Some 500 Yellow Shirt supporters gathered at Saphan Hin to listen to Gen Chamlong and eight other speakers.
The general told them, “The topic today covers many stories – the energy crisis, big corruption and also the expected upcoming story that Thailand will lose disputed land to Cambodia.”
Other speakers were Pipop Thongchai, Somkiat Pongpiboon, Prapan Koonmee, Lt Col Rattakade Jangjamrat, Panthep Puapongpan, Asst Prof Jamroon Na Ranong, Chatchawan Chatsuthichai and Dr Pichai Rattanadilok Na Phuket.
Gen Chamlong, who was one of the five founders of the PAD, said that the meeting in Phuket was the 19th in a series to be held in every province of the country, aimed at giving people the knowledge that Thailand “must be developed sustainably by solving all of its long term problems”.
Remarking on the protest scheduled for Saturday (November 24) by the Pitak Siam group led by Gen Boonlert “Sae Ai” Kaewprasit, which shares the PAD’s aim of bringing down the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, Gen Chamlong said the PAD would not be involved, but he would not discourage PAD members from joining the Pitak Siam protest.
One topic discussed on stage was “the energy corruption” of PTT – the state oil enterprise.
Col Rattakade revealed what he said were “the real numbers” regarding gas and crude oil in Thailand and alleged that the petroleum business was in the hands of a small group of people, especially politicians, who were manipulating it to the detriment of the citizens of Thailand.
“The government always says that petroleum reserves in Thailand are insufficient so they must import from overseas.
“The truth is that, based on information from the Office of the Auditor General of Thailand, we have more than enough energy resources to meet domestic needs,” he said.
The continuing high price of energy in Thailand pushes around 1,000 businesses into bankruptcy every month, he alleged.
“In the near future Thailand will also have to import more gas because the Ministry of Energy has just said that our gas reserves will be exhausted soon. That will mean the price of gas will increase.
“The AEC is coming. Malaysian people buy gasoline at B19 petrol per litre and in Singapore it costs B24. But in Thailand people have to pay B48 per litre. That’s the highest price for petrol in Asean. We will be at a disadvantage when the AEC comes in existence.
“Thailand has the same known reserves of crude oil as Vietnam – 4.7 billion barrels. Using this would change Thai people’s lives. The money that now goes to the shareholders of PTT and to some politicians will come back to the Thai people.
“If petrol prices in Thailand fall this will attract a lot of investors from superpower countries who will come to Thailand because our country is now one of the best centres [in Asia] for logistics."
He alleged that politicians are meddling with regulations and policies to benefit PTT and their own pockets. “The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Energy is the chairman of PTT board. He has brought in many regulations and policies beneficial to PTT.
“Other high-ranking officials in that ministry are shareholders in petroleum-related companies so there is no way that Thailand can have petrol prices as low as the countries around us.”
He also revealed that “there are petroleum fields around Thailand”. In the North East, he claimed, there is an unexploited oilfield covering 100,000 square kilometres and two kilometres deep.
He added that there is another oilfield close to Phuket, the largest in the country, but it is very deep and would be difficult to exploit.
Col Rattakade is chairman of the Council for National Energy Reform, which will recruit members from every province to investigate government links into the oil business and will campaign to modify the energy regulations and laws.
“The petrol story is hard to understand,” said Col Rattakade. “We are trying to simplify it as much as we can to encourage people to know the truth and realise how much benefit they should have and yet are losing.
“We [the Council for National Energy Reform] will ask for detailed information about every existing underground oil reserve in Thailand and make it so that the process of oil production can be checked by everyone.”