Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Surachate "Big Joke" Hakparn. He has been the topic of some coverage on this channel for some time now. He came to my attention, came on my radar when he took over at the Immigration Police and really made waves there by really strictly enforcing Thai Immigration Law and imposing strict scrutiny of those who were seeking visas. Since that time, he has had a rather colourful career, culminating in what we are going to talk about today. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Asean Now, that is aseannow.com, the article is titled: Big Joke demands top job at Royal Thai Police HQ. Quoting directly: "General Surachate Hakparn, popularly known as "Big Joke" made his return to the Royal Thai Police Headquarters this Thursday. Recently removed from his position, "Big Joke" voiced grave criticism on the current acting National Police Commissioner General Kittirat Panphet. He singled out the acting Chief for particular scrutiny stating that his dismissal process was legally flawed and argued it was based on an outdated procedure. Quoting further: "Surachate argued," and I have heard this pronounced Surachat, Surachate; apologies for mispronunciation. I am doing my best here with transliteration. "Surachate argued his displacement was executed based on an obsolete method which was superseded by the updated Thailand 2022 Police Act." So the Police Act of Thailand of 2022. Quoting further: "The assertion insinuates that his removal may have been unceremonious and potentially unlawful." Yeah we talked about this in another video; we talked about how procedurally he was not correctly dismissed. It didn't go through the proper channels to do that and he challenged it. Quoting further: "Hakparn spoke out against a group within the Police Force he described as a "Cabal", which he believes is trying to thwart his advancement. He promised to initiate legal action against them. After retracting a complaint against the Prime Minister two days prior, Hakparn made a resolute comeback. When addressing reporters, he affirmed his position as Deputy Police Chief." 

Yeah, been an interesting turn of events here. I was talking to a very close, someone very close to me the other day who is Thai and they were saying, “what's that saying in English about a cat and lives”, and I said "cats have nine lives" and he said, "yeah, well it looks to me like Big Joke has nine lives." I thought that was kind of a funny observation, but it doesn't seem to be too far off the mark. We have definitely watched the rises and the falls of "Big Joke's" career and as I said, some months, weeks back when he seemed to be on his way out, I said "well hey hold the phone here, because "Big Joke" has shown multiple times that he is something of a survivor in the career sense". 

So again, interesting developments here. I think this is relatively big news with regard to what is going on within the Thai Law Enforcement community. It remains to be seen whether he will remain in the Police Force or another procedure will be undertaken or whether or not he will just continue to practice law enforcement moving forward. That being said, we will certainly you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.