Transcript of the above video:

Look, I have been covering Surachate "Big Joke" Hakparn for a number of years, going back prior to 2018, maybe go back into '17 now, so the better part of, it's definitely over five years that I've kept up with him. I have got to be honest with you; I owe a sort of tip of the hat in a sense to “Big Joke” because some of the first major spikes in viewership on this channel came from reporting on “Big Joke”. If I go back to like, I started this channel in 2016, yeah, I am going on my 10th year making these videos, and the first year was very negligible; I think the first real spike of viewers we started seeing in pertained to Retirement Visas especially as it pertained to the introduction or the elimination I should say of the Income Affidavit associated with Retirement Visas. That was one of the big spikes first off because people were very interested in that at the time. Then “Big Joke” sort of came on my radar, and he was such an interesting character that we kind of followed him and we started seeing some viewers following along because he headed Thai Immigration at the time, so it pertained to the expat population. I've kept track of him ever since just because he's an interesting guy. However you want to look at it him - if you like him, if you don't, whatever - he is interesting. 

Now from the title of this video you might think I might be being a little bit playful with this. I'm not. This is actually pretty serious news here in Thailand. It has pretty substantial ramifications in terms of both internal Thai Police politics as well as broad national politics possibly as well. It looks like, although I can't be certain, but just speculating as sort of an observer, it looks like “Big Joke” may be doing some of this stuff in gearing up for a possible political career which doesn't seem completely out of line to make that supposition in light of the fact that we are likely to have an election in the first quarter of next year, and possibly sooner than that depending on what this Government wants to do. 

As I've discussed in other videos as well as on our paid news service, which if you're interested in that, you can email us, [email protected], and get on the email list for the paid news service for long-form content on this. While I'm talking my book, worth pointing out Pancake Palace, breakfast anytime. If you're interested in that as well as American Diner style food, links are in the description below to find us. We'd love to see you; come on in, Pancake Palace. 

That being said, as I discussed in the long form video or in long form content, basically things have changed a lot. There are a lot of broad political ramifications going into 2026, and as I've discussed on the paid news service and Bangkok Post has pointed out - I've talked about it a little bit on the main channel here - but you know in Anutin's position, it's not actually outside the realm of possibility we can see the election sooner, because for whatever reason it may benefit the current governing party to call the election sooner rather than later. So again, all of that is happening in the background and then we've got this “Big Joke” situation which I've been covering for a while. I mean it looked like he was going to get promoted and then he ended up sort of embroiled in the scandal involving what appeared to be online gambling; he has continuously from everything I've seen, continued to espouse his innocence with regard to all of these things. We saw some proceedings which I covered at the time pertaining to proceedings within the Police Force to have him removed from the Police Force which we did cover, but again the case has the been kind of continuing in the background and there's a lot going on here. My point with the seriousness of this is for other foreigners out there, especially in the social media space who think that just because things get covered you can talk in a, how do we put it, in a very cavalier manner about these developments, this is not something I would discuss cavalierly. Again, in spite of the fact that the title to this video seems playful, these are serious issues and they could have serious ramifications in Thailand and any foreigners who might be following this and thinking, "hey I'm going to make a video on that" or something, you might want to think again, because there could be ramifications, especially for foreigners commenting on these developments because there's a lot going on here, that's all I'm going to say. 

So that said, quoting directly from the Thai Examiner, that's thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Police Groups - that's the important point here - Police Groups seek to sue General Surachate Hakparn or Big Joke for defamation despite damning evidence. So there has been an ongoing, let's call it debate, argument - conflict maybe too large of a word - but there has been a sort of a simmering back and forth within the ranks of the police. I talked about this going back a couple of years ago between different factions and Big Joke himself doesn't seem to be one to back down from confrontation and these are continuing, these cleavages if you will are continuing to have ramifications. Quoting directly: "In late October this year, the Police Complaints Review Board recommended prosecution of General Torsak and more than 200 senior officers." Now again, I urge those who are watching this video, go read the article by Thai Examiner. They do a good job of fleshing out all the facts and developments behind all of this. 

The point I want to make with this video though is “Big Joke” has continued to pursue this, and now other groups are getting behind him, and there are other groups that are behind the opposing side in this whole argument if you will pertaining to this matter. Quoting further: "The PCRB based its decision on documents originally provided by General Surachate. The Board found evidence of potential disciplinary violations connected to the acceptance of money or benefits from gambling operations. Meanwhile, General Surachate continues to deny all allegations against him personally. The now-dismissed Police Officer repeats that he was framed. He says rogue elements inside the force targeted him. General Surachate claims ongoing attempts to tarnish his reputation. The feud between him and General Torsak intensified before the latter's retirement in September 2024. Both men accused each other of having links to illegal gambling networks. The conflict expanded into public view. It has not fizzled out. It has presently reached Parliamentary committees, police associations, representative bodies, the Police Complaints Review Board (PCRB) and in time will be tested by the Courts."  

The point of this video is there is a lot going on here and it could have tremendous ramifications possibly in the political sphere. I expect there could be ramifications within the Thai Police. There could be negative or positive ramifications for Mr. Surachate Hakparn, for “Big Joke” himself; it remains to be seen. That said, the point I want to make is one, this is pretty big news with regards to political developments, police sort of developments and things, which I felt like was sort of within the bailiwick of this channel but another thing to take away from this video, especially foreigners, this is getting into the high weeds of domestic Thai politics. I myself am not interested on commenting on it a lot further, quite honestly because I'm not personally familiar with enough of the deep facts to be able to start doing deep analysis. I think at this point frankly, it's best if the Courts or some other adjudicatory body now at this point make a determination as to what's what with regard to all of this stuff and if necessary issue penalties and things; if necessary, might not be. Again, it remains in the sort of allegation state.

That said, if you're a foreigner and you are sort of following these things, this isn't something that I would comment on as a foreigner in Thailand at the moment, because quite honestly, it's just got a lot of elements to it that could basically be controversial and it's not something that I think foreigners could be well advised to be commenting on at the moment, here in the Kingdom of Thailand.