Over the past few months, Paisal Surathammawit has been carrying measurement tape wherever he goes around the city of Chiang Mai. The owner of a small guest house in an alley off Manee Nopparat Road has joined a campaign to raise awareness of the potential impact of a new city plan. Upon learning that it might entail substantial expansion of 35 roads in the downtown area (and 65 altogether for the province), and thus the tearing down or drastic shrinkage of properties on both sides of the existing roads, a few of them built more than a century ago, Paisal devised a creative technique to make his peers and neighbours realise how much damage such a scheme might bring about were it to transpire as proposed by the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning, a unit under the Ministry of Interior.
By unreeling the plastic tape and stretching it from the middle of the existing roads into individual houses and buildings on both sides, Paisal effectively shows how the expanded roads, originally projected to be as wide as 20,30 or even 60 metres, could fundamentally wipe out the unique landscape of 713-year-old Chiang Mai, with its narrow, winding lanes flanked on both sides by old temples and historic sites, heritage buildings and mostly low-rise shop houses. The capital of the Northern Region would, in short, become a city of big,wide roads, catering to cars and less to people.
"Some could lose half of their houses were the road expansion plan to be realised," Paisal said."How could the locals then carry on with their businesses? It isn't easy at all for these people to find a new location to live and work. And the compensation will likely take ages to materialise [if at all adequate].
"We the folks of Chiang Mai do not see 'roads' as something bad in themselves, but we want to ask what exactly we want our city to become - an economic hub or a cultural and historic centre?
"In recent years, there has been a rigorous push to turn Chiang Mai into a hub of the Mekong sub-region [despite the fact that the city is a few hundred kilometres away from the river], of aviation, IT and international conferences industries, you name it. There are plans to build more superhighways, hotels and high-rises, but with the disappearances of temples and historic sites,would people still want to come back here?"
According to Duongchan Apavatjrut Charoenmuang,what Paisal and peers have been doing could be considered the very first uprising of the middle class in the capital of the Northern Region. The urban planning expert seems very pleased to witness how the locals of Chiang Mai,"say, the landowners, businesspeople who run gold shops and pharmacies, and so on", have come out en masse to vehemently protest a draft of the five-year Chiang Mai Comprehensive City Plan (Pang Muang Ruam ). The previous edition expired in 2004 and was renewed twice in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
Up until the recent phenomenon, Duongchan said,the city of Chiang Mai has been on the receiving end of many mega-development schemes crafted by the technocrats, usually from Bangkok, in collaboration with outside investors. Very few locals have had an opportunity to partake in the decision-making process,or even to access information about what policies or projects are in store and how they may affect their lives.
The controversial draft of ChiangMai's comprehensive city plan is a case in point. It took a long time for active citizens like Paisal and company to piece the jigsaw puzzle together. Once he asked an officer in charge if there was anything behind the "rumours" about the road expansion project, and the only answer he got was "you will know it when it comes out."
By that time, it was almost too late for the people of Chiang Mai to get into action. In August last year, the concerned authorities put out a "public notice" in a rather hush-hush manner,showing the long list of roads slated for expansion at a few government offices, with a 90-day deadline for any petitions from stakeholders. Nearly twothirds of the grace period had passed before the majority woke up to the news.
Worrawimon Chairut recalled the arduous struggle as she and like-minded friends such as Paisal tried to raise the issue with the Chiang Mai public (following her experience pushing for re-classification of her hometown in Wat Ket - see sidebar 'In the beginning'). First, they put out 10,000 pamphlets in a local newspaper, inviting people to attend a brainstorming session, but with very little success."Only a couple of people saw the news and showed up," she said.
Then, with support from the Urban Development Institute Foundation, a nonprofit organisation cofounded by Duongchan, a group of youth volunteers helped distribute the warning pamphlets from door to door - talking to people in the streets and posting them at individual houses likely to be affected by the new city plan.A series of public meetings ensued,and anunprecedented network of Chiang Mai citizens was born,now referred to as the Raksa Ban Raksa Muang group.
From Wat Ket, where Worrawimon is from, to Nimmanheminda, Soi Wat Umong, Kad Luang,Chang Moi, Charoen Prathet Road and more,the long-time residents of Chiang Mai decided to take the task of determining the future of their hometown into their own hands.
Debate over road expansion led to discussions on larger structural problems. They challenge the establishment's views and policies that try to endlessly spur the growth of Chiang Mai as a regional hub without regard for its "carrying"capacity. They ask why the country's second biggest city has been deprived of an integrated mass transit system, let alone an efficient one,and if the introduction of more and bigger roads will really solve the dismal traffic here. Wouldn't more motorways mean more people switching to private cars and thus perpetuate the vicious cycle? And how about those who live along the narrow roads and used to cross back and forth and share their roots together? Would their ageold communities be severed by the superhighways once and for all?
Last but not least, they want to know for whose benefit the top-down development
programmes have been - researcher Duongchan says these reflect a mentality of "fragmented centralisation"- and if such programmes will bring about a sustainable city.
A "parade" of cloth banners has been put up at different street corners, stating the simple wish of ordinary citizens to have a city they can live in and not a crisscrossing web of roads to satisfy a few drivers. It is a peaceful way to protest, in quintessential Lanna style, but one with a very strong message.
After a vigorous last-minute scuttle, on November 15 of last year Worrawimon's group collected 2,054 names of stakeholders who opposed the new city plan (and later more than 5,000 residents signed the petition), and the list was submitted to the governor of Chiang Mai three days before the stipulated deadline.
That was only the first round of the battle.There have since been foot-dragging tactics, delays and postponements, and questions shuffling back and forth between state agencies in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Initially, the officers claimed the expansion of the roads, even when put on paper, would not likely take place considering the huge budget involved and possible resistance from the residents.(Again,"rumours" abounded about an allocation of state coffers to the province to the tune of 8 billion baht.) And even when the provincial authorities supposedly yielded to pressure from the local civic group and agreed to cancel most of the expansions (27 roads in the downtown area, while the widths of seven other roads would be reduced from the original plan),attempts to derail the process continue. It was argued that some sectors would prefer to restart the entire process of "public hearings" of the draft city plan (back to stage four of 18, from the current stage seven).
As of July 9, the governor of Chiang Mai,Amornphan Nimanant, sent a letter to the directorgeneral of the Public Works and Town and Country Planning Department, confirming that after a meeting with representatives of local governing bodies (municipalities and tambon administrative organisations) around the province,the "majority" have agreed to continue the drafting process from stage seven onward.
At the moment, the Raksa Ban Raksa Muang group is waiting anxiously for the verdict of the National City Planning Committee, currently chaired by interior permanent secretary Wichai Srikwan (incidentally a former governor of Chiang Mai). The remaining legislation process seems to be another series of tortuous behind-the-scene negotiations, however. It is not known, for one,if and how the committee will respond to revisions forwarded by the provincial authorities.
Food for thought: In a meeting held on April 24, Surapol Satthatat of the Provincial Public Works and Town and Country Planning unit said it would take about two more years before the new City Comprehensive Plan is issued as a ministerial regulation, but twice as long should the process be moved back to the public hearing stage.
At the moment, the whole province of Chiang Mai has been trapped in a de facto "vacuum"with no city comprehensive plan to regulate land use planning/control and new construction.Worrawimon expressed her concern that some investors might exploit this legal loophole to push for projects to build high-rises that might not have been allowed under the pre-existing law.
As this article goes to press, no representatives of the Public Works and Town and Country Planning Department have made themselves available for an interview with 'Outlook'.
One glimmer of hope, so far, has been the favourable response from the National Human Rights Commission. Last June, it issued a list of recommendations that basically ask the Interior Ministry to cancel the expansion of 35 roads as requested by the civic group, to put off any projects to build high-rises in the northern town in the absence of a city plan and, last but not least, to review the appointments of the National Comprehensive City Plan Committee, which include representatives from state agencies and the real-estate sector, but none from the academic,non-government organisation or people's sectors.
Despite what appears to be a reversal of the situation, Paisal said he has asked his fellow protesters to keep the cloth banners in front of their properties."It is not yet the time to bring them down," he reckoned, while accepting that for various reasons some communities in Chiang Mai may not be as politically active as others.Nevertheless, he continues his street campaigns with the Raksa Ban Raksa Muang group, which runs on a non-hierarchical volunteer basis.
"We have set up 'a working committee' for each of the 35 routes [originally slated for expansion]. For example, I am responsible for organising meetings with the folks on Chang Phuak Road.In the process, we've learned about the history and life of the people in each area we're working on."
In retrospect, the road crisis has opened up a new chapter in citizens' movements in the northern city. Urban planning specialist Duongchan of Chiang Mai University points out how the present phenomenon is a case study for Thailand where ordinary people, especially in an urban
area, have stood up to say no to unchecked growth.That Bangkok's model, with heavy traffic,sky-high buildings and interminable layers of roads and superhighways, is not what Chiang Mai wants to repeat.
"One of the charms of an old town is its narrow roads that fit with constructions that are not too big,more on a human scale. Unfortunately, we have been trying to impose modernisation on top of the old city.Had there been better planning, Chiang Mai would have long ago been selected as a World Heritage Site.
"In the future, with the rising cost of fuel, it will be very expensive to commute [by car] and a compact city and re-urbanisation will become important. In developed countries, there is a growing trend of urban agriculture to keep the cost of transporting produce down.
"Thus the current phenomenon in Chiang Mai provides a lesson for our country - that people do not always want growth without limits.No, we don't want zero growth - it isn't possible for a city to not grow anyway - but we want the kind of growth that will be sustainable and lasting."
For more information about the civic movement in Chiang Mai, contact the Raksa Ban Raksa Muang group on 08-9553-1792 or 08-1716-5927, or the Urban Development Institute Foundation on 05-327-4817,or visit www.udif.or.th.
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