The former immigration chief known as “Big Joke” has emerged from the wilderness to quietly report to a civilian position.
Nearly a month after the charismatic cop who seemed on his way to the top vanished from the public eye, Lt. Gen. Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn reported yesterday to the Prime Minister’s Office for an advisory role on improving public service – which is basically a fancy desk job.
After careful deliberation of his skill sets – busting foreigners, welcoming tourists, investigating tech crime – Surachate was tasked with developing public service systems, according to Patcharaporn Intreyonk, the permanent secretary for the Prime Minister’s Office, via Khaosod.
No Joke: Popular immigration chief vanishes after losing job
Surachate will be working out of the Government Center in the Chaeng Watthana hinterlands and won’t need be at the Government House except to attend meetings.
Though his big return to the workforce was expected to be met with wide media coverage, his visit to the office was kept quiet.
Since Surachate, 48, mysteriously lost his job in the beginning of last month, he’s kept a low profile, slinking out of the media spotlight he once dominated. Those who’ve followed any Thai news for the last year would notice the change.
Surachate was once known as a tireless bureaucrat who seemed almost to teleport from raid to raid nationwide. Most famously, his roundups of illegal immigrants and visa scofflaws were chronicled in near-weekly episodes of an ongoing operation called “X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner.”
In January, he drew global attention when he intervened to protect and ultimately free a Saudi woman who had barricaded herself inside a Suvarnabhumi Airport transit hotel to avoid deportation back to her family. At the time, he was applauded for taking a principled stand, saying Thailand wouldn’t “send someone to their death.”
In parallel to his job running a massive department responsible for the nearly 40 million people passing through the kingdom annually, Surachate also helped lead the police cybercrime unit, where he has taken credit for busting scammers.
No official reason has ever been given for Surachate’s sudden fall from grace. That has left people whispering, and speculation ripening about his transfer.
