The latest questionable development in the sad saga of Sirinat National Park in Phuket province raises serious and vexing issues. Among the most pertinent is the old paradox of "Who will watch the watchers?" The Royal Thai Navy has moved into the precious park on the pretext of providing security. But the threats to this little jewel of national land are not physical, and heavily armed military men provide no solution at all.
Sirinat is a small park, taking in just 60 square kilometres of seabed and 22 sq km on Phuket island. Its aesthetic value is priceless. But land agents, resort operators and government officials have put a different kind of value on the parkland. It is worth billions of baht. The problem of Sirinat is different from almost all other endangered national parks. Timber cutters and game poachers have no interest in the Phuket parkland.
The threat to Sirinat is clear and present. It is corruption. The park is on the Andaman coast, and only a short route march from the south end of the Phuket airport runway. It is already surrounded by resorts, hotels and businesses — most of them decidedly high-end and pulling in thousands of baht per day from each of their customers. Saying that land developers and business operators want to crowd ever closer to Sirinat National Park is like saying that children want another piece of candy.
The great "game" of Sirinat has been going on for years if not decades. There is no secret how it works. Corrupt businessmen first offer and hand over huge bribes to corrupt government officials of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants Conservation. These criminals then move to the Land Department, where papers are shuffled, money is again exchanged, and documents are produced showing the businessmen have bought legitimate private land that has been in private hands, legally, for years.
The prospective profits from a resort able to encroach on Sirinat National Park land run into the billions. Thus, even the initial steps of acquiring the land through illegal, obfuscating forgeries of land documents involve millions of baht.
The recent chief of Sirinat National Park, Cheewapap Cheewatham, asked to be reassigned far away from Phuket after reporting that a land developer offered him 30 million baht simply to start the illegal paperwork moving on the 300 rai of park land he wanted for his business. It must be noted again that this was just the beginning of the bribery operation.
It takes an honest official to penetrate this known but effective corruption network. And not just honest, but scrupulous and unafraid to face the kind of dirty officials and businesses willing to sell out the public's park for tens of millions of baht. A business group could do it, but even the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT), involving big corporates, has shied away from tackling large-scale graft within their own circles.
Now, the Royal Thai Navy has stepped in. It will deploy officers to protect park officials who, in turn, are working to save Sirinat National Park from the corrupt predators. This plan came from Gen Dapong Ratanasuwan, the military-appointed new minister of natural resources and environment. It is puzzling what the armed sailors can do to help.
Saving Sirinat will take a major effort by criminal investigators, backed with the full authority of the National Council for Peace and Order. Unless the ring of corruption is stopped, broken and prosecuted, the public will lose this precious jewel, and the military government will be blamed.