Is Premchai case a diversion?
Social media are in uproar, mainstream media are full of lurid headlines, protesters are on the streets, walls are covered with representations of black leopards and the authorities are throwing the book at him, together with anything else they can lay their hands on.
Yet (with apologies to Rudyard Kipling) Premchai Karnasuta seems to be keeping his head while all about him are losing theirs. Appearing at court this week, and no doubt disappointing those who had been claiming he would flee the country, Premchai denied the charges being laid against him and said that the truth would emerge in court.
Well, let’s hope it does, and that justice takes its course fairly and impartially. Premchai certainly has questions to answer regarding events in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, but the latest twist in this tale is puzzling. The discovery of a “musket” found at Premchai’s house could apparently result in charges under the Destruction of Artefacts and Historical Sites Act. What connection there could be between an artefact or antique musket and the destruction of historic sites may well be clarified in due course, but antique shops in Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand are full of antiques and artefacts, and no doubt many households are too, yet they seem not to attract the attention of the authorities. As for historic sites, well, they seem to disappear almost as quickly as the nation’s wildlife and forests, a recent example being the Mahakan Fort Community in Bangkok, yet this Act has, to my knowledge, never been invoked. Why it should be taken off an obscure shelf and dusted down just because of Premchai’s “musket” is intriguing.
I do wonder if there is a hidden agenda at work here. We await further developments with bated breath. Meanwhile, the ludicrous saga of the 25 watches drags on, and the case against the Red Bull scion seems to have mysteriously disappeared from the Interpol website. It’s a funny old world.
Robin Grant
Bangkok
