Piyawat wrote to the Public Health Ministry to report that Dr Supat Hasuwannakit, the director of Chana Hospital in Songkhla, must have committed disciplinary offences by spending many work hours on activities unrelated to his duty and causing rifts in the society.

“It’s not your duty to raise the issue with the ministry,” Somboon Kamhaeng, secretary general of the NGO Co-ordinating Committee on Development’s southern branch, said in a statement yesterday. “We suspect you have an ulterior motive.”

The statement said that Piyawat would be better spending his time reining in the unrest in the deep South. It stressed that Supat had taken up a stand against the plan to construct a coal-fired power plant in Songkhla’s Thepha district, out of concern for people’s health. He was a participant in a forum organised by a government-appointed committee to gather public opinions and promote public understanding on the South’s energy situation late last month.

Many locals showed up at the Chana Hospital yesterday to express their support for Supat.

Supat said apart from his duty as a medic, he also had a duty as a Thai citizen.

Songkhla’s public-health chief Dr Utissak Harirattanakul, said Supat still worked as the director of Chana Hospital. “I have not received any order to transfer him,” Utissak said. He admitted that he had been asked verbally about Supat’s performance after a complaint reached the ministry. “My answer is that his performance is fine,” Utissak said.