Artist couple continues energy march 'symbolically'
The coverage reminds me of the nursery rhyme Ten little niggers, with the repeated line 'Then there were…'.
In the first report about the energy march of the Partnership of Energy Reform, which the army brutally put an end to - because in violation of martial law - there were twenty participants, in the second report it had already shrunk to fifteen and today in the In the third report, the newspaper reports that eleven activists have been arrested.
They wanted to hold a 950 km walking march from Songkhla to Bangkok to draw attention to energy policy with the wishes [demands?], among other things: no coal-fired power plants and more emphasis on sustainable energy. They left on Tuesday, and on Wednesday afternoon they were taken to an army base in a military bus.
An artist couple has now taken over with a symbolic march to Bangkok, as Suporn Wongmek and Thankamol Issara walk from Rattaphum, a district of Songkhla, to their hometown in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Yesterday morning Suporn took the first steps on the Asian Highway with Thankamol in the car behind him. “We have been calling for energy reforms for a long time, but policymakers never listen,” Thankamol explains their action.
Apparently she is not afraid of being stopped by the army like the others. We have the right to walk on public roads. We're not doing anything wrong.' And she is formally right, because martial law prohibits political gatherings of five people or more (on the basis of which the eleven were arrested) and there are two of them. They have not encountered the army yet; well the police. As they approached Phatthalung, officers asked why they were walking and took pictures of them.
Thankamol says many people struggle with the high cost of living, especially the price of gasoline and butane gas. The Partnership of Energy Reform (PER) blames the high price of petrol on the government's inability to control prices.
The energy resources in the Gulf of Thailand and in the North and Northeast have been sold off to investors. The group demands one production sharing system, in which investors are only entitled to a share of the production or proceeds from the sale of oil and gas.
A source at PER says the group will review its strategy to avoid new arrests. The Network of Southern Academics for Society and Community Organization says the detention of the eleven violates their fundamental rights. The network demands that the military release them and stop threatening PER members. National Human Rights Commission Commissioner Parinya Sirisarakarn warns the military of more protests when martial law is lifted. But that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.
(Source: bangkok mail, August 22st 2014)
Earlier messages:
Army puts a stop to energy march
News from Thailand – August 20, 2014