2 days ago
Crunch time for Phumtham
New interior minister, and current acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, is a man who can make tough decisions. His recent record includes the decision to return Uyghurs to China early this year, as demanded by Beijing. Last month, he approved a long-delayed, controversial submarine procurement from China -- a call that even junta leader-cum-prime minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha shied away from.
True to form, Mr Phumtham started his first week at the ministry by transferring two director-generals at the Department of Provincial Administration and the Department of Local Administration -- strategic bodies directly involved with local voters and administration.
Yet, Mr Phumtham will be judged on how he handles two controversial land issues. The first is land encroachment in Kao Kradong; the other is a scandal at the Alpine Golf Course.
Last Monday, Mr Phumtham announced a committee would investigate the long-standing Khao Kradong dispute in Buri Ram province, which involves state-owned land allegedly overlapping property linked to the influential Chidchob family.
The dispute, which spans over 50 years, centres on 5,083 rai in a designated forest conservation zone. The Supreme Court ruled the land belonged to the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) prior to the issuance of land title deeds by the Department of Lands (DoL), and that those deeds were unlawful and must be revoked.
The DoL had previously decided not to revoke 900 deeds, including 20 linked to the influential Chidchob family, key players behind the Bhumjaithai Party (BJT).
The Kao Kradong issue is believed by most people to be a clash between Pheu Thai and the BJT. In January, former deputy interior minister Chada Thaiseth, a BJT lawmaker, signed an order to revoke the Shinawatra family's ownership of the Alpine Golf and Sports Club and an adjacent residential complex in Klong Luang district of Pathum Thani. This reversed an earlier court ruling that the land belonged to a Buddhist temple and therefore could not be sold.
The Alpine Golf Course is a long-running scandal centring on the sale of 924 rai of land in Pathum Thani belonging to Wat Dhammamikaramvoraviharn to Alpine Real Estate and Alpine Golf and Sport Club in 2002. Both companies are linked to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his daughter, the current suspended prime minister, Paetongtarn.
Originally, the land plot was donated by a widow, Noem Chamnanchartsakda, to Wat Dhammamikaramvoraviharn. After her death, the Mahamongkut Ratcha Wittayalai Foundation, which oversees the property on the late widow's behalf, sold plots to politicians. In 2002, the land was sold to Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra, four years before her then husband Thaksin became prime minister. The Shinawatras then developed the golf course and residential properties on it.
In April, following the ruling against them, the Shinawatra Family sued the Ministry of Interior and the Land Department for revoking the land, seeking 7.7 billion baht in compensation.
The spotlight is now on Mr Phumtham. Of course, he deserves praise for tackling the Kao Kradong dispute, but with his newly elevated status, he will be expected to adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards in his handling of the Alpine Golf Course affair. If any doubts over his scruples remain afterwards, Mr Phumtham risks being remembered as a politician who flunked the defining moment of his career to curry political favour for his party and his (suspended) boss.
