Appointment is ugly, even by Thai standards

To anyone familiar with the history of these two men, the news was nothing short of surreal.

In 2001 Duang was acquitted of murdering Suvichai Rodwimud, a police sergeant awarded Crimebuster of the Year honours, at point blank range after every eyewitness for the prosecution came down with a case of amnesia during trial. Before the murder, Duang was said to admonish the victim with his now trademark line: “Do you know who my father is?” The question has since become emblematic of the impunity with which the offspring of some of Thailand’s rich and influential phu yai, (whom an article in Time magazine once called “The Untouchables”) often threaten and abuse the mere mortals in their midst.

Duang insisted he had joined the RTP without any help from his father, a man who happens to be Thailand’s de facto police czar. No one took the claim seriously, but the obvious and unsavoury nepotism behind Duang’s appointment is not even the main issue. There is something else here far worse than mere corruption. The move to bring an alleged killer right into the heart of an institution he so spectacularly violated 11 years ago is so shameless and obscene, it feels repulsive even by Thailand’s dismal standards of crooked politics.

It is sad to realise that not so long ago, a poll showed that most Thais thought Chalerm, despite being a bombastic thug, was a good father – because for all his misdeeds, he protected his son. That’s unfortunate. Chalerm is not a good father – he created his monster, let him loose and continues to enable him at the cost of good ethics, clean politics and basic justice.

Bangkok Dave