PHUKET: Thailand's military told all 10 Phuket police superintendents yesterday that honest officers will have total support to enforce the law on the troubled island but others will quickly be moved on.
In a law enforcement summit that ran for three hours, the message to the police colonels was clear - do your jobs, with full military support, to make Phuket a better place.
Phuketwan understands that military authorities do not want their continuing campaign to rid Phuket of its outlaws and its rip-off mentality to be undermined by complacent policing.
One of Phuket's problems is that police and officials appointed to work on the island sometimes become too familiar with residents and adapt Phuket's standards rather than imposing new, better ones.
Constant compromises on Phuket have eroded good government and efficient, fair and honest police activity.
The Army's Major General Somchai Ponatong, who chaired the meeting at the Royal Thai Navy's base at Cape Panwa on Phuket's east coast, made several telling points about the need for effective police action.
''Go about your roles aiming to make Phuket a better place,'' the general told the colonels. ''Do not take a step back if you run into a problem.
''The Army, Navy and Air Force are at your back and will support you. Our aim is to put everything in order and to restore contentment to the whole nation.''
He noted that the local residents on Phuket, who had previously triggered the sudden removal of efficient, honest administrators, no longer had the power to make a telephone call to influence an appropriately powerful person in Bangkok.
The military under General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who took charge of Thailand on May 22, was determined to end corruption and ''return happiness to the people'' by enforcing the law and lifting moral qualities.
On Phuket, the removal of most private commerce from the public beaches has been accompanied by a surge of arrests and new controls designed to rapidly reform the taxi and tuk-tuk ''mafia'' and make it an efficient public transport system that meets international standards.
A deputy commander from Phuket Police Headquarters in Phuket City was also at the meeting. Recent initiatives aimed at taming Phuket's taxi and tuk-tuk drivers have been sparked by police from Region 8 headquarters, not by local officers.
Officers on Phuket have usually given in to threats and intimidation by tuk-tuk and taxi drivers and local residents that, in a crisis, usually take the form of street blockades.
More and more, the message on Phuket is that big changes are underway.
It's a matter of how long the pressure can be maintained.
Decades of development for bad habits will have to be corrected in the short time that the military says it will remain in power.
In a law enforcement summit that ran for three hours, the message to the police colonels was clear - do your jobs, with full military support, to make Phuket a better place.
Phuketwan understands that military authorities do not want their continuing campaign to rid Phuket of its outlaws and its rip-off mentality to be undermined by complacent policing.
One of Phuket's problems is that police and officials appointed to work on the island sometimes become too familiar with residents and adapt Phuket's standards rather than imposing new, better ones.
Constant compromises on Phuket have eroded good government and efficient, fair and honest police activity.
The Army's Major General Somchai Ponatong, who chaired the meeting at the Royal Thai Navy's base at Cape Panwa on Phuket's east coast, made several telling points about the need for effective police action.
''Go about your roles aiming to make Phuket a better place,'' the general told the colonels. ''Do not take a step back if you run into a problem.
''The Army, Navy and Air Force are at your back and will support you. Our aim is to put everything in order and to restore contentment to the whole nation.''
He noted that the local residents on Phuket, who had previously triggered the sudden removal of efficient, honest administrators, no longer had the power to make a telephone call to influence an appropriately powerful person in Bangkok.
The military under General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who took charge of Thailand on May 22, was determined to end corruption and ''return happiness to the people'' by enforcing the law and lifting moral qualities.
On Phuket, the removal of most private commerce from the public beaches has been accompanied by a surge of arrests and new controls designed to rapidly reform the taxi and tuk-tuk ''mafia'' and make it an efficient public transport system that meets international standards.
A deputy commander from Phuket Police Headquarters in Phuket City was also at the meeting. Recent initiatives aimed at taming Phuket's taxi and tuk-tuk drivers have been sparked by police from Region 8 headquarters, not by local officers.
Officers on Phuket have usually given in to threats and intimidation by tuk-tuk and taxi drivers and local residents that, in a crisis, usually take the form of street blockades.
More and more, the message on Phuket is that big changes are underway.
It's a matter of how long the pressure can be maintained.
Decades of development for bad habits will have to be corrected in the short time that the military says it will remain in power.
You could say this was on the cards. Corruption within the ranks is rife. I hope the Junta will go further and start arresting those officers which facilitated crime as a lesson to others. Besides, the law should apply to everyone should it not ?
Posted by reader on July 26, 2014 11:35