If Sunday’s decision regarding the controversial residential estate for judges on Doi Suthep mountains in Chiang Mai proves to be final, it will represent a lesson learned — that forestry resource management is badly in need of revision.

Suwaphan Tanyuvardha, minister attached to the Prime Min-ister’s Office, announced that a deal had been reached with a citizens’ network protesting the encroachment into prized forestland. It was agreed that the 147-rai site, where most of the homes have already been erected, would be returned to the finance ministry’s treasury department. What hasn’t yet been determined is the fate of the houses and condominiums there. The minister could only say that construction would be completed, but no one would be allowed to occupy the residences.

Chiang Mai residents objecting to the project expressed satisfaction with the outcome, but in vowing to monitor implementation of the agreement, implied they don’t fully trust the authorities. They have been at loggerheads with the administrators of Court of Appeals Region 5 ever since the existence of the 45 houses and other buildings on Doi Suthep — widely regarded as a sacred mountain — first emerged.

The controversy garnered national publicity, prompting Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to put Suwaphan in charge of finding a solution. Opponents staged a series of protests to vent their anger at the perceived misuse of protected forestland and the allocation of Baht one billion of taxpayers’ money to develop the site. The Court Region’s claims that the site is state property and the project entirely lawful failed to assuage critics.

Sunday’s deal eased tensions, but this is unlikely to be the end of the story. The fate of the structures and of the forestland stripped bare to make way for them has yet to be determined, and new homes needs to be found for the judges promised their own residential community.

The government will have to demonstrate its belief in the importance of citizen participation by calling public hearings, if only in regard to forest rehabilitation plans. Comprehensive measures should be mapped out accordingly to make sure everyone’s best interests are being met, which includes preserving the woodland as part of the national heritage.

Suwaphan said the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry would take the lead in this, and soldiers of the Chiang Mai-based 33rd Military Circle would begin planting new trees at the site on May 27, Visaka Bucha Day.

The public further expects clear answers about how tax money came to be used to erect luxury homes for the judiciary and what will happen to the structures now. Someone needs to step forward and bear responsibility for costing the country a billion baht.

Even if we accept that the project proceeded lawfully, we cannot accept that the authorities went ahead without first seeking public opinion or even informing the public in advance. Public hearings should be a basic requirement for all projects of this kind, and by this we mean genuine public hearings, not rigged assemblies of citizens where voices and votes don’t count.

Moreover, senior officials have to stop defending their failures by saying previous administrations did the same or were to blame for problem now at hand. We need to prevent such situations from recurring, not passing the guilt and the greed forward or backward.—The Nation / Thailand

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2018