Pol Gen Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul did it again!
This time around, the deputy national police chief who, about four months ago, grabbed media headlines for his low-bowing gesture in front of alleged illegal hunter Premchai Karnasuta, was at the wrong place and at the wrong time. Worse, he was completely out of touch with his "nonsensical" talk last week with some of the officials engaged in the rescue operations to find 12 boys and their football coach at Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district.
Veera Prateepchaikul is a former editor, Bangkok Post.
"Why was he there?" Was one of several questions asked by netizens on social media who were deeply disturbed by his bossy manner and the tone he took with one of the officials from the Mineral Resources Department manning drilling equipment at the cave area.
With his finger pointed at the drilling machine, Pol Gen Srivara tersely asked the official whether he had the clearance from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation to carry out the cave drilling.
"This is not a pleasure trip … better check the law too," he was quoted as telling the official who obediently answered that he was just an ordinary engineer. But this tough-talk was completely non-existent during his encounter with Mr Premchai at the Thong Pha Phum police station in Kanchanaburi when the boss of Italian-Thai Development Plc showed up to acknowledge the charges against him about four months ago.
Upon his return to Bangkok from his unannounced brief visit to the cave, Pol Gen Srivara countered that he merely wanted the officials there to abide by the law. He noted the public disaster law does not guarantee impunity for actions deemed an offence under the other laws and, as a law enforcement officer himself, he wanted everything to be legal.
Regarding officials using drones to survey and take aerial pictures of the mountainous terrain above the cave to look for possible routes in to rescue the 13 victims trapped inside since June 23, the deputy police chief also raised the question of a permit for the use of drones.
He said he didn't think the officials dug into their own pockets to buy the drones because they were mostly not wealthy.
"If you use your own drones to operate here, my question is where you got the money to buy them. Did you use government budget? Or your own money? If you used government budget, there are regulations to follow. I asked the question because I have the responsibility," Pol Gen Srivara was quoted as telling his men.
He claimed he spent less than one minute giving his "lecture" on the need to follow the law and didn't understand why it became a big issue. However, he later offered an apology if what he said did not satisfy the public but insisted that he would not tolerate violations of the law.
Exactly when the life-and-death search operation demanded close attention to the attempt to find 12 missing boys and their football coach, this police officer showed up asking for licences to fly drones. (EPA photo)
What business did he have attempting to supervise the drilling in the cave? The Tham Luang Cave is within the jurisdiction of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, not the Royal Thai Police. So if legal action was to be taken against the men from the Mineral Resources Department, it is at the discretion of the park officials, not any police officer, including Pol Gen Srivara. So why the bother? Why the fuss?
Likewise, drones are within the jurisdiction of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand, not the Royal Thai Police. Why interfere? It is none of the police's business. His undesirable conduct fits with a Chinese saying which reads along these lines: "When the stomach is full, one has nothing better to do."
I could not agree more with former Supreme Court judge Chuchart Srisaeng, who criticised Pol Gen Srivara's questioning of the legality of the use of drones and drilling machines as nonsensical. Stupid questions, to be exact.
Then he cited Section 67 of the Criminal Code which exempts a person from punishment if he or she is forced into a tight situation or put under unavoidable or irresistible pressure to commit an offence in order for himself, herself or others to escape immediate danger which is not caused by him or her. Hasn't Pol Gen Srivara read this section of the Criminal Code? That means the officials who fly drones or drill holes in the cave wall in their efforts to help the trapped boys and their coach will be exempted from legal punishment even though they don't have a licence.
The one minute which Pol Gen Srivara claimed he spent lecturing his men on the use of drones has come at a cost to his reputation, name and so forth. But who cares? I believe the many people who despise his misplaced conduct care more about the morale of the search and rescue workers who are sacrificing their comfort and who are willingly eating and sleeping on the ground just to help the trapped boys.
Why didn't he grill the Navy Seals over their use of underwater drones? Thank God the deputy national police chief did not spend more time at the site than his boss, Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda, who was there too but joined with the border patrol team in search of alternative routes into the cave.
And thank God too that Pol Gen Srivara does not have an active role in the search and rescue operations. I can't imagine how the operations would go with him taking the helm.
While everybody from every direction, officials and volunteers alike, are doing what they can, using whatever means possible and whatever tools available with one single goal in mind -- to find and rescue the 12 boys and their coach-- this lone police officer preached the legality of the means and tools used by some of the officials during these potential moments of life and death. How pathetic!
His concern with the legal issues is out of place, out of mind. Thank God, again, he is not the police chief, although he aspires to be The One, as he is known to be a protege of one of our deputy prime ministers who hails from the Burapha Phayak clique.
Phra Siam Devadhiraj, Thailand's guardian deity, please save us all if he is The One.