Thailand’s police purge: Patronage and pay-outs
Powerful and well-connected people in Thailand are almost never publicly held accountable for acts of deceit, manipulation and corruption. For this reason, the ongoing anomaly of the ‘Police Purge’ has been a recent source of major intrigue.
The man at the centre of the story is former Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) chief Pongpat Chayapan, who has been accused of, “receiving bribes in exchange for transferring or promoting police officers, demanding money from oil smuggling gangs, making money from gambling businesses, laundering money, and citing the monarchy as a way to gain benefits.”
Chayapan is reported to have accumulated riches amounting to 10 billion baht (US$304 million), including cash, gold and land deeds, plus valuable Buddhist amulets and antiques. Other alleged co-conspirators include former marine police commander Pol Maj-Gen Boonsueb Praituen, Pol Col Wuthichat Luensukan, and Pol Col Akarawut, who are alleged to have collectively demanded 3.5 million baht from police officers to ensure prestigious positions and postings.
One of the accused, Pol Col Akarawut Limrat, recently fell to his death from a building in an apparent suicide. Limarat was hastily cremated, foregoing the usual Buddhist funeral rites. Normally at least three days of rituals take place before a body is cremated. No official reason has been given for the urgency of the cremation.
The ‘Police Purge’ is being led by Pol General Somyot Poompanmoung and has been sanctioned by the junta who “ordered soldiers to jointly conduct searches with the police in 15 locations owned by and involved with the former CIB commissioner“. One of the reasons proposed for making such a public display out of this case is to “weaken and control the Royal Thai Police, seen to be a bastion of pro-Thaksinism”.
The crackdown on corruption certainly fits into General Prayuth’s proposed reform agenda of cleaning up Thai politics; the need to cleanse and purge is presumably one of the reasons that indefinite martial law is required and that elections have been delayed until at least 2016.
Nonetheless, much public scepticism still exists and there is a widely held belief that the upper echelons of the police/military are often the beneficiaries of extra-curricular finances as a result of complex patronage networks operating behind the scenes. For example, theasset declaration recently made by the junta government showed that many of these public servants have amassed incredible wealth while earning public servants’ salaries.
Over the years there have been numerous examples of well-connected people avoiding the consequences of their actions due to their proximity to wealth and power, obvious cases include: The Red Bull Heir, Chalerm’s Son and Mu Ham. The major pitfall of being the beneficiary of patronage is that should the protection of the patron be removed, one is left heavily exposed. Thankfully for these people, their relationships endured.
However, Chayapan appears to have fallen from grace as both he and three of his cohorts had previously been granted Royally-given surnames as relations of Princess Sirasmi. These names have now been outlawed in light of the allegations, which include lèse majesté.
The office of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, 62, issued a statement on Friday ordering the Interior Ministry to strip the family of Princess Srirasmi, 42, of the royal-appointed surname Akharaphongpreecha.“Individuals using the royal-appointed last name must change back to their old family name,” the office said in the statement.‘Thai crown prince revokes wife’s royally-assigned family name‘, Reuters, November 30
It seems that major changes are in motion in Thai society and we may see new and unlikely alliances forming. The junta government’s sincerity in eradicating corruption is evident in this case of and it can only be good news that returning happiness to the Thai people is going to include the seeking out of ill-gotten gains wherever they may be and, presumably, we will be seeing more revelations akin to those of Chayapan.
However, as these stories develop we may not always get as much information as we have been privy to this time around. Due to martial law, and other laws which restrict free expression on sensitive matters, we may often have to put the pieces of a story together ourselves as much of the information that it is important to know to fully understand the Thai political context can only ever be insinuated.
About the author:
Jack Radcliffe is a Bangkok-based anthropologist focusing on contemporary Thailand.
Jack Radcliffe is a Bangkok-based anthropologist focusing on contemporary Thailand.
