Thousands rally against Thai-Malaysia gas pipeline
Date: 04-Sep-02
Country: THAILAND
Author: Nopporn Wong-Anan
Protests have already delayed the project for two years and forced the Thai government to change its proposed route. Some 2,000 protesters gathered in the town of Chana yesterday to try to get the pipeline cancelled altogether.
But many locals paid little attention - most of the protesters were members of a nationwide network of activists - and the government has insisted the project will go ahead.
The Trans-Thai Malaysia 366-km (230-mile) gas pipeline is due to bring gas from the Gulf of Thailand onshore to southern Thailand and on to Kedah state in northern Malaysia.
The gas was originally due to start flowing in the third quarter of this year, but construction was delayed by fierce opposition from environmentalists.
The Thai government decided in May to re-route the pipeline five km (three miles) from the planned site to lessen opposition, and has mounted a public relations campaign to promote the plan.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra insisted last week that construction of the pipeline would go ahead despite opposition from the environmentalists.
But protesters said at the rally yesterday that Thailand would not benefit from the gas as much as Malaysia, and would face painful environmental damage.
"The project has been pushed forward through illegitimate and unconstitutional means," Rofiah Manlah, a protest leader from Chana, told a cheering crowd wearing red T-shirts and waving red flags and banners in front of the town hall in Chana.
"It has never been debated by the general public or gone through a proper environmental impact study."
Protesters urged the government to at least delay the project for proper studies of the environmental impact.
Thaksin, who promised to accelerate the construction of the pipeline after meeting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Bangkok in July, said last Wednesday that Thailand's state-run PTT Plc and Malaysia's Petronas were still trying to find a site for their proposed gas separation plant.
PTT and Petronas hold equal stakes in Trans Thai-Malaysia Co (TTM), the developer of the pipeline and separation plant scheme.
Thailand's Human Rights Commission and a committee of the country's upper house parliament, the Senate, last week called on the government to delay the project for more public hearings and an in-depth environmental study.
