Politicisation of police force ends hopes of peace

The police-chief saga that has been dominating front-page headlines over the past few days is only additional confirmation of what we knew would happen. Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung is quite good at getting the political ball rolling really quickly, but he is a bad actor. It has been obvious from the beginning that illegal casinos or drug problems are just a pretext. Police General Wichien Potephosree seemingly is losing his job for any reason but his performance. Pure and simple, he's falling victim to shifting political winds.

Democratic principles allow such a bureaucratic ordeal. To be able to chop and change the state mechanism to suit a government's policies is, in fact, a fundamental point of democracy. Wichien is not the first victim and he will not be the last. It's the way things are - or, you may argue, should be - in every democracy.

We can only wish the situation in Thailand was that simple, though. It's fair to say that the police-chief episode has dismayed a lot of Thais. For a government that pledged "repair and not revenge", to try to kick out the police chief just days after taking power and replace him with a brother of Thaksin Shinawatra's ex-wife - Priewpan Damapong - only raises serious doubt about the motive. If the intention is sincere, Chalerm has conveyed it very badly. As for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, her public interaction on the issue so far only underlines how much she is in control of government power.

Yingluck has repeatedly said that everything concerning this affair was "up to" Chalerm. The more distant and disinterested she looks, the more arrogant Chalerm becomes. Putting him in charge of the police was an irony in the first place, given the past trouble his family has had with law enforcement.

Wichien was under pressure from day one of the new government thanks to a problem that no administration in the past had managed to solve. Make no mistake, Wichien did not fulfil his responsibility, and he cannot use his predecessors' failures as an excuse. But whether the government is using drugs and illegal gambling as a reason or pretext for removing him is another matter.

Will Chalerm ensure public safety now that he's supervising the police? Will he crack down on all gambling dens indiscriminately? Vice rackets are known to be operating in his constituency, as well. Will he also target them? These are among the questions doubters are asking the deputy prime minister, who has been quick to re-brand himself as a crime-buster.

The Yingluck government may be exercising its election mandate, but it's clear that the police force will continue to be politicised. Whether that will be good for the "repair and not revenge" slogan, and the hope for reconciliation as a whole, is very easy to tell. The divided Thai public has picked up where it left off before the election. One side is defending Chalerm as a courageous politician not afraid to do the necessary dirty jobs. The other side has been left speechless by the speed at what they see as political retribution taking place.

Wichien's fate just confirms that the political mentality remains what it has always been. On Thursday, controversial Pheu Thai MP Jatuporn Promphan claimed that another conspiracy against another pro-Thaksin government was just around the corner. He alleged that red shirts' "intelligence" had found out that efforts to overthrow the democratically elected administration would be stepped up in December. However, he warned that whoever was plotting against the Yingluck government would be up against the ire of the red shirts.

Little has changed. Cut-throat, partisan politics appears set to be amplified. Reconciliation, pledged so earnestly by Yingluck during and after the election campaign, is looking as - if not more - remote as before. Wichien's departure and Priewpan's arrival have shown us as much.