Former top cop and corruption

It was just a few days ago that we mentioned former police chief Somyos Pumpanmuang as a cop not afraid to display his huge wealth that came from dubious sources.

Interestingly, it is reported in the Bangkok Post that “Sutthisan police have raided one of two unregistered massage parlours in the Ratchadaphisek area linked to Kampol Wirathepsuporn, a suspect who fled the country after his massage parlour was shut down over a human trafficking case…. Mr Kampol was the owner of Victoria Secret massage parlour in Bangkok, which was closed in 2018.”

Back then, a significant element of the tale was was the link to top cops. Indeed, it was junta-appointed police chief Gen  Somyos Pumpanmuang who was close to Kampol.

Under pressure at the time, Somyos revealed that he had borrowed a huge sum of money from Kampol. Gen Somyos “explained” that he and the massage parlor owner were “friends and of course friends do help each other. I was in trouble and asked him for help several times.” One of those bits of “help” was a 300 million baht “loan” from the flesh trader.

Clearly the “help” was useful, for when he retired as Thailand’s top cop, he was one of the country’s wealthiest policemen.  He reported assets of 375 million baht back in 2014 when he joined one of the junta’s sham legislatures.

So when it is again Chuvit Kamolvisit who reveals details and he “wonders how Mr Kampol can manage the massage parlours while being on the run,” the answer seems pretty obvious.

That corruption also accounts for the fact that the very wealthy seem easily able to flee but stay active.

 

Managing the corruption system

As often happens when authoritarian governments are in place for a long time, corruption becomes embedded, systemic, and necessary for keeping the corrupt together and supportive.

Of late, reports of corruption have been legion. Yet the Bangkok Post has a jubilant headline, “Thailand improves in corruption survey.” Seriously? It turns out that Transparency International has ranked Thailand 101 out of 180 in its ranking. The Post says the country’s score went up one point and adds:

In 2014, the year Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha staged a military coup, the country was ranked 85th, an improvement from 102nd in 2013. Its ranking rose to 76th in 2015 but plunged to 101st place the following year. It recovered to 96th in 2017 but then began a downward move to 99th in 2018, 101st place in 2019, 104th in 2020 and 110th in 2021.

Let’s be realistic. This is a ranking that puts Thailand among a bunch of dubious places. We’d guess that if perceptions were surveyed today, they’d plummet, largely thanks to the mafia gang known as the Royal Thai Police and the mammoth horse trading by the coalition parties.

Rotten to the core

While on the corrupt cops, Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha has mumbled something about a few bad apples in the police. He has “insisted that any police officers involved in extorting money from a Taiwanese actress during her trip to Thailand early this month must face legal action.” He added: “Don’t let the issue ruin the reputation of the whole police organisation.”

We are not sure which reputation he refers to. As far as we can tell, the organization is rotten to the core.

Gen Prayuth reckons “we must get rid of rogue ones…”. Our guess is that if he was serious – he isn’t – just about every senior officer would be gotten rid of. The corruption system siphons money up to the top. There’s been little effort to follow up on data revealed when the regime established its post-coup assembly. Back then, the average declared assets for the top brass in the police was a whopping 258 million baht.

Even when senior police display their loot, nothing is done. Who remembers former police chief Somyos Pumpanmuang? He stacked loot in public! He’s still wealthy.

The Post has another headline: “Court lets ‘Pinky’ remove electronic tag.” It reports:

Actress Savika “Pinky” Chaiyadej on Tuesday won approval from the Criminal Court to remove an electronic monitoring (EM) device she was required to wear after her release from jail on Nov 30 last year.

She is on bail, accused of defrauding millions in the Forex-3D ponzi scheme.How did her lawyers convince the judge?

Her lawyer lodged a request for the court’s permission to remove the EM device, saying it was an impediment to her show business career.

Of course, there’s no such leniency for lese majeste and other political prisoners when they eventually get bail (some, of course, never do). Double standards? You bet!

Double standards and corruption are a feature of the monarchy-military regime. Part of the reason for this is mutual back-scratching. Much that the regime does makes the bureaucrats more or less untouchable. The judiciary is always there in support on the important issues.

We note that another junta and Prayuth supporter, former charter writer Udom Rathamarit, has been appointed to the Constitutional Court. That is an important part of the whole corrupt system.

Old guard is the new guard

Earlier this month, along with North Korea and Indonesia, Thailand’s National Anti-Doping Organization was declared non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) meaning it was “ineligible to be awarded the right to host regional, continental or world championships during the suspension.” In addition, no representative from Thailand could “sit as members of the boards on committees …[the country was] reinstated or for a period of one year, whichever is longer.”

Importantly, the ban also means that athletes from Thailand can only compete in regional, continental and world championships without their national flags.

WADA said “Thailand’s non-compliance stems from a failure to fully implement the 2021 Anti-Doping Code.”

Thailand’s peak body, the Sports Authority of Thailand, rushed to cover its exposed posterior. As far as we can tell, no one took responsibility for this failure.

The Sports Authority of Thailand is a state enterprise under the Ministry of Tourism and Sport and, like many state bodies, has long been something of a sinecure for military types, senior bureaucrats and their cronies. It provides meeting fees and lots of travel and other freebies.

Gen Prawit Wongsuwan is the deputy prime minister responsible for the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) and sits on its board. He’s also president of the Thailand Swimming Association, although we are unsure that he floats in water even if his power means he floats above all manner of troubles.

Of course, such higher ups can never be held responsible for major cock-ups like this one with WADA.

Indeed, under the military-backed regime dumb-asses are rewarded. As the Bangkok Post recently reported, Gen Prawit Wongsuwan “was re-elected unopposed as president of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand (NOCT)…”. The aged Prawit “will be in office for a second term which ends after the 2024 Olympics in Paris.”

At the same meeting, other near-dead and equally useless tools were rewarded for loyalty, with “secretary-general Charouck Arirachakaran, 89, and former president Gen Yutthasak Sasiprabha … appointed as honorary presidents for life.”

Nepotism is never far away when Gen Prawit is waddling about, and “Gen Wit Devahastin na Ayudhya, Prawit’s close aide, succeeds Maj Gen Charouck as secretary-general.” Gen Wit is also chairman of Prawit’s Palang Pracharat Party’s strategic committee.

Like all elections, the NOCT “election” of Gen Prawit and 24 other people to the NOCT executive was rigged: “Eligible voters unanimously agreed to their nominations without casting ballots. The 25 elected executive members then selected Prawit as the NOCT president.”

Other executive members included the fabulously wealthy former police boss Pol. Gen Somyos Pumpanmuang – accused in several corruption cases – and well-connected billionaire Harald Link.

In no are of administration is a “new guard” permitted. It is all the old guys grabbing all they can get.

Slithering through money and corruption

PPT has had several posts over almost a decade regarding the unexplained wealth of former national police chief Pol Gen Somyos Pumpanmuang. Thinking about this great wealth and his tenure, it is little surprise that he’s now caught up in the long cover-up of Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya’s crime.

Along with Vorayuth’s lawyer,Thanit Buakhiew, The Nation reports that Gen Somyos “will be investigated by a Royal Thai Police special committee for their alleged involvement in altering the actual car speed at which Vorayuth was driving in the 2012 hit-and-run case that killed a motorcycle police officer.”

Gen Somyos, who has never been shy in flaunting his wealth and his connections, has prospered and his wealth has grown over the years and despite several “investigations” that have never been reported as finished or found little wrong with a junta ally being corrupt.

This latest “investigation” after the “Royal Thai Police … appointed a special committee to investigate the case…”:

Police Internal Affairs chief Pol General Wisanu Prasatthong-Osot, who chaired the committee, said on Wednesday that Pol Colonel Thanasit Daengjan, the investigation officer in Vorayuth’s case, had presented an audio clip indicating that Somyos and Thanit had allegedly told him to change the speed of Vorayuth’s car from 177 km per hour to just 76 km per hour.

“The reported reduction in car speed was the reason why the public prosecutor decided to drop the charge of reckless driving against Vorayuth,” Wisanu said.

As the Bangkok Post recalls:

A speeding charge against him [Vorayuth] was dropped after its one-year statute of limitations expired in 2013. A second charge — failing to stop to help a crash victim — expired on Sept 3, 2017. His drug and reckless driving charges remain active until Sept 3 next year and 2027, respectively.

The Office of the Attorney General initially dropped the last charge but later decided to reinstate it after a public outcry.

It may be that Gen Somyos slithers out of another “investigation,” but it is worthwhile considering the obvious: Why would the country’s top cop intervene in such a manner? Look at the photo above. Look at the record. Think of the way the rich “enjoy” the so-called justice system.

The rotten system I

In a recent post we wrote about how a rotten system operates in Thailand, allowing corruption, disappearance, torture, and murder in the interest of the “good people,” the loyalists.

Strikingly, a report in the Bangkok Post further illustrates how this decayed system operates. The story is about Pol Maj Gen Phumin Pumpanmuang and the Special Operations Police he commands.

Our studied cynicism is on display below. We are not suggesting that Phumin is corrupt, but we observe that many of the posts he has held are coveted by the corrupt.

Somyos and his loot

If Pol Maj Gen Phumin’s family name is familiar, it is because former national police chief, Somyos Phumpanmuang, is his uncle. We have posted plenty on the uncle who was corrupt – unusually wealthy – and univestigated by the state’s anti-corruption bodies.

The report says that the SOP is “a new unit within the Royal Thai Police whose broad remit ranges from combatting drugs to protecting the Crown.” It is said to be “little known.”  We don’t think this is the Ratchawallop Police Retainers, King’s Guard 904 mentioned in previous posts, although readers might correct us.

In the report, Pol Maj Gen Phumin says the (in)famous surname “is both a blessing and a curse.” He said he has had “to prove that he is able to rise through the ranks on his own merit.” He seems to imply that there’s a meritocracy in the police. In fact, nepotism is common in the police and the military. At the senior level it is almost a rule.

The nepotism begins early. Phumin says “that as a young child, he would tag along with Pol Gen Somyot, then a mid-ranking investigator, on missions.” Later, when “his uncle became the deputy chief investigator at Phra Khanong station, Pol Maj Gen Phumin recalled, he was allowed to join the team on a gambling den raid.”

He was socialized with both the police gangs and the criminal gangs.

Like almost all of the top brass, he attended the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School before going on to the Royal Police Cadet Academy. These academies instill the necessary royalism, adherence to hierarchy, and establish “class” relations that allow for money-making, favors, and impunity.

After graduating, Phumin was assigned to the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, “where he learned the ropes for two years.” It is difficult to single out many straight coppers in that Bureau, where corruption and thuggery reign. He went on to the Marine Police Division, long in cahoots with smugglers.

Pol Maj Gen Phumin was also used as a decoy in a sting which went south when he was a young officer in Suphan Buri. After his cover was compromised, the suspect fired at him, but missed. It was there that he killed his first “suspect.”

He continued to the “Metropolitan Police Division 1, where he was involved in stamping out drugs.” The police are better known for managing the supply of drugs. He went on to the Crime Suppression Division, and was posted to Phuket, one of the most lucrative posts for police bosses, and one that requires lots of political support or a big bribe to get the post. He became “head of the island’s marine and tourist police branches.” Those positions are highly sought after for the wealth they create.

When he became SOP commander, he was promoted “to the rank of police major general.” It was also a position that must have the support of the king as the “unit also provides security to the King and members of the royal family.” Think elephant ticket:

His rise to the SOP’s top seat triggered heated debate. In the previous no-confidence session in parliament, an MP from the Move Forward Party suggested his rapid career advancement was the result of a blessing from “the higher institution”.

Pol Maj Gen Phumin insists he “earned his promotions through hard work.” He adds:

I know I have what it takes to be where I am…. There are quite a few anti-monarchists around. The SOP’s roles also include instilling the right understanding [about the monarchy’s closeness to people]….

Although the SOP is a new unit in the RTP, it has more than 1,500 personnel already. Its officers undergo extensive training, including anti-terrorism courses, tactical parachuting and sharp shooting.

You see how the rotten system works, all the way to the top. Men like Phumin will do whatever the king orders, legal or not.

One of the cover-ups

Over the past couple of days, PPT has posted on a corruption story that the regime and judiciary hope will quickly disappear, fade away and be covered-up. Such publicity just holds up the money making that comes with office under a military-backed regime.

Interestingly, it is reported that one of the regime’s cover-ups has received some new attention, with “[a]nti-human trafficking advocates are calling on the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to indict the owner of the Victoria Secret brothel for human trafficking…”.

The Victoria Secret massage parlor case “was raided on Jan 12, 2018 and it was later revealed that minors and migrant workers had been forced to become sex workers on the premises.”

Like the Boss case involving the Red Bull scion, the owner of the parlor – said to be Kampol Wirathepsuporn – went into hiding.

The big story of the time, for us, anyway, was the link to top cops. Indeed, junta-appointed police chief Gen  Somyos Pumpanmuang, who went on to become head of the Thailand Football Association, was close to Kampol. Under pressure, Somyos revealed that he had borrowed a huge sum of money from Kampol.

Gen Somyos “explained” that he and the massage parlor owner were “friends and of course friends do help each other. I was in trouble and asked him for help several times.” One of those bits of “help” was a 300 million baht “loan” from the flesh trader.

Clearly the “help” was useful, for when he retired as Thailand’s top cop, he was one of the country’s wealthiest policemen.  He reported assets of 375 million baht back in 2014 when he joined one of the junta’s sham legislatures.

That’s how corruption cases tend to go for junta buddies – nothing much happens, apart from the covering up.

Police business

Pol Gen Somyos and some of his loot

Over the years, PPT has posted quite a bit on police and their often unusual wealth.

Readers may recall the seemingly never investigated story of Thailand’s post-coup police boss Gen Somyos Pumpanmuang who was involved with the owner of the Victoria’s Secret Massage parlor back in January 2018. He claimed to have “borrowed” 300 million baht from the brothel boss. He even appeared with a stack of money that was claimed to be the same 300 million.

Somyos declared in 2014 that he had amassed assets of almost 375 million baht. We have previously posted on his connections with shady business groups that use men-in-black to harass villagers.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission has been deathly quiet on this case.

He’s not the only one. As the 2014 assets declarations showed, top cops averaged a whopping 258 million baht each. Back then, current Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda declared almost 1 billion baht in assets. Current head of the NACC, Pol Gen Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit declared almost 470 million baht in assets.

Pol Gen Wirachai

This is a long introduction to the case of Pol Gen Wirachai Songmetta.

Readers may remember him from the Big Joke police dance in January 2020, when Pol Gen Chakthip came into conflict with Surachate Hakparn, a former immigration chief who, back in April 2019, was quickly and surprisingly taken into custody, removed from his posts and then made a civilian before being resurrected as a cop assigned to Government House. After he claimed shots were fired at his car and that all of the kerfuffle had to do with money associated with a biometric equipment deal, Chakthip suddenly transferred two of his two deputies, Pol Gen Chaiwat Kateworachai and Pol Gen Wirachai.

Adding to the spice, King Vajiralongkorn expelled both officers from the royal police bodyguard corps and ordered that the two were not to wear medals that bear the emblem of the royal guards.

But, then, to our surprise, Pol Gen Wirachai just appeared in the Forbes list of Thailand’s richest, with a photo of him in his uniform. Forbes states “Wirachai Songmetta entered the ranks of Thailand’s richest following the November 2019 IPO of Absolute Clean Energy, a renewable energy producer” and values his fortune at $585 million. It adds that the company “operates 14 biomass power projects with a combined capacity of 212 megawatts…”. (We wonder why Pol Gen Chakthip is not listed?)

Forbes observes that “[h]is ex-wife chairs the company while two of his three sons have board seats.” You can get a look at them here, while noting that one of the sons has been listed as a director of companies associated with Wirachai since he was 18. (That’s how the rich operate in Thailand where family trumps any sort of skill.)

The company claims another 19 projects under development throughout Thailand.

PPT was stunned. Maybe we are naive, but we hadn’t realized that serving cops could own large companies and actively engage in business. ACE is publicly-listed with Wirachai holding more than 22% of the shares and people with the same family name holding almost 80% of the shares.

Another report explains how ACE became big. It built on his family’s earlier business as “the nation’s leading producer of hardboard and wood chips, and the residue of that process is used to fuel the biomass power plants…”.  ACE reports a bunch of associated companies, all family-held and mostly in energy and tree plantations. An example is Shaiyo Triple A, claiming to have “been invited to invest in overseas markets such as China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines, Malaysia, and Australia.”

Being a top cop can only have assisted Wirachai in grabbing land for plantations.

While he’s been a cop, Pol Gen Wirachai has been active in business, including undertaking trips overseas for his companies. In one, in 2018, he was hosted by the Chairman of Thua Thien Hue Provincial People’s Committee in Vietnam, Phan Ngoc Tho with “a reception for President of Shaiyo Triple A group Wirachai Songmetta and delegation. Also attending the working session were relevant departments and agencies.”

Wirachai for himself. Clipped from Thua Thien Hue Portal.

Shaiyo Triple A claims to have 2.5 million contracted farmers supplying it. It, too, has several subsidiaries. One recent report states that the “Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) has teamed up with Asia Clean Industrial Park Co (ACIP) to develop a new industrial estate in Chon Buri to serve novel investment projects in the Eastern Economic Corridor.” That investment is “located on a plot of 1,300 rai in Ban Bung district with a development cost of 3 billion baht.” ACIP itself “has a registered capital of 1.8 billion baht and Songmetta Corporation owns a 99% stake.” ACIP is reportedly “an affiliate company of Shaiyo Triple A Group, the international conglomerate headquartered in Thailand, with core businesses in agriculture, clean and renewable energy, logistics services, industrial land development, engineering procurement and construction services, and international trading.”

Back at ACE, the Executive Committee includes Pol Lt Gen Adul Narongsak, formerly Deputy Commissioner of Metropolitan Police Bureau. Its Board of Directors includes Charoon Intachan who lists his positions as a member of the Council of State, member of the junta’s Constitution Drafting Committee, and a term as President of the Constitutional Court. He was the presiding judge at the Court when it dismissed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office for abuse of power in 2014.

Well connected you might say. With connections to the judiciary and police, the provincial operations of the various companies associated with Pol Gen Wirachai are well lubricated. But politically-connected businesses also carry political risks, especially when the monarch gets involved. When Wirachai was removed to the PM’s Office, the “share price Absolute Clean Energy Public Company Limited (ACE) hit the floor in the morning session on January 24, 2020,” diving almost 30 percent.

We find it troubling that a serving policeman so obviously has other interests and business. More so because there are conflicts of interest involved in the businesses being operated while he is a policeman. The junta was and Prayuth regime is unconcerned by such activities because all of them – police and military – benefit from this and similar activities.

Forgetfulness

PPT is wondering about the “forgetfulness” that characterizes post-2014 Thailand.

Our wondering was partly prompted by Pithaya Pookaman, a regular contributor to Asia Sentinel. One issue is the awful standover man/MP/Minister/fraudster/former heroin trafficker/purveyor of fake degrees Thammanat Prompao. He’s gone very quiet and we assume that a bigger boss than him has told him to shut up. The advice is probably that quietness will see all that “trouble” dissolve. We previously mentioned that he would probably get away with his lies and deceit. He’s powerful, influential and well-connected. How many countries have convicted drug traffickers as ministers? But his sins can be “forgotten.”

From The Guardian

Pithaya refers to “the farcical election in March 2019 that laundered the authoritarian power of the military junta under [Gen] Prayuth [Chan-ocha] into a shaky and unwieldly 19-party coalition…”. But what happened to the complaints about the election and the toadies at the Election Commission? Is that best forgotten? For the junta and its new regime, it probably is, but it seems stealing an election is not an offense when done by the military in 2019.

He also reckons that “the political conflict in Thailand is not between … the rich and the poor.” How quickly the basic facts are forgotten. We recall Amartya Sen’s confusing rhetoric on this, perhaps better forgotten. And it may be easily forgotten that back in 2007, per capita provincial GDP for the provinces that voted for the Democrat Party were more than 220,000 baht. For those voting for the People Power Party was just over 90,000 baht. It seems to us that those who gain most from electoral politics are those with the least.

Somyot and his money (or someone’s money)

Meanwhile, as China celebrates its nationhood, it was only a few days ago that Song Tao, the head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee met with Gen Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. It should not be forgotten that they reportedly “agreed to enhance cooperation between ruling parties for further development of bilateral ties.” Ruling parties…

Then there’s the long forgotten raid on the high-class Victoria’s Secret brothel. In recent days “[a]nti-human trafficking advocates [have been] calling on … Prayut[h] to look into a controversial decision to drop human trafficking charges against key suspects in last year’s Victoria’s Secret brothel crackdown.”

This involved underage women, including “services such as sex with virgin girls for which it charged customers as much as 100,000 baht as it was a ‘high demand service’…”.

The report remembers that “[f]ormer national police chief Somyot Poompanmoung last year admitted that he had borrowed “around 300 million baht” from [brothel owner] Kampol [Wirathepsuporn], whom he described as a friend.” It forgets to say that nothing at all has happened about Somyot’s corruption, his relationship with a sex trafficker and unusual wealth. Well, only unusual for regular people, not senior police who are mostly on the take and become seriously wealthy. Of course, Somyot was a big junta supporter and servant.

And, of course, there’s lots that is conveniently forgotten and some that’s forgotten because a lot of people are fearful of the power of military, monarchy, tycoons and other varieties of influential people.

There’s the case of Chaiyapoom Pasae, a kid shot and killed by the military and where that military has actively thwarted investigation.

Then there’s the bodies floating in the river, the disappeared anti-junta anti-monarchy activists, including men extradited to Thailand who simply disappeared. Can they really be forgotten?

Clipped from Thai Alliance for Human Rights website

Related, there’s the king. Do people really forget his missing missus? Do they forget the missing plaque and the missing monument commemorating the defeat of royalists?

But let’s not forget the protesters murdered by the military and never adequately investigated, in 1973, 1976, 1992 and 2010 (to mention just a few of the military’s murderous efforts).

There’s so much forgetfulness that any rational observer could only conclude that it isn’t forgetting but lying, covering up, maintaining impunity and great fear.

 

 

King Power helicopter down I

Most readers will already know that a helicopter that usually transports King Power boss and Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha has crashed and burned shortly after take-off from Leicester City’s latest game. As we write this, there is no news of Vichai’s fate or whether he was on the ill-fated flight.

A Sky News report tends to gloss Vichai’s life, so we thought a rundown of the posts we have had on Vichai might be in order. He is a man who became very rich very quickly based on a monopoly for duty free sales in Thailand, has rightists and royal political connections, including being associated with the funding of anti-democrats, and a royally-bestowed family name. PPT’s posts go back to 2009, not long after we began:

• Investigating the Suvarnabhumi occupation very, very slowly mentions Vichai’s business and connections with Newin Chidchob and the link with notoriously corrupt policeman Somyos Pumpanmuang.
• Making connections that count is also about the Newin connection.
• More on polo is about Vichai’s interest in things royal, equestrian and hi-so.
• Football and politics is about Vichai’s early forays into football investments.
• Down the Thaksin road adds to the football story.
• and Another King Power bomb are about bombs at King Power after the 2010 crackdown on red shirts.
• More on King Power is about the rise of King Power and its political connections.
• Who pays the parties? mentions political donations to the Bhum Jai Thai Party.
• Rewarding royalists considers the fruits of royal posterior polishing.
• Rich, rich, rich II is about Vichai in the Forbes super-rich lists.
• The funding trail is on the firms and individuals said to be funding anti-government protests in 2013-14.
• Footballing oligarchs I reprints an Asia Sentinel article on Vichai and his football investment.
• Footballing oligarchs II is a bit of a round-up on Vichai’s wealth and influence.
• King Power monopoly assured is our most recent post on the continuation of the King Power duty free monopoly.

Promoting loyal dullards and political allies

In a military dictatorship, where The Dictator and sundry minions want to rule for the foreseeable future, it pays to be onside, to posterior polish with vigor, pay for links or to have family connections.

Readers may recall that we mentioned Big Joke some days ago. Best known by this nickname, Deputy tourist police chief Surachate Hakparn has demonstrated that he is a thug and a fool.

In fact, a perfect fit with the military junta.

It is reported that the Big Joke will “become the new Immigration Bureau (IB) commissioner in the upcoming annual police reshuffle.” Why? Well, mainly because he’s a thug closely associated with the Deputy Dictator, Gen Prawit Wongsuwan.

The Police Service Commission recently met “to deliberate the [police] reshuffle list involving officers in positions ranging from commanders to deputy commissioners general.” Gen Prawit chaired the meeting.

National police chief and junta minion Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda declared that “all” attending the meeting “had decided on promoting Pol Maj Gen Surachate due to his achievements.” His thuggishness, his demonstrated lack of capacity for thinking and his ability to posterior polish are what matter for the military junta. (Any ability for independent thinking will rule one out.)

Being a senior policeman more or less guarantees huge wealth. Who can forget Pol Gen Somyos Pumpanmuang? When the junta appointed cops to the puppet National Legislative Assembly, the average declared wealth for the police top brass was a whopping 258 million baht. No one investigated this unusual wealth as the junta has power and the National Anti-Corruption Commission is a junta lapdog.

Big Joke has been Gen Prawit’s personal lapdog assistant spokesman for a month. Conflicts of interest, nepotism, favoritism, and so on mean nothing to the lawless junta.

(Recall the way the Yingluck Shinawatra was pilloried for transferring an officer who was considered a political problem. The junta never faces such opposition or even criticism for all its promotions, transfers and favoritism.)

Meanwhile, The Dictator “has dismissed claims Phalang Chon Party leader Sontaya Kunplome’s appointment as mayor of Pattaya is a political ploy to ensure his return as premier.”

Another lie. Everyone in Thailand knows exactly what Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha is doing, but he denies the obvious. Sontaya is there to make huge wealth – as his family has long done through its mafia-like operations – but mainly to ensure a political loyalist is in place when The Dictator becomes The (selected) Dictator.

Gen Prayuth may “dismiss … accusations that Mr Sontaya was being ‘rewarded’ for supporting Gen Prayut’s return as prime minister after next year’s general election,” but that’s the game. Recall that Sontaya’s dad, a convicted felon and dark influence, got extra special treatment from The Dictator, creating the patronage relationship. A previous relationship is discussed here.

Interestingly, Gen Prayuth affirmed his long-term relationship with Chonburi’s dark influences: “I have known many people in Chon Buri long before [becoming prime minister]…”.

We guess Big Joke has a relationship too, not least because the illicit loot that flows to cops and others from Pattaya means the Tourist Police do very nicely.