World media lauds Paween, but at home he’s a leper

If I were in national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda’s shoes I would be feeling very upset with Pol MajGen Paween Pongsirin, the former deputy commissioner of provincial police Region 8 and chief investigator of the high-profile Rohingya trafficking case.

Pol Maj-Gen Paween told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Guardian Australia, the online version of The Guardian, in Melbourne that influential people were involved in human trafficking in Thailand. And there were many more government officials who should be prosecuted, including some at senior levels.

“A person who can detain hundreds of people without being arrested for so many years cannot be an ordinary citizen,” Pol Maj-Gen Paween was quoted as saying.

He said that while he was supervising the investigation he was always being given warnings. He blamed “influential people” for his transfer to the deep South which prompted his protest and eventually his resignation from the police service on Nov 5.

“By posting me to the deep South of Thailand it means they wanted to kill me,” he said. He feared for his life and was hoping Australia would grant him asylum.

“I worked in the area of trafficking to help human beings who were in trouble. I wasn’t thinking of a personal benefit. But now it is me who is in trouble. I believe there should be some safe place for me, somewhere on this earth to help me,” he said.

Pol Gen Chakthip called in the media on Friday to respond to Pol Maj-Gen Paween’s interview with the Australian media and his request for asylum.

The police chief said he didn’t understand why the officer had to seek asylum abroad and was not sure whether he had any hidden political agenda.

He believed Pol Maj-Gen Paween’s move to Australia could be construed as undermining the country.

Pol Gen Chakthip disclosed that after Pol Maj-Gen Paween protested about his transfer to the deep South, he gave him permission to choose the provincial police bureau he wanted to be transferred to. He said he had asked all police commissioners whether they wanted Pol Maj-Gen Paween, and all except the boss of the Southern Border Police Centre had rejected him.

The police chief said he had investigated many cases and had arrested many criminals as well as a key member of the Rohingya trafficking syndicate, yet nobody had taken revenge on him.

But if I were Pol Maj-Gen Paween, I would feel discouraged. For all his dedication and tireless investigative work to arrest the perpetrators of the human trafficking, not only was there no praise from his boss, but he ended up being treated like a leper, unwelcome at all provincial police bureaus except one in the deep South, which is where the human trafficking syndicates proliferate.

There is an old Thai saying to describe Pol Maj-Gen Paween’s dilemma: “Kill the buffalo after the ploughing is finished. Kill the knights after the battle”.

Here was what Pol Maj-Gen Paween’s former boss at the provincial police Region 8, Pol Lt-Gen Tesa Siriwatho, said about him over the report of his asylum request in Australia.

Pol Lt-Gen Tesa accused Pol Maj-Gen Paween of lacking discipline, defying his immediate superior and speaking only half of the truth in a way that is damaging to the country. “I would like to know whether he is a Thai or not.”

So how can a police officer such as Pol Maj-Gen Paween, who is seen as an honest, clean and hard-working cop by international human rights organisations and international and local media, be treated like a pariah by his superiors in the police force?

I have no idea just how serious are the threats against his life and why he decided to leave his motherland to seek safety overseas.

But the fallout from his asylum bid, although yet to be fully felt, will almost certainly hurt Thailand’s image and its commitment to end human trafficking, and the court trials in the Rohingya trafficking cases.

There are 88 suspects, including Lt-Gen Manas Kongpaen, a former adviser to the army, several military officers and a number of local administrators, who have been indicted in the Bangkok Criminal Court.

In all, arrest warrants have been issued against 153 people.

Separately, at Pak Phanang provincial court in Nakhon Si Thammarat, 30 suspects are awating trial on human trafficking charges.

Pol Maj-Gen Paween is a key witness in the cases but he is not expected to come back to testify because he fears for his life. How about the other prosecution witnesses?

Do they fear for their lives too, now the chief investigator and a key witness has run away?

In the annual Trafficking in Persons report issued by the US Department of State, we have been downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest designation reserved for countries falling to effectively prosecute the culprits, protect survivors, and prevent trafficking in persons.

The next TIP report is expected in mid2016. Our ranking will not get worse, but our image and reputation will suffer.