Protecting Thailand's infrastructure
Kavi Chongkittavorn, The Nation, Asia News Network/Bangkok
Thanks to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's maverick policy in the southern provinces, Thailand's energy facilities face unprecedented threats. The vulnerability of the country's critical infrastructure grows by the day.
Handling these new threats will require new plans and new ways of thinking.
In the past two years, the threat to Thailand's national security has increased many-fold. Even though the threat of a major terrorist strike is far less here than in Indonesia or the Philippines, the country is still in a precarious situation.
Indeed, the situation in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat has become the prime factor endangering the country's overall security.
Thailand does not have a grand strategy to protect critical infrastructure sectors and assets such as oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand, oil refineries and gas pipelines in various parts of the country, or the subway and Skytrain in Bangkok.
In the United States, plans exist for the safeguarding of such sectors as well as infrastructure related to agriculture and food, water, public health and emergency services.
In Thailand, the most important and yet the most vulnerable facility is the Map Ta Put Industrial Estate.
Security at the site is mediocre. More than Bt600 billion (US$14.7 billion) was invested in Map Ta Put, making it the world's eighth largest investment and economic zone. It is also ASEAN's biggest foreign-investment zone.
Thai intelligence sources have said in private that international terrorists consider this facility as a possible target, because a major attack on it could immediately cripple Thailand's economy.
Thailand also has a total of 2,660 kilometers of exposed gas pipeline -- 1,369 under the sea and 1,291 on land.
At the moment, the focus on national security zeros in on the South and how to contain the conflict and restore some normalcy to the area. Sad but true, Thai officials dare not address these issues on their own for fear that they might be seen as going against Thaksin's own approach and dictums.
Furthermore, about 50,000 security officials from the police and armed forces have been mobilized and are stationed in the besieged three southernmost provinces, making providing adequate security coverage elsewhere in the country very difficult.
The National Intelligence Directorate believes that Thailand is not likely to suffer a major terrorist attack, but that there is an increased possibility of such an attack because of the worsening situation in the South.
The longer the situation deteriorates, the greater is the chance that a terrorist attack like the ones that occurred in Bali will take place in Thailand.
Foreign oil companies such as ExxonMobil have their own security programs at their facilities. Security precautions are lower at facilities operated by the Petroleum Authority of Thailand and other local oil companies.
In fact, the security situation in the South is so serious that foreign oil companies have already increased the level of perceived threat to their facilities in Thailand from white to grey. Code-black level indicates a state of high alert.
That helps explain why the government is inviting the private sector to work with Thai authorities in forming and implementing intelligence-sharing and safety measures.
Recently Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya said that he would like to see more synergy between the state and the private sector in countering terrorism.
During the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' meeting in October 2003, providing security was the responsibility of the National Intelligence Directorate, which was working in cooperation with the Petroleum Institution of Thailand.
That was the first joint endeavor for security arrangements between the government and the private sector.
Persons familiar with security for energy facilities in Thailand know how vulnerable they are.
This is particularly the case for natural gas facilities. When Chumphon province was hit by Typhoon Gay in November 1989, the gas supply from the Gulf of Thailand was temporarily shut down and caused brief power blackouts throughout the country.
Many have yet to learn the lessons of that significant event.
Protecting the nation's energy facilities has not been accorded the top-priority status that it deserves.
The government has not yet established any foundation for fostering the cooperative environment in which government, the private sector and concerned citizens can create synergies to combat these growing threats.