The unsolved murder of Peera Tantiserane, the mayor of Songkhla municipality, has brought into focus the perennial clashes between environmental concerns and development projects in local politics that often end in violence.
Peera, who was gunned down on Nov 7 last year, was known for his efforts to protect the environment in Songkhla, which often drew ire from local business interests. The last controversy he was involved with was his opposition to a cable car project which would link Songkhla's scenic Son-on Cape with tambon Hua Khao Daeng on the other side of Songkhla Lake.
The project, initiated by the Songkhla Provincial Administration with an initial budget of nearly 500 million baht, was strongly opposed by many in Songkhla and by Peera. They were worried the project would undermine the pristine beauty of the 459-rai natural pine forest at Son-on Cape.
Peera had made it clear he wanted to conserve the pine forest and turn the cape into a nature park for the public and not allow the cable car project to go ahead. As well as this pine forest preservation plan, Peera had been vocal about several other environmentally unfriendly construction projects and others tainted by graft and cronyism. One of them was an old fishing pier which brought the Songkhla Provincial Administration Organisation (PAO) heavy criticism for leasing it at an unreasonably low rate.
Following Peera's brutal murder, civic groups petitioned the Administrative Court to temporarily suspend electronic bidding on the cable car project on Dec 20.
Despite this setback, the Songkhla PAO still went ahead with another development project at the Son-on Cape. On Dec 28, it organised a lavish ceremony to launch the Miracle of Life Foundation's development plan for the scenic spot.
Uthis Chuchuay, the PAO president, reportedly revealed that the project was the initiative of the Miracle of Life Foundation under the royal patronage of Princess Ubolratana. It involves providing the Songkhla community with a complex that would include a rescue unit, a hospital, a foundation co-ordination centre and an open-air theatre. It is suspected the project, covering some 170 rai, would encroach on part of the pine forest.
Since the public were still unclear over the exact location of the development, the foundation decided to explain that its had nothing to do with the controversial cable car project. And that the land earmarked for development would be leased from the Treasury Department.
Although the PAO president has promised to announce a clear demarcation of the areas designated for the cable car and the foundation's community project, many civic groups still feel that the whole of Son-on Cape and its natural pine forests should first and foremost be preserved as a nature park and the "lung" of Songkhla.
There is no doubt that the development project by the Miracle of Life Foundation would be beneficial to people in Songkhla, but provincial authorities should be able to find the foundation another and more appropriate site than this controversial area.
Civic group have also petitioned the foundation to stop its Son-on Cape project.
The Son-on Cape nature park project initiated by the late mayor has already received a budget approval of 15 million baht and there is no reason to stall efforts to preserve the city's green lung.
What happened to Peera highlights the conflicts between development and conservation that are also occurring elsewhere in the country.
He is not the first local politician who has met an untimely death for confronting and standing up to local godfathers. And he won't be the last.
To bring transparency and accountability to local politics, the police must prove that the law still works so that justice will be done.
Banjong Nasae is chairman of the Thai Sea Watch Association based in Songkhla province.