In the wake of the December 26, 2004 tsunami, issues surrounding land rights have become a main serious problem among the many effects of the natural disaster. In the Laem Pom community, land ownership after the tsunami was transferred from local people to the private sector, a change supported by the local government in the Pang-nga province. This situation left local people with no way to regain their lives, created community strife about land rights and caused many local people to question ?where is the justice in this world??

Daeng is an example of a local person who was born in Laem Pom and has lived here for 32 years. She said ?I not only lost one daughter in the tsunami, but also I had no right to search for the dead body of my daughter in my hometown area. What was happening here and why?? Because of her saddening experience, she began to fight as the leader of the community. She organized local people against the dangerous ambitions of the private sector for land.

From December 27, 2004 through February 25, 2005, Daeng, together with her neighbours, contacted local governments and obtained their own land. The story did not end easily, however; the Laem-Pom community soon shifted land ownership from local people to the private sector. The problem became more serious when some local people were threatened by men from the private sector. Further, government officers failed to survey the land. Instead, the government signed a 200,000 baht contract to give seaside area to the private sector before they conducted any land-distribution process for local people. Later, a proposal was made to allocate an area of 100 square meters for each family. Daeng commented that such a small area was not adequate to grow tree crops and raise domesticated animals. The average amount of land of each family had occupied before the tsunami was between 200 ? 1200 square meters.

For the last six months, Daeng and her neighbours have devoted their time to the fight for their right to own their own land. They have contacted many organizations in order to gain funds for building new houses as soon as possible. They confirmed that their claim to land is justified by Thai law, which states that whoever stayed on any land more than 10 years should have right to that land in spite of holding no land document. Daeng and her neighbours exposed the corrupted process of the transfer of land ownership to the private sector.

Nowadays, there is still no electricity, water supply or public utility, though Daeng and her neighbours have almost finished their new houses using donated funds from ActionAid. On August 8, 2005, eighty-four local people, 30 families altogether, will make a new house merit and finally be ready to start a new life. They plan to work on sustaining the environment and developing local jobs in the near future.

Daeng and her neighbours have shown that life still lives hopefully and that hope leads to a greater power for living. When the Laem-Pom community did not give them justice, they found it and built it for themselves.