Local News

Some interesting posts from Thai language Akara Facebook page.

1.

(I'll reword the Google translation a bit)
(From VoiceTV, a big news company)

'Sophon' sends information to the government indicating 89% of villagers around Akara gold mine want the mine to reopen
(Sophon being a prominent Thai academic)
.... ...
With 3 proposals: 1. To reopen the mine 2. to increase strict environmental surveillance, to avoid pollution and complaints from a minority of people and 3. in order for Thailand to include Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha, Prime Minister, does not have to pay a fine. If losing the case with the mine The government should extend the concession period for another 2-3 years from the original schedule. In order to compensate for the missing period of the mine closing order

I don't know if 'increasing the concession by 2-3 years' means to avoid paying compensation or not. The meaning didn't come through clearly. Extending the license alone doesn't help KCN recover their increased costs, lost income, startup costs, and increased risk.

The survey included 10-20% of the 20+ year olds in the area. 72% of respondents were 46 years old and over. 93% believe the environment has not improved since the mine closed, 7% believe it has.

89% want it to reopen, primarily for economic reasons. (Which is similar to the villager videos coming from the area, about how their business incomes are down and family had to leave the area)

In 2016, 78% wanted the mine to reopen. Now it's 89%.

2.

ThaiRath, another big news company is today promoting a special on Akara and Prayut's use of S.44. They say it'll be on from 3:30-4:25pm from the 16th-19th. It looks like it's showing the villagers in a positive light and Prayut in a negative light, so it's probably a story on how they want the mine to reopen. Like the ad for it shows some villagers saying 'my business was previously successful, but now it's very quiet'.

I'm surprised that it'll be a whole hour about Akara and the villagers. And 4 days?! Repeating it each day or a 4 part story, I don't know yet.


Notes.
Today and tomorrow, Prayut is announcing that the NCPO/junta will be disbanded now that the government is being sworn in and now that Thailand is 'fully democratic', HA! (Practically the entire junta is still in the government) So that should be the big news for a couple of days.

I'm expecting there may be a spike in media interest over the coming days in Akara, if the Thai Rath special is as big as it seems. Other news companies should follow suit. They may use this as an opportunity to bash Prayut, like showing off some of his failures on his first day in 'democratic' office.

So the villagers mostly want the mine to reopen, but that's probably only a small factor in the government's eyes. Compensation/court would be number 1 (avoiding embarrassment and avoiding paying, since they'll get tonnes of backlash if they have to pay), then in relation to reopening, they'll care more about the affect on their reputation and potentially getting retribution on the company, than the villagers' lives. If the population start to feel more sorry for the villagers, it could potentially change the government's plan. Political parties have been focused on populist policies recently, since the something like 20 party coalition are each competing for the limelight (to improve their future election chances). So they'll be wanting to look good on popular issues, which may have been one of the original reasons to close the mine - oops.

So I'll be keeping an eye out on the news/social media.