Army chief in the making?

Barely two months into the year and already tension is building on several fronts for the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) which needs a commander it can trust to help iron things out.

The NCPO and the armed forces, particularly the army, are one and the same. Naturally, when the going gets a little tough on the political road, the council looks to the army to to steer a course of action required for pacifying heated issues, which could potentially spiral out of control.

Within the army, one commander stands out from the crowd, who is known for his combat skills. However, a recent non-military assignment has shown another side that was rarely seen of him.

First Army Region commander Apirat Kongsompong, sporting a casual weekend shirt and jeans, arrived for talks with a group of anti-coal-fired power plant protesters outside Government House on Ratchadamnoen Avenue on Saturday.

It was clear as day that Lt Gen Apirat was playing the negotiator with the protesters and it is a role not many of the top brass is very accustomed to playing, according to observers.

By position, he is the top security operator for Bangkok, which justified his presence at the negotiation table. But some would have had their doubts over how much power of persuasion he could muster to coax the protesters, who had converged only hours before at the protest scene into packing up and going home.

Protests involving complex, long-standing and bitterly debatable disputes, including those involving power plant projects, are hard to deal with and yet easy to provoke widespread conflicts, according to political analysts.

The Saturday protesters were in trouble with the law for allegedly having failed to notify the authorities about their planned rally, as is required.

However, sending a military commander to convince protesters, who might well have been ready for a showdown with the government, to disband was first thought by analysts to be the wrong move.

But before the sun went down, the protest was over after the government agreed to review the environmental and health impact assessment for the project, a move the protesters hoped would reverse the authorities’ decision to fuel the power plant in Krabi with dirty coal.

The five protest leaders were also released from detention without charge that afternoon.

Lt Gen Apirat said it was necessary to end the protest peacefully and quickly, citing an intelligence report of a third party and antigovernment elements attempting to politicise the protest and whipping up an undercurrent for their own political benefit.

A military source said Lt Gen Apirat had assured the protesters they had his empathy. Some protesters have said he told them during the negotiations that if the government went back on its promise, he himself would pay for their trip back to Bangkok to stage another protest.

The fact that the protest was a brief one helped lift the pressure off the government and also thrust Lt Gen Apirat to prominence as a prospective candidate for the army’s top post in the future, the source said.

Other major events in which he has taken responsibility for supervising security have also boosted his credentials. He is directly in charge of maintaining peace and order at Sanam Luang, packed with mourners paying their respects to the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Also, troops under his command occupy the outer cordon around the embattled Wat Phra Dhammakaya.

The soldiers are on standby to back-up police and Department of Special Investigation officials who have been searching the temple for its elusive former abbot wanted on embezzlement and other charges.

Lt Gen Apirat’s chances of becoming army chief appear bright, with mandatory retirement three years down the road, even though he made enemies after leading a raid on the Thaicom satellite station in Nonthaburi to take it back from red-shirt protesters in 2010.