National Police Day

13 October is National Police Day. The Royal Thai Police in different parts of the country celebrate this auspicious occasion in their various ways. This year, Betong Police Station celebrated the occasion in a more community friendly manner.

The opening ceremony started early in the morning in front of Betong Police Station. The district officer, community and religious leaders were invited to attend the ceremony. The ceremony included speech by the Chief Police and the Mayor of Betong, paying respect to the king and queen, presentation of badges to the promoted police officers, pledge of royalty and short inspection of the troop.

In his speech, the Betong Chief Police said that the police officers must work in accordance with the Policy of the Royal Thai Police. He also stressed the importance of police-community cooperation to support effective action through a spirit of collaboration, which includes participation of the private sector, the community and the public at large in the activity of crime-solving.

There was a Monks prayer session after the ceremony. Other activities held in conjunction with the Police Day included a football match and essay writing competition entitled “Expected qualities of a good Police” and “What people expect police to do” which would be opened to the public.

Speech by Mayor/Prayer ceremony

In the evening, there was “buka puasa” (fast breaking) dinner. Before breaking the fast, the muslims had their prayer in a hall besides the police station. In order to take pictures for my blog, as usual, I had to “sacrifice”🙂 my “image” and “elegancy” and got wet running through the rains to the praying hall!

I was a little wary as this is my first time so close to the muslims praying. During the prayer session, I found them changed their postures every two or three minutes and were in good order…sat, bowed, stood, hands up, hands closed…. The whole praying session took about 15 minutes.

After the prayer, some of them used the natural rain water to bathe their hands and feet. Though it was raining heavily in the evening, the temporary tent was still crowded with more than 230 muslim guests, all males!

In Thailand, image is important, teacher normally “behaves” as a teacher and officer “behaves” as an officer. Besides the Mayor and I :), I hardly find anyone in this town that can be both high and down to earth. Tonite, as the police have to be on duties and there were only a few helpers, I saw the “less words, more works” new Chief Police arranging the tables and chairs…