Thai junta opponents held on way to probe military

By Max Constant

BANGKOK

Two prominent opponents of the ruling Thai junta have been arrested by the military while on their way to investigate perceived corruption by army officers at a theme park honoring Thai kings.

Jatuporn Prompan and Nattawut Saikua -- both leaders in the opposition Red Shirts movement -- had been placed under military surveillance at their Bangkok homes since Sunday morning after announcing that they would visit Ratchapakdi Park to “investigate corruption allegations” related to the project.

On Monday, they were arrested by soldiers in Mahachai, a city 45 kilometers south of Bangkok, and driven to an unknown location.

Minutes prior to their arrest, they denied any such investigative intentions to journalists from the Bangkok Post accompanying them, saying that they were visiting the park purely to “pay homage to the seven statues of past Thai kings” erected there and were “not equipped to conduct any type of investigation.”

The spectacular 13.9-metre (45.6 feet) bronze statues form the centerpieces of the 1 billion baht ($28 million) park in Hua Hin, around 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Bangkok.

It was not clear under which law Prompan and Saikua were arrested or how long they will be detained.

Allegations of corruption concerning the park, built on military land to honor the Thai monarchy, have snowballed since first emerging last month.

On Nov. 10, Gen. Udomdej Sitabutr, a former army chief who chaired a foundation in charge of the project until Oct. 1, said that a middleman had asked the owners of the factories which cast the statues (each costing around $1.2 million) for commission of 10 percent of the total cost.

Such a process has long been a bane of Thai society, where corrupt officials have frequently syphoned off money from state funds by encouraging bidders to add an additional percentage onto their tendered price, which the officials then take as theirs.

Sitabutr further elaborated that on learning of the corrupt practice, a military officer -- Col. Kachachart Boondee --- had then been sent to retrieve the commission from the middleman and to return it to the factory owners, but the owners had instead then decided to donate the money to the project.

On Nov. 24, warrants were issued for two military officers in relation to the scandal -- Boondee and Gen. Suchart Prommai (whose role is unclear) -- who are yet to report to police and are believed to have fled the country.

The apparently inflated cost of palm trees purchased to decorate the park ($9,000) is also under suspicion, as well as the price of seats for September's Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn-hosted inauguration ceremony, which were sold to well-wishers for $28,000 each.

All of this has occurred as the junta flaunts its campaign against corruption as an act needed to clean up a society which it claims had gone off the rails under the previous government.

The Red Shirts -- to which both Prompan and Saikua belong -- is a regrouping of supporters of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was overthrown in May last year in a coup which brought the current junta to power.

Thaksin Shinawatra - Yingluk's brother, a former PM who was overthrown in an earlier coup in 2006 - is afforded demigod status by the movement.

Both Shinawatras have been accused of graft, Thaksin in 2008, while Yingluck has been on trial in relation to a rice subsidies program that led to loses of $15.8 billion for the country.

All official investigations into the alleged graft at the park, however, grounded to a halt Nov. 19, when Army Chief Theerachai Nakvanich told a press conference that a one-week internal army probe found “no corruption” in the project, while warning the anti-corruption commission, the Office of the Auditor General and media to leave it alone.

With both public and media reacting with dismay, deputy-prime minister-cum-defense minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwon ordered a new probe Nov. 24 under the leadership of Gen. Preecha Chan-ocha, a brother of junta leader-cum-Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Preecha Chan-ocha is himself a member of the Ratchapakdi foundation that is at the center of the corruption allegations.

Meanwhile, Panthep Klanarongran -- president of the country's anti-corruption commission -- said Sunday that the commission had conducted a “secret investigation” into the project, with results due to be announced Tuesday.