A middleman in the purchase of the militarily useless, strategically harmful "black box hardware" for the army has been sentenced, twice, to a prison term of 19 years. Ex-businessman Sutthiwat Wannakij was convicted by the Don Muang district court for his part in the purchase of the fake bomb detectors known as GT200. The military men involved in this shameful saga more than 10 years ago have never been brought to justice. They include several of those in high positions in the military regime and National Council for Peace and Order.
Sutthiwat ran a small (just two employees) business called AVA Satcom Co Ltd. With advice, encouragement and indeed the promise of profits, he purchased the fake bomb detectors from the Comstrac Co of Britain and its fraudster owner, James McCormick. UK justice took care of that end of the deal -- McCormick was convicted of fraud. But the Thai part in the purchase of the fake devices has lingered.
The two convictions of Sutthiwat in a week have renewed interest, and that is a good thing. Sutthiwat's lawyer said he would appeal both cases on a single, main point. He claims that Sutthiwat only imported the GT200 "dowsing rod" boxes because the army told him to do so. Credibly he claims army officers approached his client with instructions, and specific specifications to buy, import and resell the items to the army.
The lawyer's claim is credible because this is the way the Royal Thai Armed Forces do their foreign buying. Purchases abroad are almost always via a Thai third party. The claim of Sutthiwat and his lawyer is that the businessman knew nothing about bomb detectors, received no instructions about testing them and would not, in any case, have known how to conduct such tests. After the start in 2004 of the purchase of what eventually became 535 sets of GT200 by the RTA, four army commanders in a row spoke glowingly and positively of their effectiveness. Despite scepticism from the beginning and even after total proof the GT200s were a hoax, the generals insisted the GT200s worked.
The army doled out 1.2 million baht for each GT200. That 642-million baht outlay of taxpayers' money was only part of the total. Other units of the armed forces hoodwinked themselves to spend hundreds of millions more for GT200s, and witless civilian security agencies purchased a sister device, the Alpha6, which was 100% ineffective and a fraud at detecting illicit drugs.
Last week, after Sutthiwat's second conviction was announced, Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon spoke. He said flatly that after purchases began in 2004 when he was army commander, the devices were tested and found to work perfectly. This is an impossible achievement, since the devices provably did not and could not work -- a fact confirmed by Thai scientists. After him, army chiefs Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin (headed a coup, then retired), current Minister of Interior Gen Anupong Paojinda and Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha praised the GT200. They extolled it for detecting not only explosives but for finding people who had handled explosives, hundreds of whom were detained and "interrogated".
There is an adage, old but gold, that applies here. It is that when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. The former leadership of the Royal Thai Army is defending indefensible actions.
The flat truth is they failed crucial responsibilities involving the purchase of expensive but questionable hardware. As a result, citizens that army generals swear to protect were harmed.
These men, now national leaders, should instead be manning up, admitting they made errors, and working in their highly responsible jobs to try to ensure better evaluations are applied to purchases of the future.