A week after the
coup, Saprang was promoted to Assistant Army Commander, alongside fellow coup leader
Anupong Paochinda. His predecessor, General
Pornchai Kranlert, had not taken part in the coup and was transferred to an inactive position. Saprang was also promoted from
Lieutenant General to General.
CNS Special Operations Center On 27 December 2006, it was revealed that the
Thai Cabinet had approved over half a billion
baht worth of funding for a 14,000-man secret, anti-protest, special operations force, of which General Saprang was the commander. The so-called CNS Special Operations Center, funded with 556 million baht diverted from the Defense Ministry,
Royal Thai Police, and government emergency reserve fund, had been secretly established by the CNS on 1 December 2006 in order to control protests. Saprang's first move as TOT Chairman was to hand-pick three Army colonels and vocal Thaksin-critic
Vuthiphong Priebjrivat to sit on the state enterprise's board of directors. Saprang transferred TOT President Somkuan Bruminhent to an inactive position and appointed Vuthiphong new president. He then hand-picked all 10 other directors. Saprang noted in an interview that, "if telecommunication businesses are in private hands, the country won't be safe." Under Saprang's leadership, TOT reaffirmed its ownership rights to all existing backbone telecommunications networks under a new strategy to act as a "genuine" national telecom company. The new strategy was expected to increase political and business tensions. Under the "build-transfer-operate" (BTO) concession agreements that TOT signed with private telecom operators, the TOT technically owns all fixed-line, mobile, and optical fibre networks in Thailand. However, it had never exercised those rights in the past. Vuthiphong was fired from the TOT board and his position of acting TOT President in June 2007. He immediately accused the Army of using the TOT as an unmonitored
slush fund. He claimed that an unnamed Army unit had requested that TOT buy 800 million baht worth of electronic equipment. Upon receiving the request, Vuthipong demanded to know why neither the Army nor the Defence Ministry used their own secret budgets to purchase the equipment, and why an internal Army unit, rather than the kingdom's main national security organisations, had made the request. Saprang denied that there was any lack of transparency in the request for financial support. Vuthipong claimed that the equipment should only have cost 30 million baht, not 800 million baht. He was fired and expelled from the board soon after refusing to sign off on the deal. The board later appointed Col. Natee Sukolrat as the new TOT President and accepted the army's donation request. Under his leadership, TOT's performance dropped. Revenues for the first half of 2007 fell 13 percent year-on-year, while
net profit fell 36.1 percent. Fixed line revenue dropped 16 percent, and public telephone and international call revenue by 30 percent each. As Chairman of CAT Telecom, Saprang was accused by the founders of
PTV, a new satellite television station, of being behind CAT Telecom's refusal to grant an internet link from Bangkok to a
satellite up-link station in
Hong Kong. PTV was established by several ex-executives of the
Thai Rak Thai party. CAT Telecom claimed that it never received PTV's application for internet access. Under Saprang's leadership, 80,000 subscribers of
Thai Mobile, a TOT/CAT joint venture mobile phone operator, were cut off temporarily in early May 2007 when owners TOT and CAT Telecom failed to pay bills to a major supplier. Thai Mobile had accumulated significant losses and the company was not able to make its debt payments or supplier payments. The partners had stopped payments to the supplier, Samart Corporation, for nearly a year, until Samart threatened to suspend services within three days. After no payment, it delivered on its threat. TOT was subsequently able to negotiate with Samart to restart the service.
Airports of Thailand Purging of AoT management A week after Saprang hinted at a reshuffle of AoT top management, AoT President
Chotisak Asapaviriya was forced to resign, citing health reasons, while the Directors of
Suvarnabhumi Airport and AoT Commercial Operations were dismissed. Police Commissioner General
Seripisut Temiyavej was appointed an AoT Director.
Suvarnabhumi Airport As AoT Chairman, Saprang spearheaded an effort to reopen
Don Mueang Airport in parallel with the newly opened
Suvarnabhumi Airport, despite objections from the Civil Aviation Department, airlines, and internal studies within
Airports of Thailand. Sixty airlines threatened to halt flights to Thailand if they were forced to move back to Don Mueang airport. Saprang also refused to authorize urgent repairs on the airport tarmac, despite warnings from engineers. Karun Chandrarangsu, president of the Engineering Institute of Thailand noted, "Suvarnabhumi is like a patient in a coma who continues to suffer from severe bleeding. Stopping the blood flow now is more urgent and important than debating what caused the injury." The Engineering Institute of Thailand sent a formal warning to AoT in November 2006 about the urgent need to drain water from beneath the tarmac and noted that immediate action should be taken. "The AOT did nothing about the problem", Suebsak Promboon of the EIT noted. "The situation might not have become this bad if the water had been drained then."
Suebsak Promboon, a senior foundation engineer and a member of the
Tortrakul Yomnak-led airport tarmac inspection panel, accused the AOT of refusing to take any actions to solve the problems at the airport. The airport faced ongoing operational challenges, including a computer virus that shut down the automated luggage bomb-scanning system in June 2007. A study by the
International Air Transport Association (IATA) released in July 2007 found the airport unsafe, citing numerous spots where checked passengers can meet people who have not passed through security checkpoints. Serious security gaps at Suvarnabhumi Airport became known to the public beginning in early 2007. The
International Air Transport Association (IATA) found that there were many spots in the passenger terminal where checked passengers could meet people who have not passed through security checks and could receive unchecked objects and then carry them on board aircraft. The IATA also suggested that AoT deploy its own security staff instead of contracting out the job to the Loxley-ICTS consortium. AoT threatened the consortium with contract termination but didn't follow through with its threat, even though the consortium failed to live up to its contract. Six months later, AoT stated that it still couldn't make up its mind on how it should improve airport security. AoT said it was open to all possible options and had taken no action to upgrade the problem.
Trip to Europe On Tuesday 27 February 2007, Saprang led a 13-member delegation to Europe, on what was claimed to be a week-long trip to study safety and security measures at major European airports. Many delegates and accompanying members shared the same
surname, and the trip, which cost 7.2 million
baht was attacked for "squandering" state funds for personal pleasure, disbursing unrealistic expenses, and inflating costs. The travel agent alone received a 500,000 baht commission fee for booking the trip. Saprang denied any wrongdoing and claimed he was the victim of a smear campaign. He also noted that "If you knew my character, you would know that even if a relative joined the trip he should have realised that he should work hard." He also noted that instead of being a viewed as a defendant, he should be viewed as a hero for bringing down the Thaksin government. Saprang then summoned the leader of the AoT labour union in order to identify who leaked information about the trip to his accusers.
Financial performance In the first quarter after Saprang was appointed chairman, AoT profits plunged 90 percent compared to the previous year, despite higher traffic volumes and increased passenger service charters and airline fees. Operating expenses surged 137 percent, contributing to the AoT's worst quarterly earnings report since it was listed on the
Stock Exchange of Thailand. The AoT board also granted 200 million baht to the Army, which had requested a financial donation. AoT also lent some of its explosives detectors to the Army for use in the
South Thailand insurrection. Financial performance continued to spiral downwards in the 3rd quarter of 2007. Net profit for the period ending June fell by 84 percent from a year before, despite higher traffic and a 17.9 percent increase in revenue. The fall in profit was attributed to AoT's court case against King Power, the operator of
duty-free shops within Suvarnabhumi Airport. King Power's concession was suspended while the case was in court, forcing AOT to stop reporting earnings from the concessionaire.
Thaksin Shinawatra Saprang had long been a fierce critic of
Thaksin Shinawatra, and prior to the coup had even called Thaksin's supporters within the military "evil." After the coup, Saprang called Thaksin a "traitor" and said that he should be "banished to live forever in the jungle." A vocal self-proclaimed royalist, he insisted that various groups actively tried to challenge the monarchy, and that he "couldn't stand it." He noted, "I am a soldier, born to protect the Crown. They could only challenge the monarchy over my dead body."
2007 New Years bombings Saprang had a public confrontation with former Prime Minister
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh regarding the
2006 Bangkok New Year's Eve bombings after Chavalit accused him of incompetence. Saprang claimed that "the evidence and intelligence information proves that the bombs were the dirty work of politicians who lost power and benefits. Bad soldiers loyal to bad politicians collaborated with them with the intention to topple this government." However, his claim was contradicted just an hour later by Prime Minister
Surayud Chulanont. In May 2007, Saprang claimed that he had information regarding the seizure of an instructional manual on terrorism in Bangkok from a London apartment by English soldiers and police. He said he could not disclose any further information, but told the public to connect the dots themselves. Days later, a bomb exploded outside of
Chitrlada Palace. Saprang later clarified his remark, saying the Bangkok terrorism manual discovery had been made in the early 1990s. Deputy Chief of the British Mission in Bangkok Andy Pierce said he was "concerned" by Saprang's remarks, which he insisted were "baseless".
Resignation of Pridiyathorn Devakula Saprang was implicated in the resignation of Finance Minister
Pridiyathorn Devakula on 28 February 2007. The
Bangkok Post reported that Pridiyathorn resigned in protest after a CNS member lobbied him to sell shares of IRPC (formerly known as Thai Petrochemical Industry) back to a former shareholder. The newspaper identified Saprang as the unnamed CNS member. Saprang's brother, Chienchuang, was a key financial advisor to
Prachai Liaophairat, the estranged founder of TPI. Chienchuang's relations with the junta came under further public scrutiny when it was revealed that he was hired by the junta in order to lead a campaign to discredit deposed premier
Thaksin Shinawatra. Politicians hired as part of the CNS campaign included Chat Pattana party leader
Korn Dabbaransi, Democrats
Korn Chatikavanij,
Alongkorn Palabutr and
Korbsak Sabavasu,
Prapat Panyachatraksa, a key Thai Rak Thai member who defected to the Chat Thai party, plus ex-senator
Kraisak Choonhavan. Academics hired by the CNS included
Wuttipong Piebjriya-wat,
Sophon Supapong,
Narong Phet-prasert, and
Somkiat Osotspa.
Mad dogs and machine guns Saprang was an extremely vocal critic of those whom he perceived as his political opponents. In an interview with
Thai Rath (Thailand's most popular newspaper) on 8 April 2007, he called an unspecified enemy a "mad dog" who he claimed was destroying the monarchy. He said that it was necessary to shoot the dog with a machine gun. In the same interview, he threatened a violent response to the "bold words that came from the mouths of evil people who did not know restraint". He urged decisive action so that the public would believe that good had triumphed over evil.
Post-coup role Saprang was considered a strong contender to lead the
junta given the mandatory retirement of Army commander-in-chief and CNS President
Sonthi Boonyaratkalin in September 2007. Saprang was sidelined in security plans preceding the
Constitutional Tribunal's 20 May 2007 ruling on the dissolution of the
Thai Rak Thai and
Democrat Parties. After the 2006 coup, Sonthi delegated the task of securing Bangkok to Saprang. The pre-ruling plan put Sonthi directly in charge of Bangkok crowd security, allying him with alums of AFPS Class 9, including Army Chief of Staff General Montri Sangkhasap and First Army Region commander Lt General
Prayuth Chan-ocha.
Panitan Wattanayagorn, a military scholar at
Chulalongkorn University and a personal adviser to Prime Minister
Surayud Chulanont noted in early September 2007 that "if the army is going to take a full step into politics, then it will be Saprang. If only a half-step, then Anupong. And if it intends to beat a full retreat or take one step back, it will be [Army chief of staff] Montri [Sangkhasap ]." On 19 September 2007, Saprang's rival, Assistant Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Anupong Paochinda, was appointed as the new commander-in-chief of the Army, replacing the retiring General Sonthi. Anupong's mandatory retirement occurred in 2010. Sonthi was, after resignation, appointed Deputy Prime Minister. Saprang was transferred to become Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense. Saprang's ally, Defence Ministry Deputy Permanent Secretary Admiral Bannawit Kengrien, called Saprang's transfer a "demotion" and a "punishment." However, Saprang himself claimed that he did not feel slighted for being passed over, noting that "everything is over" for him. Bannawit himself was later transferred from Defence Ministry Deputy Permanent Secretary to be a Chief Adviser of the Ministry, replaced by Chief Advisor General Toosarat Muang-am. Bannawit denied that his own transfer was the result of his criticism of Saprang's transfer. Bannawit then announced that he would resign from the military and enter politics. There was also rampant speculation that Saprang himself would resign and enter politics. Although the Kyodo News Agency noted speculation that Saprang would stage a coup against Anupong, Saprang denied coup rumours, saying that another coup would be "suicide." ==Personal life==