A THAI WAY OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION?

The rest of the world moves rapidly on the way of granting complex procedural protection to every individual in order to encourage his or her participation in making decisions affecting the environment. Thailand, as many other less developed countries, has a certain resistance to that, which is caused mainly by economic considerations. To grant too many rights will cause the administrative and judicial processes more expense, it would be prolonged and less efficient. If public participation is viewed only as a right of those who are affected, and not as the duty of every able person to contribute to the protection of the environment, then the negative outcome of such participation will be but a flood of litigation and/or administrative bureaucracy.

One particular advantage of Thai social life is the strength of communities, particularly in rural areas. This advantage may provide a more efficient way of public participation. A shift of powers is needed, however, for communities to take responsibility for the protection of the environment. A decentralisation of the powers to decide environmental issues and give the public an opportunity to be involved in such decisions is an alternative to an extremely detailed and technically complicated process of taking environmentally significant decisions. Again, the Thai Constitutional framework provides a basis for such policy. In Section 78 of the Constitution it is written:

Under such decentralization it is natural that public participation in deciding environmental issues will take place through the mechanism of a local government. The principle of autonomy of local government is guaranteed by Section 282 of the Thai Constitution. However, the delineation of powers and duties between State organs and a local government in deciding environmental issues is definitely in favour of the State rather than a local government. Nevertheless, the Constitution provides that a local government must have certain powers and the opportunity to participate in deciding environmental issues(26). In fact, the process of decentralization has begn, at least on the level of enacted legislation. The most important act is the Act on Tambon Council and Service (2537 B.E.) which was promulgated three years before the new constitution of Thailand. This Act provides for more authority and functions for a local entity, called tambon, which unites several villages(27). However, the process of decentralization is still far from completion, particularly in the area of enforcement of local community rights, and there is still much to do to provide a clear legal framework for public participation

Part 16

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(25) Section 290 of the Thai Constitution.
(26) For Thai text of the Act see: http://203.152.23.33/html/fslaw.htm
(27) For Thai text of the Act see: http://203.152.23.33/html/fslaw.htm