The making of Kamman Nok

While Thais were being obsessed with something else, Praween Chanklai, aka Kamman Nok, made senior police officers strip almost naked “for fun” at one of his “parties”, fired celebratory shots into the sky, conducted allegedly-questionable business activities, listened proudly to “Happy Birthday to you” sung respectfully by senior bureaucrats and built up a suspected bribery payroll.

That was before the alleged arrogance led to a tragic and unbelievable incident early this month. That was before something hit the fan and shocked the entire nation. Last but not least, that was before stunned Thais realised that, very gross and obvious as they were, rural corruption and rampant bribery had been gravely underestimated. Everyone knew it was rotten, but nobody knew how rotten it actually was.

“Kamnan” is one of the lowest governing positions but it is also a word…