Rollin’ on
As regular Gazette readers know,
Phuket is a gold mine for a lucky few – and heartbreak for many
others.
Just as in the boomtowns of America’s Wild West, the all-out rush
for wealth on the island has come at a steep price: mostly environmental
degradation and a breakdown in social structure.
Although no part of the island has escaped this trend, nowhere is
it more pronounced than in Patong, where trinket vendors share the
sidewalks with prostitutes, touts, beggars, sex tourists and families
on package holidays.
The big winners in Patong have been a very small segment of its
population, mostly local landowners who have seen their family fortunes
skyrocket to levels unimaginable a few decades ago. On the other
side of the coin, look what has become of their banana plantation
paradise.
In any boomtown vices such as gambling, prostitution and theft tend
to be rampant – in Patong they are actually part of the draw.
In his farewell to Patong after two-and-a-half-years as Kathu Police
Superintendent, Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen [see First Person, facing
page] outlines his accomplishments, while admitting the need for
more improvements.
Known as a tough-yet-fair cop during his 12 years with Phuket City
Police Station’s Traffic Division, it is not surprising that Col
Teeraphol used that experience to improve the traffic situation
in Patong, first by banning vehicular traffic from Soi Bangla at
night and then with the introduction of a one-way traffic system.
While such changes may have seemed easy to bring about to the casual
observer, they are no small achievement in a place like Patong,
where the vested interests of a powerful few have time and again
trumped the needs of the millions of tourists who visit each year
and find themselves without access to such basic facilities as free
public toilets or reasonably-priced public transport.
With that in mind, perhaps it is fortunate that Col Teeraphol’s
replacement is Pol Col Kritsak Songmulnak, whose last post was as
Superintendent of the Tourist Police Region 1 office in Bangkok.
Responsible in that position for the safety of tourists at locations
as The Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the infamous Khaosarn Rd,
little is known about him in Phuket thus far, except that he speaks
English very well.
While that is positive news for Patong, it will take more than linguistic
skill to maintain and build on Col Teeraphol’s successes.
In the meantime, bar owners in Patong will no doubt be keeping close
watch to see what crackdowns, if any, the new police chief will
unleash to mark his arrival.
|
