Big Joke’s fate: Public on tenterhooks will have to wait one more day

A meeting at the Royal Thai Police headquarters which is widely expected to centre around the reasons for the transfer of Lt-Gen Surachate Hakparn to an inactive post has been delayed.

And the chairman of the police committee presenting the conference will not be the deputy prime minister but the chief of police.

A meeting was scheduled for today at 1.30pm with the press and public desperate for news about the poster boy of the RTP – the self-styled Big Joke himself.

But an announcement yesterday evening at 7.20pm said that the meeting will be held on the first floor of RTP HQ in the Sriyan Room at 1.30pm on Wednesday.

It is customary for deputy prime minister and defence minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon to head this committee.

Instead, the national police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda will preside.

Lt-Gen Surachate was transferred to an inactive post from immigration in a sudden move by Gen Chakthip on Friday. He was told to report to the 20th floor instead of his usual office.

No reason has so far been given but speculation in the Thai and foreign communities has been rife.

Thaivisa notes that it would be no exaggeration to say that for the foreign community at least there has never been a Thai policeman with such a high profile and recognition as Surachate.

Much of that is to do with his nickname, his promotion to the head of immigration and subsequent changes to immigration work and his continued work in investigating cases of criminality, especially among illegal immigrants and foreigners.

Source: TNA