Thailand protesters swarm streets anew, with police and ‘Elephant Ticket’ the new targets

Evidence of a list of police officers fast-tracked through the ranks based on favours and connections has given fuel to the country’s pro-democracy movement

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha called the document ‘an internal matter’ as thousands of protesters blocked a major street outside police headquarters

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An anti-government protester wearing an elephant costume flashes the pro-democracy movement’s three-finger salute next to a line of anti-riot police officers at the Royal Thai Police Headquarters in Bangkok on Tuesday Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 10:30pm, 23 Feb 2021Updated: 10:58am, 24 Feb 2021

Thailand’s pro-democracy protesters took to the streets anew on Tuesday, massing around police headquarters in Bangkok after seizing on revelations of a pay-to-play promotion culture within the Thai police force to rev up their flagging movement.

Evidence of the so-called “Tua Chang” (which translates to Elephant Ticket) list of police officers to be fast-tracked through the ranks through favours or connections – was produced in parliament last week by an opposition lawmaker who accused Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his deputy, Prawit Wongsuwon, of overseeing a corrupt and nepotistic police force.

The lawmaker, Rangsiman Rome, said the list had also been endorsed by powerful figures further up the Thai hierarchy.

Prayuth, an ex-army chief who seized power in a 2014 coup on promises of ending corruption, on Tuesday addressed the issue of the Elephant Ticket, which has inspired its own hashtag along with endless memes on social media poking fun at the police.

“The document should have never been seen … it’s an internal matter,” Prayuth told reporters of a police promotions list that was signed by him in 2019.

The protesters, whose loud, satirical and creative rallies had been dwindling in recent weeks amid a resurgence of the coronavirus and the arrests of core protest leaders, returned in their thousands to block a major thoroughfare outside police headquarters.

They urged the rank-and-file officers inside to join them and abandon a force that is widely mistrusted by a Thai public that largely believes it has a hand in criminal enterprises – from drugs and human trafficking to illegal gambling dens.