The former limelight-loving chief of immigration is having a hard time holding down a job this year.
Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, 48, was denied a position on a police subcommittee yesterday at an urgent meeting called by top brass yesterday at the Royal Thai Police headquarters in Bangkok following word of his appointment.
The impromptu meeting was called after media reports of Big Joke’s posting caused a stir among the public and prompted a top junta official to confirm the news. In April, he was removed from his high-profile post atop the Immigration Bureau without explanation. He was later removed from the force and reduced to a civil servant in the bureaucracy.
No Joke: Popular immigration chief vanishes after losing job
The swirling speculation over his new role peaked Wednesday when deputy prime minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwon, a close ally of Surachate, confirmed his appointment to reporters. He said there was nothing wrong with a civil servant sitting on the subcommittee.
In the wake of yesterday’s brief meeting, deputy national police chief Gen. Wirachai Songmetta told reporters the decision to remove Surachate was not made under pressure. Instead, he said it was because Surachate had already taken an advisory role in the Prime Minister’s Office, which would make it “inconvenient” for him to travel to police meetings.
How thoughtful.
Lt. Gen. Surachate, himself, did not attend yesterday’s meeting and has made no public comment on the matter.
A deputy metro police chief, was subsequently appointed in Surachate’s place.
Surachate’s downfall began in April, after he was mysteriously suspended from his position at immigration and transferred to police headquarters by order of the national police chief. No explanation was given for his transfer and, to date, the cause remains unknown, with rumors too taboo to openly discuss.
About a month after his removal, Surachate emerged after a brief disappearance to accept an advisory role on improving public service – basically a fancy desk job. Since then, Surachate had been working out of the Government Center up in the hinterlands of Chaeng Watthana.
Prior to his fall, Surachate was known as a tireless bureaucrat who seemed almost to teleport from raid to raid nationwide. Most famously, his roundups of immigrants and visa scofflaws in near-weekly episodes of an operation called “X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner” drew wide attention.
In January, he drew global attention when he intervened to protect and ultimately free a Saudi woman who’d fled her family and barricaded herself inside Suvarnabhumi Airport to avoid deportation. In a rare move for high-ranking bureaucrats, he took a principled stand on a human-rights basis, 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 took credit for busting scammers.
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