Mahakan Fort community row goes ‘back to square one’

Parties involved in settling the Mahakan Fort community land conflict appear to have gone back to square one as City Hall agreed yesterday to set up a new panel to handle the case.

A source close to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) said yesterday that the existing tri-partite panel — comprising delegates from the BMA, community, and the military — agreed to set up a new panel comprising historical and architectural experts to verify if 24 of the remaining houses in the community are worth conserving.

The 24 houses, suggested by Association of Siamese Architects last week, were also similar to that suggested by Silpakorn University’s Chatri Prakitnonthakan who conducted a study in 2006.

According to the source, the houses will be checked by experts to determine if they possess any historic or modern value. After the inspection, they will discuss whether each house should be conserved.

Public participation should always be included in modern management approaches adopted by government agencies, said the source, adding the level of public participation will need to be discussed.

The source said the verification process will start as soon as possible, but there was no discussion about the eviction of community residents and their belongings. Mr Chatri doubted that the measure which the BMA will use to verify the historical and artistic values of the houses in the community will be valid.

If the BMA uses the Fine Arts Department’s (FAD) standard, he said, only a few houses will meet the FAD’s high-end standard. Mr Chatri said the FAD’s two main criteria are the age and artistic value.

Only six or seven will meet the first as they are over 100 years old, he said, adding not more than two from the first will pass the second criteria. These houses have been occupied, so they do not possess artistic merit by FAD standards, Mr Chatri said.

For those who missed this big news, please note. Bangkok is to have a new Disneyland-like theme park, right in the Rattanakosin old-town quarters. The theme park, to be launched by City Hall, with sponsorship from the Committee for the Conservation of Rattanakosin and Old Towns, is to be situated on one of the city’s landmark areas — the Mahakan Fort.

The opening of this park will take place soon after City Hall boots out the community which — despite living under fear of eviction — has managed to turn the dilapidated site into a cultural tourism spot for years. Some are drawn by the old wooden houses in architectural styles dating back to the early Rattanakosin era, but many say they find the community’s way of life attractive.

It is unfortunate that City Hall has refused to recognise the value of the community even though the residents’ conservation efforts and dignity in the past earned them wide praise.

Even though City Hall and the community returned to the negotiating table yesterday, with an agreement to form a panel to handle the long-standing conflict while suspending demolition, I cannot pretend to be optimistic.

It’s apparent the authorities put houses before people and the community as they adopt a plan to set up a museum in the park. Initially, City Hall wanted to prove if all the 24 houses proposed for conservation by the Association of Siamese Architects and its affiliates were really worth keeping.

It remains unclear who or which agencies will have a say in deciding the various ages of the houses, but it’s quite clear there were no human aspects involved in yesterday’s talks.

At a previous session on Monday when City Hall started the second phase of demolition work, a senior official said the community might be allowed to participate in the museum project. But they cannot stay overnight, just be nine-to-five workers leading tours to the place where they grew up.

The idea was condemned by academics involved in the community’s conservation.

Chatri Prakitnonthakan, an architecture lecturer from Silpakorn University who conducted a study on the Mahakan conservation plan, denounced the plan.

He said it’s wrong to keep only the houses without the people.

But I don’t think City Hall will listen to the academic’s view, let alone to the community who for decades have put up a fight with the agency.

It’s possible that yesterday’s resolution will turn out to be just a time-buying tactic as has been the case several times in the past. City Hall may believe the talks will soften the agency’s image in the eyes of the public. The blatant move on Monday that led to house No.95, which was on the conservation list, being torn down, cast City Hall in a bad light.

The demolition of such a house with architectural value demonstrates that the agency has a poor understanding of conservation. Worse still is its knowledge about old communities. Look at the state of communities in old-town areas. That is more than proof.

It’s unfortunate that the Rattanakosin committee, as a policy-making agency, is determined to allow City Hall to handle the case by itself. Why does it not realise that City Hall has little credibility in dealing with old-town issues? Look at the case of the Wang Lee community in Bang Rak district, which was booted out by a temple which wanted to put up the land for commercial development.

Other notorious cases — the land conflict at Wat Kalayanamitr in Thon Buri, and the Pak Klong Talad (flower market) — are just as shameful.

Borvornvate Rugrujee, head of a subpanel under the Rattanakosin Committee, conceded there are no laws to protect the old houses at Mahakan community. His statement suggested that any houses, no matter how much they’re worth historically, may be casualties of this conservation plan.

Again, Mr Borvornvate did not mention the community. That doesn’t surprise me.

Yet, I think many architects or conservationists may find comfort in City Hall trying to keep 24 houses (in fact the number is now 23 as house No.95 has already been reduced to rubble). But the idea of a museum is more than preserving individual houses, it’s about keeping the community and place alive and making it the pride of Bangkok.

So, don’t be surprised if the latest development in the end reduces the Mahakan community to a cheap theme park or a dead museum. It’s the best an agency like City Hall can do. What a shame.