Thailand’s new hardline security chief eyes tough tests

A formidable test faces Thailand’s newly appointed security chief, General Chaipruak Doungprapat, as threats on the border intensify.

The hardline Army chief of staff will step up as secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC) on October 1. He will replace Chatchai Bangchuad, Thailand’s only civilian security tsar of the past decade, who has been appointed permanent secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office.

The choice of Chaipruak as new NSC chief was endorsed by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who said it embodied the principle of placing “the right person in the right job”.

Chaipruak’s appointment returns the kingdom’s top security post to military hands, following Chatchai’s brief civilian tenure since November 2024. Before that, the role was held by a string of five Army generals and one police general.

Gen Chaipruak takes office amid mounting border security threats from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand’s resurgent southern insurgency. His core duties as NSC chief will be to manage national security strategies and intelligence policy to contain such dangers.

The dispute with Cambodia remains unresolved after two rounds of armed clashes last year, despite a ceasefire agreed in December. Myanmar’s civil war has also seen violence spill across the border, prompting northern Thai provinces to draft civilian evacuation plans.

In the deep South, separatist violence has flared with a spate of bombings, arson attacks and shootings targeting security personnel and public infrastructure.

Chaipruak, 58, takes on these challenges having earned a reputation as a military hardliner.

On Cambodia

As Army chief of staff during last December’s border clashes, the general threatened to “cripple” Cambodia’s military capabilities.

“Previously, our aim was simply to reclaim lost territory. Now, however, we have a duty to disable Cambodia’s capability by targeting its military hardware and infrastructure. We will continue to do this until Cambodia poses no military threat to Thailand for the foreseeable future,” Chaipruak said in a December interview.

However, following a wave of airstrikes on arms depots, fuel-storage sites and military installations inside Cambodia, he downplayed talk of a wider escalation.

“Contrary to widespread speculation, we have no intention of advancing all the way to Phnom Penh,” he said.

On the southern insurgency

In July, after inspecting the scene of an insurgent attack that killed five rangers in Narathiwat, Chaipruak issued a stern warning.

“We will hunt the perpetrators through every village and across every mountain. Anyone who provides them with a hiding place – and any country that shelters them – should know that we will pursue them to the ends of the earth,” said the general, who also serves as ex officio secretary-general of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC).

He then addressed the insurgents directly: “Be wary when you eat, sleep or walk. The time has come for you to be hunted.”

The threat followed two decades of increasing militarisation in the far South, where insurgency violence has left roughly 7,800 dead since 2004.

Classmate of defence minister

Chaipruak graduated from the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School and Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy (CRMA). His classmates at the former included Defence Minister Lt-General Adul Boonthamcharoen and Army commander-in-chief General Pana Claewplodtook.

He went on to complete military courses at the Command and General Staff College, Special Warfare School, and National Defence College.

After graduating from the academy, Chaipruak began his career as a rifle platoon commander with the 9th Infantry Division at Surasee Camp in Kanchanaburi province. He was later appointed platoon commander of the King's Guard Regiment of Cadets at CRMA and then rifle platoon commander at the 1st Infantry Regiment of the King's Guards.

After graduating from the Command and General Staff College, he joined the Army’s Directorate of Operations – his first appointment to a staff position and a major turning point in his career. He later rose to become director of the Operations Division.

Chaipruak continued to serve on the Army’s staff under two successive commanders-in-chief, General Anupong Paochinda and General Prayut Chan-o-cha.

In 2022, he was appointed deputy director-general of the Army’s Directorate of Operations, rising to director-general after two years.

He was then promoted to deputy chief of staff of the Army, before becoming chief of staff last October and taking up the parallel ex officio role of ISOC secretary-general.

By Thai PBS World’s Political Desk