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The Saga of Laem Pom

Posted by Clay on July 19, 2005 at 4:07 am |

Imagine for a moment that a freak wave comes through your neighborhood and destroys your house and all of your possessions, killing many of your friends, neighbors, and relatives. As the chaos of the destruction begins to settle, imagine that the mafia comes to your neighborhood in the middle of the night and puts up a fence around your property, claiming it as their own. Imagine that, two years earlier, the mafia had come through during the middle of the night and buried the remnants of a house and restaurant near your property, without any explanation. What you have is the beginning of the story of Laem Pom beach, near Ban Nam Kaem, Thailand.

The Laem Pom construction site is one that neither Alexis nor I have worked with, yet its story is one of the most interesting in the area. The houses that stood near Laem Pom beach were remnants of a tin mining settlement that closed its doors over thirty years ago. When the mining company left the area, some of the families that worked the pit mines stayed put and switched to other occupations (mainly fishing) to support themselves.

Thai property laws are strange. While I’m am unclear on the precise terms, squatters have rights in Thailand. The residents of Laem Pom village, after the mining company withdrew, gained titled property rights several years later. However, since they were living on ecologically devastated land (from the mining) that was undesirable and since many of the families lacked the knowledge of the workings of the Thai property-rights system, none of the families ever filed the paperwork to get the deed to their property.

It was several years ago that a company affiliated with a branch of the Thai mafia decided that Laem Pom would make a perfect site for a 5-star resort and golf course. The pit mines had already speckled the land with small ponds, so minimal landscaping would be needed to transform the area into a resort. The burying of the house was an attempt by the mafia to create a legal claim to the land, circumventing the squatters’ rights of the villagers to the property.

After the tsunami, the mafia began serious harassment of the villagers in Laem Pom. It was only through the determination of a woman by the name of P. Daeng that the surviving members of the village decided to move back onto their land and claim it as their own. By this point, the mafia had set up shop on the adjacent land and was determined to take it as their own. The problems began to grow.

At first, members of the mafia harassed the locals during the daylight, scaring them away with baseball bats and shotguns. They placed fencing around the land they wanted and posted signs claiming ownership. Complicating the issue was the fact that there was nothing but foundations remaining from the houses that once stood there. Everything — walls, furniture, clothing, etc — had been swept away by the tsunami. The villagers had nothing to prove that the land was their own.

Then, the mafia began to pay off the local officials and businesses. The maintain a presence in the village through a few homes that they own. The residents of those homes (which were built very quickly after the tsunami) sleep during the day and harass the villagers by night. The power company ran electricity to those homes, but refuses to run it to the homes of the villagers. All of the construction work ongoing there that requires power requires a generator. Once, when trying to build a drainage line across the poorly maintained dirt road that runs through the village, the police arrived immediately to inform the workers that they were not allowed to tamper with the road.

To prove a point regarding the village, several of the tsunami survivors staged a press conference whereupon they dug up the ‘remains’ of the restaurant that the mafia had buried there earlier. The increasing press coverage and the presence of the international volunteers (who are helping with house reconstruction) have forced the mafia to harass during the night. None of the local equipment companies will agree to rent heavy equipment to the construction effort at Laem Pom. Yet, ironically, the Thai military is constructing new houses on the other side of the street. Laem Pom is officially ignored.

The case has gone to the Thai courts. Efforts of the Tsunami Volunteer Center are focused on rebuilding 35 of the homes that were destroyed before the courts hear the case at the beginning of September. The hope is that the presence of the homes on the land will strengthen the case of the villagers to their land. Unfortunately, the strength and coercive tactics of the mafia may be able to buy the verdict from the court, leaving the villagers to watch as their new houses are razed.

P. Daeng spoke at our weekly volunteer meeting last night. She spoke of how none of the Laem Pom villagers could even conceive of going on before the Tsunami Volunteer Center stepped in to spearhead the rebuilding efforts. In her speech she thanked Sam, the project leader of the Laem Pom project, for all of the time and effort that he has dedicated to the village and its surviving members. P. Daeng keeps her head high, and through her enthusiasm and determination she leads the members of the Laem Pom village each day.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of Laem Pom. What I remember most from my visits to the area are the huge mounds of tsunami rubble that have yet to be removed from the property. The construction companies will not come onto the property to take it away. The Thai army, with a huge operation right across the street, will not cross the road to help the Laem Pom villagers.

Alexis works at Tap Tawaan, the construction site closest to Laem Pom. I visited her during work the other day, to get some video and pictures of her construction skills in action. While there, I got a picture of the house that she was working on with the owner standing in front. I also got a group photo of Alexis with the other members of her construction team and the owner of the house.

Each village has a unique story. They were all utterly devestated. Many of them are now on the path to partial recovery, thanks in large part to the construction efforts of teams like the one that Alexis works with.

While our time in Khao Lak has been frustrating, on occassion, I think that both Alexis and I have managed to retain the perspective necessary to understand why we are here, who we are helping, and the serious level of the need in the area. The Thai government and many of the local resorts that will be functioning this upcoming tourist season (November - April) would like for people to think that everything is okay here. On one level it is. The resilience of the Thai people in Khao Lak has brought to the area a sense of hope that guides them forward everyday. The presence of the volunteers has increased the capacity of ongoing construction efforts and allowed villagers, like those in Laem Pom, to gather their remaining posessions and press forward.

However, as our time here begins to wind to a close, neither one of us could even imagine saying that things here are ‘okay.’ Sure, they are improving. We are glad that are able to be a part of that. But Khao Lak needs a lot of help, both financially and in terms of manpower. I hope that the volunteers continue to come here and that the projects they work on continue to spawn new hope for the villagers in the area. Khao Lak is a beautiful place, full of beautiful people, and not only would I recommend it as a spot to visit for anybody coming to Thailand, I hope to return here myself and check in on the friends that we have made in the area.