Thais unhappy with Prawit’s response to daycare centre massacre

The Thai people were not impressed with the insensitive statement delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan about the daycare centre massacre yesterday.

Thai reporters asked Deputy PM Prawit how he planned to prevent a similar scenario in the future.

He said…

“What can I do about it? He is a drug addict.”

Prawit offered his condolences to the victim’s families, admitting that he did not expect this kind of tragedy to happen in Thailand but his response was pretty weak.

Prawit insisted that the root of the incident was drugs and insisted the government was always trying to help people in the country with addiction recovery and improve the drug situation in the country.

“I am sorry for the losses of all the families of the victims. The killer has already died, and his family has also. I never expected that this kind of incident would happen. It happened because of the drugs, and the government has always tried to help all drug addicts. It wasn’t lucky that the man had committed suicide because his family, wife and son were also killed.”

The Deputy PM was a little tetchy when asked how he would prevent similar situations emerging from within the nation’s police force.

“What can I do about it? He was a drug addict and has already departed. ”

The death toll from the massacre at the daycare centre in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu climbed to 37 today while 10 victims are being treated in hospitals.

The killer, 34 year old Panya Kamrap, murdered his wife and son before committing suicide. He was a former police officer who was fired due to his addiction to drugs.

This isn’t the first mass shooting in Thailand. The Korat or Nakhon Ratchasima shooting two years ago is still deeply engrained in Thai people’s memory.

Many Thai people were not impressed with Deputy PM Prawit’s response to tackling gun and drug crime in the kingdom. They believe the government should take responsibility for the incident and implement stronger measures to prevent it from happening again.

Prawit later urged the relevant government departments to rally around stressed police officers with mental health problems and suffering from drug addiction.

He also asked government departments to scrutinise the personal information of each officer in the recruitment stage for employing them to prevent a similar scenario in the future.