Army Proposal For A Thai Homeland Security Ministry: Opinion

[webfact]

The Home Security Ministry

A few days ago during an interview with the Army journal, Army Chief of Staff General Dapong Ratanasuwan talked about a proposal for the government to create a new ministry which will be responsible for monitoring national security threats to be called the “Homeland Security Bureau” or “Homeland Security Ministry.”

There are such ministries all over the world, particularly in many powerful countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India.

The United Kingdom is the first country with such an agency called the Home Office, which has been overseeing internal security since 1782; after the American Revolution in 1776 and the French Revolution in 1789. It is basically an integration of law enforcement, public security, prosecution, correctional, immigration and intelligence authorities into a non-military security agency.

In the United States, there was a similar independent agency but it was defunct after the Second World War. After the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security was founded on November 25, 2002. The department has about 216,000 employees and is operating in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Coast Guard, the Border Patrol, Customs and various transportation agencies. It is the department fully dedicated to the war against terrorism.

Currently in Thailand, there are the National Security Council and the Internal Security Operations Command in place. The National Security Council was founded during the reign of King Rama VI on December 11, 1910. It was formerly known as The Defense Council of the Kingdom and was renamed in 1959. The council just celebrated its 100th anniversary last year.

It would be appropriate for Thailand to have its own national security agency given the ongoing violence in the southernmost region of the country, not to mention the drug and human trafficking operations taking place in the border areas. In addition, there are also a political party-sponsored terrorist organizations and an active anti-monarchy movement.

It would be very useful to combine all of the related agencies into a single ministry headed by a minister in charge for overseeing internal security. This will ensure national security and increase the effectiveness of the threat suppressing effort.

Taken from Editorial Section, Naewna Newspaper, Page 3, June 8, 2011

Translated and Rewritten by Kongkrai Maksrivorawan

Please note that the views expressed in our "Analysis" segment are translated from local newspaper articles and do not reflect the views of the Thai-ASEAN News Network.

-- Tan Network 2011-06-08

[JAG]

Logically of course such a ministry should be headed up by a military officer, as they are immune from political influences (!). as a military officer he would of course be appointed to the post by the army commander, and the job should be rotated amongst suitable candidates like all the other generals posts, without any interference from civilian elected politicians.

The overarching responsibilities envisaged for such a post would extend its power to the vast majority of fields of activity within government. Job done, never need to have a coup again!

Edited June 8, 2011 by JAG

[webfact]

Army chief mulls setting up new ministry to cope with emerging threats

BANGKOK, June 8 - Army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha on Wednesday said the idea of establishing a Ministry of Security is to respond to emerging threats which have become more complicated but denied the military planned to consolidate power.

Gen Prayuth said he just floated the idea at a recent meeting of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. He added that the new agency should be set up in the future based on a foreign model integrating security-related agencies together under one umbrella.

He said that modern forms of security threats were more complicated and their scope is wider than in the past so the government should look beyond the future.

"The new agency could be set up withing 10 years, 20 years or never. Now we have the ISOC that integrates forces from civic groups, police and military together and can handle situation effectively, but in the future if ISOC cannot cope with the situation, the new agency may be created to replace it," he said.

The army chief denied that such a plan was an attempt to consolidate power as the new agency would not be a military organisation but rather a government arm.

Meanwhile, Gen Prayuth said he has ordered the 4th Army Area Command to step up intelligence operations to gathering information on starting materials to produce explosive devices, in particular the purchase, transport and usage of the materials to prevent smuggling of the materials to build bombs to attack targets in southern provinces.

Regarding recent M79 grenade attacks in the South, Gen Prayuth said an investigation is under way and it was initially believed that the weapons were smuggled from foreign countries.

More checkpoints would be set up to screen for weapons and that closed-circuit television cameras would be checked to ensure they operate properly, he said. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2011-06-08

[lannarebirth]

Boondoggle.

[dominique355]

Oh dear! Just what Thailand needs, one more obscure institution which reports to nobody, has all the powers (in the name of national security) and gives a rat's a$$ about human rights and personal freedom.

They can control the Internet, the phones, mail, immigration, banks, arrest people without warrant, suspend due process and whatever disturbs a soldier in his duty. Also expect the LM cases to skyrocket.

It's Germany 1933 all over again.

[bungalownights]

well, if this goes through, we can expect Thailands corruption and free speech index to drop even further...

[TheWalkingMan]

I smell a rat.

[JAG]

Perhaps it should be called "The State Peace and Development Council".

[lungmi]

well, if this goes through, we can expect Thailands corruption and free speech index to drop even further...

Impossible. Thaksin still is the champion.

[geriatrickid]

In theory, it is a good idea. Sadly, the TiT rule applies and in practice it will result in another expensive mess.

I still think the proposal isn't that bad. Maybe they could contract out the function to Singapore or Korea?

[Rama]

The Thai army already has more generals than the US army. Thailand needs LESS bureaucracy, not more. All that will happen is add another layer of bureaucracy - there will be more finger pointing and more of "I'm not responsible - that's another department's responsibility".

[slapout]

Might be one way of loosening the Police strangle hold on Thailand. Might be a fun scenario to watch for a while.Now that I have thunk about it, any proposal made by anyone above the rank of maid is subject to skepticism by some of us.

[metisdead]

Off topic posts and replies have been removed.

[swerver]

Oh dear! Just what Thailand needs, one more obscure institution which reports to nobody, has all the powers (in the name of national security) and gives a rat's a$$ about human rights and personal freedom.

They can control the Internet, the phones, mail, immigration, banks, arrest people without warrant, suspend due process and whatever disturbs a soldier in his duty. Also expect the LM cases to skyrocket.

It's Germany 1933 all over again.

We don't have to go back to my younger years in the thirties

The general must have recently been in contact with his cronies in America.

There are cities in America where police conduct ENTIRELY RANDOM house-to-house searches?

Not pursuing information or evidence about a specific crime, just "fishing."

There's this "new" idea called the Fourth Amendment.

It says that no official can enter your home or your car without a formal search warrant signed by a judge.

Following's what a veteran ex-cop has to say... and what you should say if anyone ever shows up at your door or stops you car and wants to search it. <BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">

Veteran police officer says "no" to random door-to-door searches

But Washington DC police chief wants them

"I don't consent to any searches"

In Washington DC recently, the police chief decided to send police to go house-to-house - completely randomly - to knock on doors and request entry to search for evidence of wrong doing.

A massive, open-ended fishing expedition.

Is this illegal?

No, but it's entirely wrong.

Real police makes their cases honestly.

You don't have to make it easy for lazy and/or abusive ones to consume their taxpayer-funded time and yours with a fishing edition through your property.

Let them earn their living by doing real police work.

The answer to the question: Can I take a look inside?

"No officer. I don't consent to any searches." Polite, firm and repeated as many times as you need to until they get the message.

It's called the Fourth Amendment and as this veteran police officer reports, the new generation of police officers is being taught to ignore and disrespect it.