.


2. (C) Comment: Ironically, the first official complaint
about Surayud's land holding came not from the red-shirts but
by one of the political figures behind the yellow-shirt
movement, Prasong Sunsiri, who raised the issue in 2007 in
the interim National Assembly when Surayud served as interim
premier. One characteristic which both yellow-shirts and
red-shirts share is a stated aversion to politics as usual,
and Surayud clearly misread the changing reality of politics
in Thailand and the loss of legitimacy in the public eye such
scrutiny could entail, both personally and to the institution
he serves as Privy Councilor - the monarchy. However, while
the red-shirts might well score some tactical victories by
drawing attention to the cushy land deals of the "amart" (a
Thai term perhaps best translated as "aristocratic
bureaucratic elite," used by the UDD to refer specifically to
the Privy Council and others around the institution of
monarchy),the illegal land use issue cuts both ways, and
more. "No standards" rather than "double standards" appears
to be the most appropriate characterization. Given the scale
of the problem, a systemic solution/overhaul of land registry
system would seem to be the answer, but does not seem likely
in the short term. End Summary and Comment.

SURAYUD AS TEST CASE, PREM ALSO A TARGET
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3. (U) The red-shirts kicked off 2010 by shining a bright
public spotlight on former Prime Minister and current member
of the Privy Council Gen. Surayud and his vacation home
inside Khao Yai Tieng National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima
Province. In 2007, state authorities had dismissed a
complaint that Surayud's property encroached on protected
forest land; prosecutors said at the time that Surayud did
not mean to break the law when he acquired the land. The
Thai Government in 1975 had passed a resolution granting
15-rai (5.9 acre) plots of land in the park to local
villagers on the condition that they were not allowed to sell
the land; it could only be passed to legal heirs. The land
had changed hands twice before Surayud acquired it in 2002,
and he allegedly had 22 rai (8.6 acres) of land, according to
media reports.


4. (U) The UDD protested in front of Surayud's vacation home
on January 11. They also rallied at Government House on
January 20, demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva
take legal action against Surayud for trespassing. Their
efforts paid off when the Forest Department ruled on January
20 that Surayud was not authorized to occupy the land and had
30 days to return the land. Surayud had insisted that he
would vacate the property only if compelled by the proper
authorities. Two days after the Forestry Department ruling,
he did so.


5. (U) Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda was also the
subject of red-shirt protests January 23-24 as a result of
his affiliation with a golf course controlled by Bangkok Bank

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(Prem is on the board) that his opponents said encroached on
forest land on the Khao Soi Dao forest preserve.

THAKSIN, CHAVALIT NOT INNOCENT EITHER
--------------


6. (SBU) As it turns out, the red-shirts could have held
similar protests against their chief political sponsor,
Thaksin, and the chair of their affiliated Puea Thai party,
GEN Chavalit. Some commentators suggested the red-shirt
action against Surayud was tit-for-tat retaliation for
Democrat actions against Thaksin and his controversial
ownership stake in the Alpine Golf and Sports Club in Pathum
Thani Province. The original owner granted the land to a
Buddhist monastery in her will; the monastery could not
afford the property tax, however, and transferred the land to
a foundation. Sanoh Thienthong, current head of the
Pracharaj Party but former member of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai
party, then purchased the land from the foundation in 1990
when he was the Deputy Interior Minister and built the golf
course.


7. (SBU) Thaksin subsequently acquired the land from Sanoh
before he became prime minister. The Council of State ruled
in 2001 that the land belonged to the monastery, however, and
the private ownership should be nullified. With Thaksin in
control of relevant bodies (one of the key officials who
squelched the finding was none other than Somchai Wongsawat,
Thaksin's brother-in-law and briefly PM in 2008),the issue
then fell off the public radar until mid-2009. A group of
Democrat parliamentarians petitioned PM Abhisit to look into
the ownership question, and the Department of Land reportedly
submitted a letter last September requesting the Council of
State ruling be upheld.


8. (SBU) Current head of the opposition Puea Thai and former
Prime Minister (and army chief) Chavalit is reputed to have
built a number of houses on restricted land across Thailand
during his tenures as Army Chief and Prime Minister. During
a 2002 trip to Songkhla province, a local Thai contact
pointed out a solitary house built on an otherwise untouched
green mountainside in a restricted area; Chavalit had ordered
active-duty engineering troops to cut a special road to his
house, further damaging the reserve, our contact grumbled.

POTENTIALLY UNLEASHING A FLOOD
--------------


9. (SBU) Issues of illegal land ownership are not confined to
just the two primary sides of Thailand's fractious political
scene. Dr. Krasae Chanawongse, a former Foreign Minister and
Health Minister and lifelong rural development activist, told
us January 20 that in Thailand, as in many developing
countries, land ownership was often not clearly defined. Dr.
Krasae suggested there were local elites in all corners of
the country, in every province, in similar situations.
Resolution of the underlying issue should force a systemic
rethink of land ownership concepts across Thailand, he said.


9. (SBU) Tellingly, of the 237 plots in Khao Yai Tieng
originally allocated in 1977, only two remained in the hands
of the original qualified owners, according to Forestry
Deputy Director-General Chonlathit Surasawadee, a stunning 99
percent turnover rate. It is not just politically connected
elites and former generals involved in such deals. Several
members of the media in the northeastern province of Khon
Kaen told us January 20 "that even journalists" held similar
properties and could be affected by any sweeping changes to
land ownership regulations and enforcement introduced as a
result of these protests. An unnamed lawyer told the Bangkok
press that all of Thailand's jails would not be sufficient to
detain the offenders if all cases of illegal occupation of
land in situations similar to Surayud's were prosecuted;
another media estimate put the number of land owners involved
at over 100,000.
JOHN