Police Reform

[Laan Yaa Mo]

So is it your contention that the police were more efficient back when I was not yet a teenager than they are now? We seem to be discussing two different topics, no.

[tamada]

So is it your contention that the police were more efficient back when I was not yet a teenager than they are now? We seem to be discussing two different topics, no.

No, but maybe you are with your recent potted history of the RTP? Can't for the life of me see how Sarit's coup and Phao fleeing into exile sixty-odd years ago has anything to do with, let's check the thread title... Police Reform.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

It demonstrates that police reform can be done no matter that much more has to take place.. Military reform, in answer to KP, seems to be a more difficult matter, no.

[tamada]

Ah yes, I get your drift. I would need to get into the minutiae of what happened in the days, weeks months after Phao fled that caused the RTP to be so emasculated as I doubt it was self-driven reform. Maybe they were such a suddenly headless lot and no longer akin to being Phao's power tools, it was a relatively easy evolution? I recall reading somewhere that a robust, armed police was seen as a necessary counterbalance to a dangerous military with delusions of state control, but that may have been Brazil. As far as any similar equilibrium that goes on here in Thailand, it doesn't appear that one holds any great sway or influence over the other. Of course, with the recent round-robin of military-based administrations, it's obvious who had the final say on any top cop appointments. The former 'green' PM famously claimed that RTP reform was high on his agenda, then did absolutely nothing about it for almost nine years. But for the most part, they appear to happily co-exist, feeding off their host.

Armed forces reform would be tantamount to a dilution of the entity that helps keeps a very dated, dare I say almost divine edifice in a position of power here in Thailand. As far as I can tell, they serve no other purpose but to serve each other. That and keep lao khao plentiful and affordable.

[Whistler]

Police reform, not likely, an example two days ago in our soi.

A young guy on yabba knocked down and killed an old guy on a bicycle, the old guy was not 100% so his relatives only asked for 100K baht. No, no said the police, must pay 300K.

Relatives coughed up 300K, family of the deceased got 100K, you can guess were the rest went.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

My contention is that police reform has happened in the past. It may never happen again in the future any more than army reform will take place. But if you think things are the same with the police, and nothing has changed, then you are ignoring the facts.

Here are the facts:

...the CIA began to arm the police (1950-51)....The CIA formed close links with the police chief, Phao, and subsequently provided him with tanks, armoured cars, aircraft, helicopters, and speedboats, and training by 200 CIA advisers. The police became virtually a rival army. Sarit and Phao were soon locked in competition. Their manpower was virtually equal: 48,000 police and 45,000 in the army. They vied to take over the lucrative monopolies and business patronage....They both visited the USA in 1954 and returned with aid commitments of US$25 million (Sarit) and US$37 million (Phao). They competed to control the opium trade, and in 1950 came close to fighting a battle over the crop....On 18 Septemberr 1957, showing yet again the strategic importance of the First Army, Sarit executed a coup...sending Phao into exile....Units and hardware were removed from the police and placed under the army....Future American funding was channelled through the army.

Baker, Chris; Phongpaichit Pasuk. A History of Thailand , 3rd. ed., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), Pp. 1455-146.

Some may think the police still are equal to the army in numbers and firepower, but not me. Times have changed.

[tamada]

The CIA was courting and arming both sides at the same time. Why? Did they want the army to assert control and needed the rival of a powerful police to get them to do it? Or were they hoping the police would prevail or otherwise keep the army too preoccupied to prevent something unstated here (like foreign predation) but got it all wrong?

[Laan Yaa Mo]

The CIA was courting and arming both sides at the same time. Why? Did they want the army to assert control and needed the rival of a powerful police to get them to do it? Or were they hoping the police would prevail or otherwise keep the army too preoccupied to prevent something unstated like foreign predation but got it all wrong?

The CIA didn't give anything to the Thai army. That funding came from the U.S. Government. It seems the U.S. Government thought Sarit was 'a corrupt and drunken libertine' (p. 147) so just in case the CIA was allowed to fund Phao.

Thailand had become a U.S. client-state under military rule. But the result was a severe division...between army and police. Beginning in January 1951, the USA sent 28 arms shipments with enough equipment for nine army battalions. By 1953, US military aid was equivalent to two-and-a half- the Thai military budget.

The USA began to build strategic roads through the northeast (road and belt my quote), upgrade ports and airfields for military use, and launch a programme of psychological warfare aimed at both peasants and officials.

p. 145

[tamada]

Thanks for that clarification. All part of the far east "communist domino" defence after the Korean stalemate and France making a pigs arse of their regional colonial predations (same as in Africa) despite considerable support from the US..

This was all under Eisenhower as POTUS so maybe the peril of electing a war-winner as your leader?

I like the belt and Mitrapharp analogy.

[Khun Paul]

What a load of claptrap spouted about events near;y 65 years + ago/ People the world has moved on, no-one in charge then is alive, so unless the current movers and shakers learn from history ( which they will not ) then it will continue
Damn all any of us can do, just sit on the sidelines and watch the chaos ensue.
While some exercise their brain cells trying to outdo each other on history, which occurred when Thyailand had recently become a Democracy of sorts from an absolute Monarchy .

[jackspratt]

^

What a load of claptrap ......

I couldn't agree more.

[tamada]

What a load of claptrap spouted about events near;y 65 years + ago/ People the world has moved on, no-one in charge then is alive, so unless the current movers and shakers learn from history ( which they will not ) then it will continue
Damn all any of us can do, just sit on the sidelines and watch the chaos ensue.
While some exercise their brain cells trying to outdo each other on history, which occurred when Thyailand had recently become a Democracy of sorts from an absolute Monarchy .

Dear KP,

Feel free to ignore threads and posts that don't interest you.

Nobody's trying to outdo anyone here on anything except you by being an arse.

[tamada]

^

What a load of claptrap ......

I couldn't agree more.

Arse