Updated: Wages of corruption

Anyone who follows Thailand’s politics soon comes to learn that nothing surprises. Most especially, it is the buffalo manure spilled by bureaucrats and the military and police brass. Thus, three recent examples should not lead to open-mouthed disbelief.

One: We just posted on AOT. Now we read that “The Finance Ministry is considering summoning Airports of Thailand (AoT) executives to explain the agency’s decision to alter its duty free concession contracts, which it feared could hurt the AoT’s projected revenue…”. Really? Heck, the people at the Ministry must think the country is full of morons. As we have shown, most of the top management of the AOT is from the Ministry of Finance, including its Chairman, Prasong Poontaneat is also Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance. Prasong will be summoning himself. What nonsense.

Two: Then there’s the obedient lads at the Police’s Immigration Bureau who have “lifted travel restrictions on Vorayuth ‘Boss’ Yoovidhaya after the Red Bull scion’s hit-and-run charges were dropped late last month.” Of course they did! Who ordered this? Anyone making money on the deal?

Three: Speaking of cover-ups, there’s the case of a gambling den where a cop gambling there was shot. A senior police officer, Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner Pol Lt Gen Pakapong Pongpetra, having seen a “blood-stained Baccarat table … dumped behind the building,” still managed a straight-faced statement: “if police had solid evidence the place operated as a casino, its owner would be charged.” Of course, gambling dens are all paying off police, so these police are busy covering up.

It gets better/worse:

… Pakapong … said yesterday his officers were still trying to discover how a police officer was killed, along with three others, at the illegal casino on Rama III Road.

The officer who was shot dead was Pol Maj Watthanaset Samniangprasert, 32, an interrogation inspector at Samae Dam station, who is reported to have frequently gambled at the venue.

Pol Lt Gen Pakapong said every CCTV camera appeared to have been removed by the time police arrived at the scene 30 minutes after the shooting.

CCTV cameras going off at critical times and cameras or video “disappearing” is a regularly-used excuse used by the military. In this case, there were more than 20 cameras. We are betting that little more will be heard of this case.

Update: The Bangkok Post has a useful editorial on the gambling den cover-up.