WINNERS

Watchman

Thailand’s most watched phuyai has 16 timepieces worth 27,337,000 baht. More or less. That we know of. That’s from photo and video files featuring Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, the (figurative) big brother to the general prime minister for four decades. On Friday, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) announced its version of action. It intends in a couple of weeks, possibly, to consider steps that will lead to starting to get ready to prepare to study an entirely objective fact-finding into how a selfsacrificing minister of defence can live so frugally off a monthly salary that he can pick among Milles (3), Rolexes (7), Patek Philippes (4), Piguets (2) — all plural — every morning before setting off to work.

Sek Loso

The “Low Society” rocker set himself a New Year’s week mission: to make Wat Khao Khun Phanom in Phrommakhiri district of Nakhon Sri Thammarat famous. Well, you never heard of it, right? So he had a concert on Dec 29 and when it was over, he did what anyone would do at a temple concert: busted some caps into the air from his beloved personal pistol. So the police came and arrested him on double weapons charges. Then they asked him to do his business in a small plastic cup, and when it turned purple, they charged him again for methamphetamine use. So he apologised for being a horse’s extreme rear part but also had a big smile. Because now, a lot more people know about Wat Khao Khun Phanom and its impressive statue of King Taksin.

Paedophiles

These dreadful people never seem to have to pay for their horrible crimes. Take the German Bernd Karl-Heinz Nierenz. Please. Arrested twice in Thailand for having sex with boys aged six to 14. Convicted of selling the films of him doing it, plus, literally, 250,000 photos in his collection. In March of 1996 (21 years ago), the Thon Buri Criminal Court sentenced him to 43 years in prison.

A few years later — no typo — he was arrested in Cambodia for about the same charges, convicted and sentenced. A few years later, in India … Never, ever showed a soupcon of remorse. Last week, “Karl-Heinz N” went on trial in Berlin for past crimes in India. They’re so protective in Germany of this serial rapist and child abuser they don’t use his last name, but Nierenz, 67, is still doing what he always has done. Something’s wrong with this.