"Big Joke" transferred to an inactive post

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"Big Joke" transferred to an inactive post

Post by Gaybutton »

This is the only publicity I was able to find at the time of this post.

Nothing clear about who actually ordered this and nothing about why. Also nothing about whether this will mean even more immigration rule changes.

I also posted this on the "New Immigration Requirement" topic, but this seems important and sudden enough to merit its own topic.
________________________________________

Immigration Chief Transferred to Inactive Post

By Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

April 6, 2019

BANGKOK — The immigration chief, who was seen as a rising star in the police force, was abruptly transferred to an inactive post according to an order released Saturday.

The document, issued by police commander Gen. Chakthip Chaijinda, said Lt. Gen. Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn was transferred on Friday to the Operation Center of the National Police Office. The order specified neither his new duties nor the reason for the transfer.

Surachate became one of the most visible faces of the Royal Thai Police after initiating a crackdown on foreigners illegally staying in Thailand in 2017. He was appointed as the chief of the Immigration Bureau in September 2018 and received much praise for handling the headline-making case of a Saudi woman who narrowly escaped deportation from Thailand on her way to seek asylum in Australia.

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2019 ... tive-post/
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Post by Gaybutton »

Here is the latest:
_______________

'Big Joke' transferred to police HQ

April 6, 2019

Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, the country’s highest-profile policeman, has been transferred to the Royal Thai Police Operations Centre under an order signed by national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda. No reasons were given.

Pol Gen Chakthip, who signed the order on Friday night, police spokesmen and Pol Lt Gen Surachate could not be contacted by reporters on Saturday.

Pol Lt Gen Surachate’s Facebook page “Surachate Hakparn”, his Twitter account and the Immigration Bureau Facebook page were offline on Saturday.

Pol Lt Gen Surachate, who is known to be close to Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, has been a rising star on the force in recent years. He has rarely been out of the headlines, placing himself front and centre at the scene of high-profile cases involving everything from immigration violators to illegal motorcycle racers, as well as computer crime cases involving another unit that he heads.

The son of a policeman, Surachate was born in 1970 in Songkhla. After joining the force, he quickly rose through the ranks to command a local station and later moved to Bangkok to head the 191 task force. From there he moved to the tourist police before landing the top job at the Immigration Bureau last year.

Under his command, the bureau has been aggressively pursuing foreigners who are in the country illegally, visa overstayers and criminals alike, under the slogan “Good Guys In, Bad Guys Out”.

Arrests have been accompanied by elaborate media presentations, featuring large posters bearing details and images of the accused offenders as well as giant pictures of the officers handling the case.

Pol Lt Gen Surachate entered the international spotlight in January, when he reversed a deportation order against Rahaf al-Qunun, a young Saudi woman who arived in Thailand fleeing what she said was abuse by her family. The immigration chief said he would not “send someone to their death”, and she has now been resettled in Canada.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... -police-hq
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Post by gera »

In my opinion, it is very good news and hopefully will weaken the xenophobic line represented by everybody knows whom.
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Post by Undaunted »

I would imagine that business interests that view the current changes as “bad for business “ have said “enough is enough”!
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Post by Bob »

Big Joke surely has been full of himself and done just about anything and everything to attract attention to himself. If I thought he was behind the new immigration rules, as goofy and convoluted as they are, I suppose I'd like him personally even less.

Yet, Big Joke came up here to Chiangmai Immigration while most people here were rightfully screaming about the very bad service given over the last couple of years and his appearance (and whatever he told them) caused everything to change. It's totally different now....much shorter wait times, longer service hours, etc. (i.e., it's almost hard to believe how much it's improved since Big Joke put the hammer down). For that, I applaud him.
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Post by Undaunted »

Bob wrote: Sat Apr 06, 2019 10:43 pmhard to believe how much it's improved since Big Joke put the hammer down. For that, I applaud him.
Reminiscent of Mussolini and the trains :!:
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Post by Gaybutton »

I liked much of what "Big Joke" was doing, but along with that I, and I'm sure everybody involved with the retirement visa, disliked what was going on with the rules. Just how much of that was his doing, I don't know, but I didn't see him doing much of anything to make the rules crystal clear or making sure all immigration offices were going by the rules instead of making up their own and getting away with it.

I hope whoever will now be in charge will provide clear, not confusing, rules so that there is no question as to what will and will not be accepted - and those rules will be fair to all legitimate applicants. Along with that, I hope all immigration offices will have to go by those rules, cannot deviate or make up their own, and some sort of quick and effective appeal process will be in place for those who feel they were unfairly denied the visa.
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Post by Dodger »

Big Joke thrived on being in the news and was surprisingly open about his aspirations to become the new Police Commander. The current Police Commander Gen. Chakthip Chaijinda who gave him the boot may have been a bit peeved...do you think?
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Post by Gaybutton »

Dodger wrote: Mon Apr 08, 2019 7:19 am Police Commander Gen. Chakthip Chaijinda who gave him the boot may have been a bit peeved...do you think?
Since there has been virtually no additional publicity about it that I can find, that seems like a reasonable guess. If that is what happened, or was a contributing factor, I wonder if he had been warned, but didn't heed the warnings.

In any case, now that he is gone it will be important for us to know who will replace him and what, if any, changes there will be.
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Post by Dodger »

I was a bit surprised to learn that it is actually the Immigration offices themselves who are the most upset and resistant to the visa changes being introduced since September, 2018, not just the expat population. Apparently Immigration is not happy at all and operating in a total state of confusion when processing one year visa extensions. Initially I thought it was just the expats who were pissed off but apparently we're actually standing third in line. If you surf the web for articles related to Thailand Visa Requirements and/or Thailand Visa Changes you can find information related to this.

Second in line are the Foreign Embassies, who, for the most part, serve primarily as administrative functions unless there is a significant concern regarding the violation of rights of one or more of the citizens it's sworn to protect. One can only imagine how many complaints were fielded by the various embassies regarding the proposed changes in visa requirements which I have to believe resulted in the elevation of this situation to a higher office within each embassy. That being the case, we're now talking about the "Image of Thailand" at a time when a new coalition government wants nothing more than to show stability and not detract from the goal of regaining trust in foreign investors. If I'm anywhere close to being right the new Immigration Chief will have his marching orders already cut out for him and bringing the Immigration offices and foreign embassies into a state of calm would just have to be on the list.

If the reason for all these changes to begin with had to do with catching illegal aliens and Over-stayers then I must be missing something, because the recently transferred Immigration Chief touted the fact that due to his successful campaign against illegal aliens and over-stayers the numbers had dropped to historical lows as published in every major newspaper in Thailand in 2018. If that was the case, then the one year visa requirements had nothing whatsoever to do with this highly publicized success because the visa renewal changes just starting getting implemented (half hazardously) in January, 2019. Something doesn't match up.
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