TAKING THE ENVIRONMENT’S TEMPERATURE
The Bangkok Post has always monitored the rise and fall of green concerns in Thailand,
The impact of environmental issues is vast, touching not only nature and society but also politics and economics. And no matter what direction the news has been heading, the Bangkok Post has been reporting these issues since the newspaper was launched in 1946.
In the early days, environmental news was taken as the reportage of daily events, updated by authorities. Take this small news item from Dec 10, 1946, with the lead “Turbine failure sparks fear of rolling blackout”. At the time, Bangkok was a small capital with only two power-generators in place.
When the breakdown of the turbine occurred and three months were required for spare parts to arrive, Bangkokians had to wait patiently and consume electricity only when necessary.
The Bangkok Post in its early days was quintessentially a city newspaper, responsive to the way of life of Bangkok denizens. Those urban dispatches capture the zeitgeist of post-war Thailand, showing that Bangkok and Thailand were rushing towards modernism.
A news report from May 28, 1951, headlined “New electric trams installed for city commuters”, portrayed Thailand as a pioneer of mass transit. New electric trams, according to the report, included weather-protected windows for the driver, louvre passenger windows with blinds, sliding doors, chrome handlebars and single-piece wooden benches. Most of the news consisted of success stories of modernisation during the era.
Water shortages and energy management have long been issues consistently covered by the paper.
A news story dated May 18, 1964, with the headline “Electricity rates will be less by October as a result of opening of Bhumibhol Dam”, was vivid proof that the country has long been committed to solving its hydropower problems.
There was also a dream unfulfilled, such as the plan by Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn, then prime minister, to dig a canal across the Kra Isthmus, joining the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea, as reflected on the front page on Jan 28, 1958.
The report said that foreign firms offered free canal development in exchange for mineral ores. However, the news also implied a national security issue arose about concerns the four southern Muslim-dominated provinces might attempt to separate themselves from Thailand. Since then, the project is still in the pipeline and has occasionally been revived by politicians, but still without success.
To achieve modernity means the old way of life must be gone. The front-page news on Feb 6, 1972, headlined “Canal dredgers force out city’s floating vendors”, signalled the end of the old way of life.
The headline “Last nine trams reach the end of the line” on Oct 10, 1968, echoed the victory of polluting individual cars over eco-friendly trams that had been in place for decades. The report poignantly defended the merit of a tram transport system.
“We always ran on our tracks. It’s the cars and buses that ran in our way, and forced us to stop,” a tram driver was quoted as saying in the news report.
Meanwhile, Bangkok was the first Asian city to use electric trams. With their abandonment in 1968, Thailand authorities are today putting forth an effort to reduce the number of cars on the roads and minimise air pollution, but obviously have failed — even though electric buses and trams are a true solution for creating sustainable transport.
Not until the 70s did the environmental news became more intense, when reports on illegal logging and worsening water quality and flooding frequently began appearing. Media including the
Post started asking questions about the price of modernity and city development. A report on May 3, 1979, “Sathon Road trees get the axe”, reflected the frustration of city dwellers after trees or even spirit houses along the road — including communities in Sathon area — were decimated for bridge and road development. One emotional resident described treeless Sathon Road as the outcome of “Bangkok’s very own holocaust”.
However, the most historic environmental news from this era seems to be the report in 1973 about the fatal accident involving a military helicopter that crashed into the Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, killing six high-ranking police and military officers. The report on May 1, headlined “Copter crash scandal: Victims slaughtered protected game”, unveiled the military’s brazen arrogance. The media relentlessly pursued the scandal and found that more than 50 officers were involved in the four-day hunting trip in Kanchanaburi. The report claimed these hunters cooked and ate hunted animals at parties.
The military refused to concede. PM Thanom was quoted on the front page of May 2, 1973, insisting the case was a “secret mission” and officials or an “agent” involved may have used the hunting trip as a ploy to guard the true nature of the assignment. The scandal enraged public and funnelled resistance to an arrogant military government. The report on the illegal hunt was an important pretext to the historic political uprising of Oct 14, 1973.
It could be said that in the 80s society became more democratic and aware of the environment. The
Post never missed a chance to tell the inspiring tale of environmental activism.
On the front page of March 22, 1988, under the headline “Students decry dam decision”, it was reported that the government decided to scrap the Nam Chon Dam project after a mass protest by civic groups. This was the first victory for protesters against government-initiated projects.
“We don’t want this Frankenstein to be resurrected from the grave. We want it to rest in peace forever,” said conservationist Siripong Sawalakpong.
The mass protest undermined the stability of the government, and PM Prem Tinsulanonda was warned that the issue could bring the government to an end.
But no environmental news has shocked the whole country like the tragic news of Seub Nakhasathien, the wildlife sanctuary chief who committed suicide on Sept 1, 1990, to protest about the country’s dysfunctional bureaucracy. The Post paid tribute to his committed work and lifelong devotion with an entire-page obituary titled “Tragic guardian of the forests” on Sept 6. Seub’s untimely death jump-started environmental activism in Thailand that is continuing still.
Environmental news is not just about nature but the lives of people affected by it. To make sure the voices of marginalised villagers are heard, the Post always addresses smaller stories such as that of villagers’ protests on Nov 27, 1994, headlined “600 protesters seize Pak Moon Dam”. Or “Gas pipeline project stirs activists”, dated April 5, 1997, about a mass protest against the Yanada Gas Pipeline Project being developed by the Petroleum Authority of Thailand.
The stories of activists are also uplifting, such as the dispatches of September 2013 when Sasin Chalermlarp, a veteran environmentalist and president of the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation, began his 338-kilometre walk to protest about the state’s plan to build a dam in Mae Wong National Park.
It’s noteworthy that many environmental issues and cases are not short-term but took a decade or more to follow up on. The Post started to report on air pollution from the Mae Moh coal-fired power plants in Lampang in January 1994. The case lasted for almost two decades and culminated in lawsuits filed by health-suffering villagers. On Feb 25, 2015, the case finally came to an end, with a news report stating “Egat loses Mae Moh pollution lawsuit”.
Karen villagers in Kanchanaburi have faced lead contamination in the river running through Klity village since 1998. That problem has not yet been resolved and villagers have sought justice through the courts, with the Post following up all along. On the front page of Jan 11, 2013, the headline read “Lead contamination victims win historic B4m”. The actual clean-up, meanwhile, only started this year and the Post will continue to pursue the case, however long it takes.
Throughout 70 years of environmental reporting, one thing obviously in evidence is that nothing much has improved. The cutting down of trees has continued just like in the 50s, while villagers have been left to fight government-initiated megaprojects. No matter how often history repeats itself, the
Post will continue to record that history as it happens and make sure the truth is told.