Police Reform

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Well, will it ever happen? Police reform has been talked about since the days of the 1950s and Police Chief Phao Siyanon. This article from the Bangkok Post notes that the new government has yet to announce a policy on how to tackle problems within the police force.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... ce-uniform

Phao was one nasty son of a gun. You did not mess with him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phao_Siya ... Siyanon%20(Thai,country%20and%20died%20in%20exile.

[pipoz4444]

Worth a read

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... tion-talks

pipoz4444

[jackspratt]

I guess that no-one should be surprised that corruption flourishes in a system that allows a convicted and imprisoned heroin smuggler to become a full cabinet minister in the newly formed government.

[Drunk Monkey]

I guess that no-one should be surprised that corruption flourishes in a system that allows a convicted and imprisoned heroin smuggler to become a full cabinet minister in the newly formed government.

Ws in Ozz ...doesnt count here

[Khun Paul]

Sadly this incident has highlighted to the world at large just how screwed up the RTP really is . Endemic corruption flows through all rankls , ignored higher up as the rewards outweigh the punishment .
We all see it any time the RTP is involved we know someone has paid someone else. I was told to open a;most any business , involving Alcohol or food you need an RTP person somewhere in the business in order to survive and that was from a Thai .
even wshen I hada business ( petrol station and shop )I was visited a couple of times but they were met by my Thai partner who told them to go away. No freebies at all pay or go away . Government contracts pay up when they feel like it.

[tamada]

I guess that no-one should be surprised that corruption flourishes in a system that allows a convicted and imprisoned heroin smuggler to become a full cabinet minister in the newly formed government.

Ws in Ozz ...doesnt count here

And he had a different name back then so it doubly doesn't matter here.

Now he's a full-blown cabinet member, it NEVER HAPPENED anyways.

[tamada]

Well, will it ever happen? Police reform has been talked about since the days of the 1950s and Police Chief Phao Siyanon. This article from the Bangkok Post notes that the new government has yet to announce a policy on how to tackle problems within the police force.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... ce-uniform

Phao was one nasty son of a gun. You did not mess with him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phao_Siya ... Siyanon%20(Thai,country%20and%20died%20in%20exile.

This works better.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phao_Siyanon

"A client of the CIA, Phao received funds and hardware to build his personal fortune, as well as the expertise of US paramilitaries such as James William Lair to turn the police into an alternative force to oppose his military rival, Sarit Thanarat. ...
He also profited greatly from the opium trade. Police units transferred opium from the poppy fields of the Golden Triangle to Bangkok, ready to be exported. Trucks, planes, and boats which had been supplied to the police by the CIA, were instead used to move opium, which the police carefully guarded.

There you go readers, it is all the CIA's fault (again).

[tamada]

There's no will to try and change any of this, none whatsoever.

Some suggest that western nations need to make earnest political reform and ending corruption a key component to enabling emerging economies like Thailand greater access to trade agreements, markets, security alliances and the like. The old carrot and stick game?

If the international community can't present a unified stance against the likes of Myanmar, Russia or Iran, there's no chance of them ever influencing any change in Krung Thep Mahanakorn or Bahn Nawk.

Thai people don't eat a lot of carrots anyway.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Well, will it ever happen? Police reform has been talked about since the days of the 1950s and Police Chief Phao Siyanon. This article from the Bangkok Post notes that the new government has yet to announce a policy on how to tackle problems within the police force.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... ce-uniform

Phao was one nasty son of a gun. You did not mess with him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phao_Siya ... Siyanon%20(Thai,country%20and%20died%20in%20exile.

I don't see how it works better than my link:

Rise to power
An ambitious army officer of Thai-Burmese ancestry,[1] Phao married the daughter of General Phin Choonhavan.[2] He took part in the 1947 coup d'état that ended the last of Pridi Phanomyong's attempts to create democracy in post-World War II Thailand, restoring disgraced Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram to power.

Made deputy director of the police, Phao quickly staged a show trial of the alleged "assassins" of individual Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII), in which three members of the palace staff were found guilty despite a lack of evidence and were eventually executed even though they had earlier been found innocent.

Police terror
Phao was promoted to the position of director of the police in 1951, by which time he had become one of the country's all-powerful triumvirate. A client of the CIA, Phao received funds and hardware to build his personal fortune, as well as the expertise of US paramilitaries such as James William Lair to turn the police into an alternative force to oppose his military rival, Sarit Thanarat.

Phao established an intimate circle of police officers, known generally as the "knights of the diamond ring", which was notorious for its treatment of opponents of the government and the police generals, even resorting to assassination and murder. Their crimes were many:

In March 1949, four MPs from Isan and an associate, all one-time disciples of the exiled Pridi, were arrested on charges of treason. They were shot dead by their police escort while supposedly being transferred from one jail to another.
On 12 December 1952, Tiang Sirikhanth, MP for Sakon Nakhon, a leading Seri Thai member and an opponent of the government, was arrested with four of his associates. They were murdered (allegedly by strangulation in a police station) and their bodies burned in a forest in Kanchanaburi Province.
A successful newspaper publisher, Ari Liwara, refused to sell out to Phao and was killed in March 1953.
In 1954 Phon Malithong, MP for Samut Sakhon who provided evidence of corruption against Phao in Parliament, was found tied to a concrete pier in the Chao Phraya River, having first been strangled.
Phao was extremely wealthy. He demanded protection money from businessmen, rigged the gold exchange, and blackmailed corporations into giving him huge shareholdings. He also profited greatly from the opium trade. Police units transferred opium from the poppy fields of the Golden Triangle to Bangkok, ready to be exported. Trucks, planes, and boats which had been supplied to the police by the CIA, were instead used to move opium, which the police carefully guarded.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

I guess that no-one should be surprised that corruption flourishes in a system that allows a convicted and imprisoned heroin smuggler to become a full cabinet minister in the newly formed government.

Thamanat Prompow, is not the only questionable figure in the new cabinet.

Controversial ministers

Names drawing the most scrutiny are Thamanat Prompow, newly appointed Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister; Chada Thaised, Deputy Interior Minister; and Police General Patcharawat Wongsuwan, Deputy Premier and Natural Resource and Environment Minister. Pol-Gen Patcharawat also happens to be the younger brother of Palang Pracharath Party leader General Prawit Wongsuwan.

Avoiding the spotlight is Phichit Chuenban, a controversial former lawyer for the Shinawatra family who had been tipped to become Prime Minister’s Office minister. However, his name was dropped from the lineup at the last minute when he announced his decision not to take the seat.

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/new-cabine ... -politics/

[jackspratt]

Good lord - the TV series worthy career of Big Joke takes yet another twist (or is that turn)?

Big Joke's house searched by cyber crime police

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... ime-police

[pipoz4444]

Lets makes series, call it "Peaky Thainders", obviously with Thai characters

Can any one name these five characters from left to right if they were Thai??

pipoz4444

[tamada]

Good lord - the TV series worthy career of Big Joke takes yet another twist (or is that turn)?

Big Joke's house searched by cyber crime police

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... ime-police

Yeah, you're not a candidate NOW

[noosard]

download (1).jpeg (4.26 KiB) Viewed 181 times

[Khun Paul]

We can all wax lyrical about the top of the responsibility tree regarding Police Corruption to the extent we blame ...POLITICANS ....for being part of it.
We forget that the average Police officer here is not only badly trained but it seems poorly paid comp[ared to other relative positions. However locally in Villages, small towns and to some extent larger towns like Udon local police hierarchy wield tremendous clout in mnay ways some unknown to us mere foreigners, following on from Thai Culture they expect respect and demand it and also have the abi8lity and the man-power to duck and dive while obfuscating any interference and enquires into their actions.
Seeing as how Corruption is endemic almost woven into the rank and file as well as required it would seem to get promoted etc, then removing it will be the hardest action ANY Government will undertake to date. Re-organising the Army will be simple, the RTP are a completely different ball-game considering many of their activities operate under the radar as it were. !!

[Laan Yaa Mo]

This is true; however, military reform has even been more elusive than police reform over the decades. At least the firepower of the police has been reduced since Sarit staged a coup in 1957 that led to the exile of the Director-General police head, Phao in 1957.

[tamada]

This is true; however, military reform has even been more elusive than police reform over the decades. At least the firepower of the police has been reduced since Sarit staged a coup in 1957 that led to the exile of the Director-General police head, Phao in 1957.

The police sell or pawn their guns to pay bills. That reduces their firepower even more.

The army is the sole importer of firearms so they fan sell theirs too, no need to put them in the pawn shop.