Mustachioed MP of Uttaradit province Saranwut Saranket does not look like a typical Thai politician. He looks more like a Wild West cowboy, albeit without a gun slung on his waist or a horse.
He does not fire from the hip with a real gun, but his mouth fires as rapidly when he gets going, with raw guts about topics which MPs in general are reluctant to talk about, such as the "master puppeteer" who has been pulling the strings behind the Thai politics.
During the last day of the general debate on Friday night, the maverick MP fired non-stop at the master puppeteer, naming him without fear, saying he was part of an "Axis of Evil" of people with an insatiable thirst for wealth.
According to Mr Saranwut, this man has his hands in almost any businesses involving the government and the private sector that can enrich him or his clan, from water projects to train projects, from telecommunications to retail, without any sense of guilt or shame.
He also has control, directly or indirectly, over all the check-and-balance mechanisms in the country. No wonder the National Anti-Corruption Commission now looks like a lame duck, except against small-time bad guys.
Mr Saranwut said that he could not talk about this subject when he was with the opposition Pheu Thai party. He was also barred from taking part in the censure debate last September against Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha and five other ministers.
Nonetheless, he defied the party's resolution by not voting against the prime minister and abstaining from voting against the five other ministers.
As a result, he was sacked from the party and eventually founded his own Pheu Chart party.
Mr Saranwut said that he would team up with another maverick activist, Ruangkrai Leekitwattana, a man well known for his flexible political loyalty but with as much raw guts as Mr Saranwut, to dig up and expose Thailand's "Mother of all Corruption".
A failure to deal with the corruption problem by Prime Minister Prayut is one of the hallmarks of his administration on top of other failures, such as those in political reform, police reform, bureaucratic and educational reforms.
No matter whether he has hidden agenda or not, we should thank the maverick MP for his foolhardiness and his revealing debate, without which many of us would be kept in the dark.
He has exposed a systematic corruption industry which is prospering in leaps and bounds despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which has sent many businesses bankrupt.
Also, thanks to Move Forward MP Rangsiman Rome for reminding us of one honest cop in the force: Pol Maj-Gen Paween Pongsirin, formerly in charge of the human trafficking suppression task force.
Many among us may have forgotten this decent cop, a rare one in the force, for the extraordinary job he did in exposing the cruel treatment of hundreds of Rohingya refugees by human traffickers.
Their circle involves local policemen, businessmen, officials, security officers and even a lieutenant general army officer.
Hundreds of Rohingya refugees seeking a safe haven in Malaysia instead landed in southern Thailand.
They were locked up in a jungle detention camp in Sadao district of Songkhla province while traffickers forced them to write to their families back home asking them to pay a ransom to secure their freedom.
Dozens of them died and were buried in the jungle around the camp.
His investigation led to the prosecution of more than 90 of over 100 implicated in the modern slavery trade which shamed Thailand and the government more than six years ago.
But instead of receiving commendations from his bosses from then national police chief, Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda, up to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, the overlord of national security, he was transferred to serve in the deep South where he made many enemies among those involved in the human trafficking trade.
He quit the service and flew to Australia to seek asylum after he was warned by one of his bosses to run for his safety.
After more than six years of living a life of a refugee, he is still in Australia, not knowing when he can return to his home country. But the story of an honest cop and a rotten government should not be forgotten.
But the story, as told by Mr Rangsiman during the general debate, was dismissed by the government as an old news.
The prime minister did not respond. The security overlord, Gen Prawit, was not in the chamber either.
What a shame!
Veera Prateepchaikul is former editor, Bangkok Post.
