Bumpy ride for land reform
By JAIME CABRERA
Thailand's land reform effort has gone through a lot of hurdles since the
Agricultural Land Reform Act was passed by Parliament in 1975.
According to the Act,
the state must buy land from private owners and other sources for distribution
to landless and tenant farmers. Payment was to be 25 percent in cash, and the
remainder in state bonds. Some large holdings could be retained, but could be
expropriated if certain provisions were not met.
After the October 1976 military coup, land reform implementation almost died.
The military-backed government of Prime Minister Thanin Kraivichien announced
that the land reform programme would be carried out over four years. Hardly
anything had been done by the time another military coup was staged in 1977.
By early 1979, more than 70 areas in the country had been designated Land Reform
Areas, but it was difficult for the Agricultural Land Reform Office to acquire
land for distribution.
Large landowners, wealthy aristocrats, businessmen, and senior military officers
holding land in the high-tenancy areas of the Central Plains opposed the
designation of Land Reform Areas. The government then set a new goal: give
forest squatters legal titles, infrastructure and credit. Organise the
distributed lands into cooperative areas. Landholders could transfer the land to
heirs but not sell it. The title could be used as collateral for credit.
The land reform programme proceeded slowly until the Chuan Leekpai coalition
government collapsed in May 1995 over a land-reform scandal.
Today, many recipients of the land reform programme are mired in debt, with the
distributed land marred with defective records and outright fraud. Many
landowners today still hold no legal title to their land, although the Land
Department began distributing land titles in the early 1900s. Many farmlands
still lack legal title of ownership.
The Land Department can issue only four forms of land documents, and only in the
following order:
- Claim Certificate (Sor Kor) indicates a claim
lodged by one in possession of a piece of land.
- Pre-emptive Certifficate (Nor Sor 2 or Baichong)
authorises temporary occupation of land.
- Certificate of Utiilisation (Nor Sor 3) proves
permanent land use. It can be used as collateral for loans.
- Title Deed (Nor Soor 4 or Chanode) indicates full
land-ownership, with specific land boundaries indicated by official markers.
Where national reserves of forest lands have been illegally encroached and
degraded, land was allocated in different ways:
- The Royal Forestry Department issued
- The Royal Forestry Department transferreed heavily degraded forest land to the
Agricultural Land Reform Office, which issued Land Reform
for Agriculture (Sor Por Kor 4-01) documents to farmers who can use the
land for farming purposes but may not pawn, mortgage, sell it. It is
transferrable only to legal descendants.
Source: Bangkok Post, 9 Dec. 2002
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Last updated:
09/12/02