Restrained conduct in Sunday's riot has earned the force respect
Story by KAMOLWAT PRAPRUTITUM
Last Sunday's riot has done for the police image what years of talking about police reform has failed to accomplish. It has earned the men in uniform respect, and without doubt sympathy, for being gentlemen when duty called. So much has been said, heard and reported about police themselves ending up on the wrong side of the law and standing accused of countless misdemeanors and felonies, from extorting money from motorists to masterminding brutal extra-judicial killings. And not all the accusations appear to be groundless.
The police force is a huge organisational maze where the status quo is maintained at all costs and the 'inheritance of power' sometimes passes in succession through its pyramidical echelons. Prominent surnames, some shared by high-profile politicians, are not hard to single out in the police force with brothers climbing the career ladder not far behind each other.
The command structure is an almost inexplicably complex pyramid, where layers are laid upon layers of commissioners and commanders. It has alienated the police chief who is perceived as unreachable by the rank and file. Some of the individual bureaus and divisions are also seen as too large for accountability to function effectively.
Then there is the popular impression of abusive policemen succumbing to the temptation of 'easy gains' and living off the patronage of influential figures. There are decent law enforcement officers around but the bad eggs have given the rest a bad name.
The desperation for police reform is being addressed in a policy guideline drafted by a government committee. But the policy has run into fierce opposition from former police chiefs who argue the proposed restructuring, which intends to distribute more power to regional jurisdictions, will invite political interference. Change can prove unnerving for many people and the police reform plan, it seems, has gotten off on the wrong foot.
Despite the change of names and supervisors from the Police Department under the Interior Ministry to the Royal Thai Police Office under the Prime Minister's Office, the police force has for years continued in a downward spiral.
But the civil unrest witnessed on Sunday may well have made some people change their stereotypical view of the average Thai policeman.
Television footage captured the scenes early in the day when United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) protesters pushed and shoved their way through barricades on Ratchadamnoen avenue before marching to the residence of Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda.
It was outside Gen Prem's house where protest leaders hurled accusations at the statesman they fingered as the puppet master behind the Sept 19 coup.
Riot police arrived at the scene and tried to force the protest leaders down from a truck converted into a podium but were stopped by angry protesters.
The demonstrators went wild as they used wooden planks and anything else they could get their hands on to beat the line of policemen who had shields and batons to guard themselves. Some demonstrators threw bricks they found on the sidewalk at the police while others vandalised and pelted the nearby army club. The police sprayed tear gas at the demonstrators, a standard practice in crowd control, and worked collectively to contain the demonstrators according to the rule book and to limit the lawlessness within a manageable area.
The UDD may claim to be the injured party in this incident, but questions still linger as to why the protest leaders did not lead demonstrators back to Sanam Luang when they saw with their own eyes that blood had already spilled.
Hundreds of policemen, meanwhile, exercised restraint.
They waited patiently before advancing toward the demonstrators and drove them back to Sanam Luang. More than 200 people were injured, most of them policemen.
While the riot dealt a blow to the country's struggle to regain some sense of political normalcy, the professionalism displayed by the police has helped to eliminate the need to impose emergency rule in the capital.
The decree could be invoked to allow the military to assert its authority to restore order in the event that the police cannot contain the situation, which was far from the case last Sunday. The emergency, if declared, would have conjured up the atmosphere of another military coup, which the country can definitely do without.
The police force has shown itself to be able and willing to rise to the occasion and in the process, earn the trust of the people, setting a positive tone for its image that has long been battered and bruised. Although its deeds on Sunday may not be enough to excuse the deficiencies and shortcomings that beset the force, it provides an example of the goals the police force can achieve if it is serious about reshaping itself.
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