The state enterprise EGAT is back on coercing its activities on villagers around the country without recourse to consultation and local participation.

In a latest case of brutality in Udorn Thani province, 15 villagers and students protesting by sitting on their land were arrested on 27 May 2011, cameras destroyed and people physically assaulted. They remain in prison on charges of obstructing the operations of authorities.

An earlier case was reported in 2009 in Roi Et Province when EGAT forced villagers from their rice lands, cut down trees and destroyed homes as part of this network expansion and upgrade.

In the Udorn case, the local administrative court first received notice on behalf of plaintiffs (local villagers) in 2009 along with petition to the Constitutional Court but they have not yet made a decision. EGAT went ahead and arranged for around 100 police and Ministry of Interior thugs to occupy the project site without legal basis and to provoke protestors before having them imprisoned.

The company plans to establish 500kV double circuit lines as part of its expansion program linked to its regional substations. This particular contestation was over the so-called namphong2-Udornthani 3 (น้ำพอง2-อุดรธานี3) transmission line covering 85 km, 4x1272 conductor size (MCM); and likely energy source from the new Nam Ngum 2 hydroelectric project in Lao PDR.

Since its inception in 1969 the corporation has resisted privatisation fearing it would lose its monopoly and elite network benefits, confronting Thaksin’s privatisation plans in 2006 (and in fact Chuan before him). This is also reflected in its reactionary and obdurate right-wing union.

The board of directors, headed by Pornchai Rujiprapa (also Abhisit’s Permanent Secretary, Energy Ministry) reads like a who’s who of the amaat or their political and economic lackeys. The general lack of conformance to due constitutional process or community consultation reflects the current state of affairs after an apparent “silent coup” which took place earlier this year. The law, since 19 September 2006, is a slippery surface to be used by those in power according to their own interests. People are helpless in such a skewed and corrupt system replicating an authoritarianism and brutality of the late 1950s-early 1970s.