OPINION

Stirring the pot

Re: "'Big Joke' challenges PM over sack order", (BP, June 25).

Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn has always been a controversial character, and the Post's article is hilarious in perhaps unintended ways. We have heard virtually nothing about the Police Virtue Protection Committee, a curiosity which no doubt is intended to protect their virtue. Perhaps some foreigners thought the said committee was patrolling only in the restive southern provinces to ensure the moral character of the women inhabitants there?

Pol Gen Surachate's attempts to appeal to the committee and to the premier to review (and hopefully revoke) his dismissal order is enlightening for our foreign readers, many of us never knew we had a premier.

Pol Gen Surachate added that "the dismissal order was also found to be illegitimate", surely a big plus in the eyes of the Virtue Committee.

The presser held by Pol Gen Surachate was characteristic of his style; stirring the pot furiously, he threatened everybody he could think of if they failed to meet his demands. In the past this tactic has seemed to work in strange ways for him. Altogether a very entertaining and informative article. Can't wait for the next installment!

Joker in control

Re: "Commission set to meet today to decide fate of 'Big Joke'", (BP, June 26).

Ten years after a coup that was said to be staged to remove corruption, I find myself wondering just how bad things can get. You feel it couldn't possibly get any worse, and then you start reading the morning's Bangkok Post and find it has. In just the last two days it's more school officials denying children a proper lunch, customs officials helping importers of supercars dodge 900 million baht of duties and a prosecutor found guilty of aiding smugglers. Add in the top two cops still fighting over corruption accusations, a senatorial election that goes on despite masses of complaints and daily reports of economic gloom, and you are left feeling hopelessly depressed. Thankfully, there is a joker in control, and I feel sure he can come up with some more impossible dreams to lighten our days.

Hamas to blame

Re: "B291m to help Thais escape Israel" & "First Thai workers head to Israel post-massacre", (BP, June 26).

May I offer a correction to paragraph 3 "six Thai hostages remain captive as a result of the Hamas-Israeli conflict"? It would be more accurate to state the Thais remain in captivity because they were abducted from Israel on Oct 7, and Hamas has refused to release them even after formal requests by the Thai government.

Also, I find it curious this article discusses the authorisation of funds under the Ministry of Labour to help Thais "escape" Israel, while at the bottom of the same page, you cover the commencement of 10,000 Thai workers heading to Israel under the approval of the Ministry of Labour. Doesn't this seem contradictory?