Former Deputy Police Chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn posted on Saturday (May 29) a screenshot of a LINE chat, where Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul allegedly joked that the Prime Minister uses just one body bag for himself.
The chat showed a reposted news feed from a media outlet, stating that the Ministry of Public Health had sent 400 body bags to Hat Yai and another 1,500 were provided by private sources.
Following this, the person who reposted the message commented that people were shocked and thought thousands had died.
Anutin’s response, “The Prime Minister uses just one bag,” was seen by many as an inappropriate attempt at humour during a crisis..
Surachate criticised the comment, stating, “An older official in the Ministry of Public Health couldn’t tolerate Anutin’s behaviour anymore and sent me this chat. This made it clear that Anutin doesn’t care about the deaths in Hat Yai, and he’s turning the tragedy of over a thousand deaths into a joke.”
He added, “Anutin must resign. He doesn’t care about the people of Hat Yai, only about maintaining his position for his family’s benefit. He needs to leave and stop playing politics.”
Surachate also expressed disappointment that Anutin did not personally contribute to the relief efforts despite his vast wealth. Instead, he mocked the suffering of the people in Hat Yai. “Please leave the area now, Anutin. Your heart and goals are focused on gaining more seats in parliament, while the deaths of the people in Hat Yai are just a joke to you,” Surachate continued. “This is not how a Prime Minister should act.”
Meanwhile, in a visit to Wat Klong Hae School, Surachate, representing the Southern Thai Community Association, continued to support recovery efforts after the floodwaters began to recede, revealed that the government’s official death toll was far lower than the actual number, stating that last week he had estimated over 200 deaths, but the government reported only seven. In the end, the actual number of deaths reached 300.
According to Surachate’s sources, the number could be as high as 600-700, potentially approaching 1,000.