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Published on July 22, 2007

Having spent most of her 68 years hard at work in rice fields and rubber plantations and raising six children, Noh Hadyumsa thought her labours of love were over.

But today her toughest challenge is just starting: defending her home.

"The last time they trespassed, my children and I lay down in their way. This time they brought the police to stop us," the grandmother says.

"It cut me to the quick, but I can't cry. How can they do this to me and my family?" she asks.

If Noh's land were not on the route of the controversial Thai-Malaysia gas pipeline, this dispute would probably pass unnoticed by the rest of the country.

But demanding her departure is Trans Thai-Malaysia, a joint venture building the mighty pipeline.

Noh's 10 rai is the only land the joint venture has not gobbled up on the pipeline's route from a gas-separation plant to a turbine at Ban Pa Ngarm in Songkhla's Chana district.

She has rejected the joint venture's offers to buy the land or rent it. "It is my home, my property; a legacy from my late husband. I want to give it to my children. How can they force me to sell it?" Noh asks.

She tells The Nation the joint venture has tried everything to get her to vacate, including threats to her and her family members.

Nikhor, a daughter, felt sorrow when on Monday she watched her mother fight off about 50 joint-venture construction workers. The noise of the digging woke the family.

"My children and I were in tears as we watched her rushing almost naked with a kitchen knife at the workers and shouting at the top of her voice," Nikhor recalls.

Noh and 10 grandchildren started guarding their land around the clock two weeks ago after learning the joint venture's construction schedule had their precious plot in its sights.

"I am very angry and understand how this unfairness hurts. The district chief, who should help us as residents of the district, takes the side of these intruders. "He also brought in the police, who are paid for with our taxes, to protect the interests of big business that cheats us," Nikhor says.

After the joint venture failed to negotiate a deal with Noh it decided to run the pipeline under the land without her permission. The digging continues today.

Chana district chief Prasit Wisutjinda says Noh's determination not to sell or compromise is "a nuisance and disturbing".

But fellow villager Wakob Lamsoh, 66, said: "It's upsetting and shameful. A top officer of the district should at least know where the root of the conflict is. This project will hurt our district, and he is expected to protect us.

"First, the pipeline runs through the middle of our village. It makes us insecure. Who knows that there won't be any sabotage by militants? The pipeline is only 100 metres from the mosque," he said.

"Second, the pipeline has changed our way of life and livelihoods. It blocks our fishing boats, and that means there is less fish," he said.

But Wakob is concerned the project divides his peaceful community and its traditional Muslim life.

"After the project poured money into the village our community divided into two, those who accepted money and those who foresaw the impact on the community and opposed it.

"The worst part is the divided families," Wakob says. "Construction has brought alcohol, drug use and gambling into our community, too. The money the joint venture injected encourages many to reject good Muslim ways and do bad and forbidden things," he says.

Rorfed Hadyumsa is another member of Noh's family and a village committee member. He says the divide reaches the local authority and religious leadership.

"The imam cannot teach others as his children themselves have gone against what he preaches, all because of this project," he says.

Sulaida Tohlee, 55, a cousin and mother of three living nearby travelled to join Noh's guard.

"My village was affected by the power-plant construction, too. It is just 200 metres from our community. It's built on swamp that was natural flood prevention.

"We will be hit badly in the wet season," she predicts.

"One day on my way to Noh's a man I didn't know with a gun threatened me if I didn't stop our opposition. He even fired a shot," she added.

"I suspect this is just the beginning. The worst part will be the arrival of other industries which will change our way of life for ever," she says.

Surat Saejung works for the Healthy Community Development Project in Songkhla. She says the dispute is deepening.

"Conflicts grow when local authorities take a stance supporting the project and force affected villagers to submit to the inevitable even when they refuse to. It will leave deep wounds," Surat says.

"Villagers don't trust their government. First it said there would be only a pipeline and a gas-separation plant. Now it says a power plant and other industries are planned despite these promises," she explains.

Ban Pa Ngarm is one of eight villages in Chana that have formed an alliance against the pipeline.

In the past year the alliance has protested to authorities from the tambon administration organisation to the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) and the Army to the National Human Rights Commission.

The tambon administration rejected the joint venture's construction requests in October last year. The Army has asked it to halt construction to allow further consultation, as has the commission. The PTT responded by giving more money to the village through the headman and other government offices, it is alleged.

Noh has no intention of giving up. Last week, she says, workers dumped drilling waste on her land, ruining her vegetable garden.

Nikhor and Rorfed hinted at legal action.

"If there's no other way to stop them I'll take my own spade to their pipeline and dig it up myself," Noh says.

Kamol Sukin

The Nation