EDITORIAL: By BANGKOK POST- Apply law of the land to all

The case against Ms Pareena centres on an allegation that 1,700 rai of her land used for poultry farming in Ratchaburi province sits in a land-reform zone and a reserved forest area. Reform land, known as Sor Por Kor land, refers to plots granted by the state to landless and poor farmers for agriculture purposes, with each recipient allotted no more than 50 rai.

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The accusation against the MP prompted an on-site investigation by local officials from the Royal Forest Department (RFD) and Agricultural Land Reform Office (Alro) last week which initially concluded that the farm is located on 691 rai of land in which 46 rai encroached in a protected forest area.

Some have called for further investigation to locate more plots of her land. But what is worrying was her request for a new survey of the disputed area. Her PPRP colleague, Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Thamanat Prompow, who oversees the Agricultural Land Reform Office, on Tuesday agreed with her request and signalled that the disputed area could be considered Sor Por Kor land.

Under the land reform law, offenders are just evicted. But punishment for offences under a number of forest protection laws involve maximum imprisonment of between five to 15 years.

The new survey request is thus seen as a bid to have the disputed land reclassified as Sor Por Kor land to evade criminal charges under the forest protection law.

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But forest officers have so far insisted that their map used last week for the first survey is accurate and that there should not be a new survey at all. But they conducted a joint re-survey with some Almo officials yesterday. The RFD said it will conclude the case today.

But former RFD chief Damrong Pidech suspects that some influential figures in the government may be trying to help Ms Pareena get off the hook. If his suspicion is proved correct, it will be another case of double standards in law enforcement.

Since the 2014 coup, there have been about 25,000 forest encroachment cases filed by authorities as part of a forest reclamation policy invented by the now-defunct National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).

It is understood that the majority of cases involved the eviction of, or charges against, landless and poor forest dwellers who just used land they inherited from their ancestors who lived there for generations. They possessed no formal land title deeds because state land surveys in the past failed to cover remote areas prior to the state’s demarcation of them as part of national parks or protected forests.

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Land rights activists have pointed out that the NCPO’s forest reclamation policy has mainly targeted the poor while letting the rich get away with it.

While the policy is criticised for its harsh approaches and not recognising the poor’s historical land use, many wonder whether the same standard of law enforcement will be used against Ms Pareena. Therefore, officials must handle the case in a straightforward and transparent manner. It must not end up as another case of double standards.