Bangkok Post
Has internal security become indefensible?
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An important conversation was set off this week when the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council, former house speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, called for the dissolution of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), questioning not only its purpose but its massive and opaque budget and chequered record.
Key facts
- An important conversation was set off this week when the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council, former house speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, called for the dissolution of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc),
- The pointed recommendation was predictably met with assertions, including from the prime minister, that Isoc remains a crucial and effective force for national security.
- The cause was not helped by Lt Gen Narathip Phoynork, the 4th Army Region commander and director of Isoc Region 4, who declared in a hot-mic moment: “If it were me, I wouldn’t let him survive.”
- It is the same organisation that regularly requests annual budgets exceeding 7 billion baht to conduct operations that overlap with other state agencies, and to continue a counter-separatist effort that has not seemed to make any
Summary
The pointed recommendation was predictably met with assertions, including from the prime minister, that Isoc remains a crucial and effective force for national security.
Where Mr Wan pointed out highly questionable overspending, grave suspicions of intimidation and violence, and the dubiousness of a military outfit handling domestic issues, the responses he received have mostly remained in the realm of vaguely explaining how Isoc “integrates efforts” for the security of the Thai public.