Open up justice debate
The minister of justice is deeply involved in two related efforts to fix badly functioning systems. Several weeks ago, Gen Paiboon Koomchaya announced he wanted to try to bring laws governing drug offenders up to date. Lately, he has also involved himself in the administration of royal pardons and the national parole system. These are serious issues.
The minister obviously has the best interest of the public in mind. Yet he is harming the chance for reform with the same errors the military regime uses in its own reform efforts. New, enlightened drug enforcement and a revamp of the parole system are unlikely without the help of the public. Like other ministers and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha himself, Gen Paiboon seems convinced that reform of the justice system can be ordered from the top down.
Last week, Gen Paiboon had to deal with the case of one of the most prominent and vicious contract killers of recent history. Army ex-major Chalermchai Matchaklam is arguably the poster boy for the need to reform. In 2001, he plotted and murdered Preena Leepattanapan, the governor of Yasothon, at the Royal Pacific Hotel in Bangkok. His conviction was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2006.
The Criminal Court sentenced a truly unsympathetic Chalermchai to death. The subsequent road to justice led through three courts and four royal pardons. The death sentence became life imprisonment, then shrivelled to 17 years. Last November, with less than three years left on his shrinking sentence, Chalermchai was freed for good behaviour.
There was no favouritism or official malfeasance at any time. Chalermchai profited from current and long-standing rules. Naturally, given his nature, he returned immediately to the profession he knew best, meaning violent crime and strong-arm extortion. Concerned citizens complained, police and Gen Paiboon’s Prison Department responded, and late last week Chalermchai was back behind bars where, by all accounts, he should never have left.
If Chalermchai’s case shows the dangers of serial pardons for hardened criminals, Chonsawat Asavahame reveals a different but equally strong case for reform. It is arguably the most difficult one the justice minister has personally taken up. Chonsawat is as infamous as the Asavahame family is notorious. Long headed by the convicted political fixer and international fugitive Vatana, the Asavahame “family business” in Samut Prakan has been largely Chonsawat’s responsibility for years.
He was imprisoned for 18 months last year for blatant cheating in a provincial election. But he had become reviled before that when his then-wife and celebrity Janie Tienphosuwan showed evidence of a vicious beating.
Chonsawat is legally up for parole, having served twothirds of his sentence, and supposedly is a well-behaved inmate of the Samut Prakan prison. There are many, of course, who believe his sentence was lenient and oppose his early release — which could come at any time.
Gen Paiboon got involved in the case early, when he cancelled Chonsawat’s release scheduled for two weeks ago. Then he signed the order transferring the prison warden, Wutthichai Chenwiriyakun. But under current rules, Chonsawat’s early release is almost certainly imminent, no matter how public opinion lines up.
The system of reform and pardon is abused and misused and new approaches are needed. Gen Paiboon would be well advised to open up his ideas for reform to a concerned public. It is arguably the only way reform will succeed.
The system of reform and pardon is abused and misused.