Pol Cpl Kornsasi Buayaem (Royal Thai Police photo)
The opposition Pheu Thai Party on Sunday demanded Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, the caretaker prime minister and director of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), tackle the patronage system in the security agency.
The maid abuse scandal was evidence of the patronage system in Isoc at work and possibly the tip of the iceberg, said Pheu Thai spokeswoman Arunee Kasayanont. “The question is how many other cases have existed? Who else should be held responsible for them? And is the Isoc’s spending of taxpayers’ money worthwhile?” asked Ms Arunee.
She was referring to the recruitment of Pol Cpl Kornsasi Buayaem, 43, who made headlines for beating her maid, 32, for whom she also secured a military job allegedly in exchange for money and forced labour.
Pol Cpl Kornsasi was recruited by the General Staff Division of the Special Branch Bureau of the Royal Thai Police (RTP) when she was 39 years old even though the maximum age for the position was limited to 35.
She had a squad leader’s position and was later transferred to the Special Branch Bureau’s 1st Division. Around the beginning of this year, she was assigned to perform temporary duty at the Isoc’s Region 4 Forward Command of the Royal Thai Army.
A parliamentary panel will look into whether the police force’s recruitment of the woman and her assignment to the Isoc Region 4 Forward Command, and the military recruitment of the maid, were in line with the law.
In 2019, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, now suspended as prime minister pending a Constitutional Court ruling on his eight-year tenure, expanded the Isoc to up to 17 sub-units, said Ms Arunee.
The expansion drew criticism as to whether Isoc tended to interfere with regional administrative organisations, considering the fact that a military official was as part of Isoc’s expansion, appointed to serve as a provincial deputy governor for military affairs in the provinces, she said.
Isoc had tried to justify this move by making the scope of international security affairs appear endless and involve most, if not all, other areas of public administration, she said.
On one hand, the presence of Isoc’s officials in every province should make locals feel safe, while on the other hand, Isoc is more like a twilight zone where outsiders will never know what actually is going on and are unable to check, she said.
With full authority in hand, Gen Prawit should be aware that an investigation into what has long been wrong in Isoc is now unavoidable and case-by-case probes are no longer sufficient to maintain public trust, she said.
Clear and accountable information about the number of soldiers, police and civilians working in Isoc should be made available for public scrutiny, as a way of eradicating the patronage system in the organisation, she said.
In another development, the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) said it has petitioned the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to take over from the police the investigation against Pol Cpl Kornsasi to ensure fairness.
The misconduct in this case is far more serious than general abuse as it also involves forced labour and human trafficking, which are both breaches of the 2008 Trafficking in Persons Prevention and Suppression Act, said the HRDF.
Besides, the case also involves apparent abuse of authority to secure a job in the RTP for the suspect and a military job for the maid she abused, said the HRDF. That is why the RTP should not be trusted to investigate the case.
The Senate’s ethics committee, meanwhile, will today begin investigating records of past meetings to find out how many committees Pol Cpl Kornsasi sat on and how much she was paid for these jobs, even though she didn’t appear to be qualified for them.
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