Phuket governor accepts transfer to Interior Ministry amid local conflict

Phuket Governor Nirat Pongsitthaworn said he accepted the cabinet decision transferring him to the post of deputy permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, after a period of conflict in the southern island province.

In his first interview after the transfer order, Nirat said he had acknowledged the decision and wanted to speak first with Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. He said he respected the prime minister’s decision and insisted the move had not discouraged him.

Nirat said he had no personal conflict with anyone in Phuket and that he had been sent there to address disputes that predated his tenure. He said his role as governor was to resolve problems rather than align with any faction.

He said progress had been made on several issues in Phuket and that he had traveled to report the local situation to the prime minister. According to Nirat, action against foreign mafia groups had calmed that problem, but internal conflict in the province remained unresolved and had become a matter at ministry level.

Nirat also called for a broad inquiry, saying people in the area believed the Interior Ministry should send more than one department to investigate, led by an official at deputy permanent secretary level, so agencies under the ministry could examine the situation within their authority.

Asked whether his transfer would ease tensions, Nirat said the conflict should be separated into two parts: disputes over benefits in the area, which current authorities must address, and personal conflicts at local level, which could subside once the person claimed to be at the center of the dispute had been moved.

He rejected suggestions that he had been treated as a junior official in Phuket, saying he was in his ninth year at the C10 rank and the most senior provincial governor in Thailand. He said he had repeatedly warned officials not to do anything illegal, not to seek benefits from anyone, and not to pressure others.

When asked whether those warnings had angered some officials and contributed to the dispute, Nirat replied: “Certainly.”

The source said Anutin ordered the transfer of the Phuket governor to end the conflict and present it as a model for handling similar disputes in other provinces.