The public's participation would be emphasised while political interference would be cut, he added.

Presiding over the opening ceremony of a seminar on the government's policy to develop the 'police for the people', Surayud said the police institution had continuously improved itself - as seen from the Royal Thai Police Act 2004 promoting decentralisation and public participation.

Facing global changes, it was necessary for all sides to work in harmony and to adapt, especially in the areas of justice and the rule of law, Surayud said. To gain people's faith and trust, the Police Development Commission was st up to fine-tune the police force to be in line with the changes and to solve internal and external problems, he added.

He suggested the police investigation system be adjusted to have more autonomy and for officers to take people's rights into consideration rather than solely focusing on bringing wrongdoers to justice. Surayud proposed seven points for the mission, including the public's participation and the separation of police from political interference.

Decentralisation, checks-and-balances and professionalism also needed to be implemented, he said. He urged police officers to be more in touch with the general public and for the supervision of lower-ranking officers to be improved so they can perform their duties efficiently.

Surayud detailed the proposed solutions by the commission that included the establishment of a national-level police policy committee and nine regional-level police policy committees - to be independent from each other - and an independent committee to take public complaints of police misconduct.

The power decentralisation to regions, the transfer of missions deemed not essential police duties to other agencies, and the improvement of 1,450 police stations and public security services were also proposed.

Others proposals included improving the police investigation system, the scaling-down of quasi-army ranking, so that 200,000 nation-wide police officers had equal dignity to Justice Ministry officials, and the public's participation in policing communities.

Surayud said the commission's proposal was adjustable and after thorough consideration, the improvements would materialise within his administration. As some proposals might take longer, the government would ensure the mission will continue until it is accomplished, he added.

Permanent Secretary for Justice Charun Pakdeethanakul, said the improvements were to solve the root cause of the problems and were carried out carefully with the co-ordination of the police and related agencies. The proposed solutions would be taken step-by-step to ensure the mission continued unabated and to finally create something good for Thai people and society.

The commission will formulate a master plan for the government and the National Legislation Assembly's (NLA) consideration. They will also draft laws and regulations and evaluate the implementation to be in line with the proposed plans, Charun said.

They also had to work on promoting the plans to both the police and the public and get feedback.

NLA member Angkhana Neelaphaijit, said the improvement in the justice system must allow affected people to speak up about their suffering, and as the line separating police from human-right violators was blurry, on behalf of victims of police, she called for changes in the police institution.

Piyanart Srivalo

Anan Paengnoi

The Nation