Culture Of Bribery Pulls Thailand Down: FTI

[Rimmer]

One Racist post removed from view.

[Tanaka]

Thais and honesty: I do business with this origin since 1976.

A police officer who wants 300 THB because.. he could not see your face behind the helmet screen.

You want a container our quick. Oh solly have to inspect first. unless 2000 THB call it " removable inlay paper"

Contract? As soon as the Thais see a reason to walk away from it, they do it. Result: a Thai contract is even not worth the paper it is written on.

Question: Why do you bother trying to do business here?

[swillowbee]

Any serious measures to change the culture of corruption in Thailand will first require a change in the culture itself. A very difficult thing to achieve for any civil society where negative cultural behaviors undermine society as whole. Ultimately laws must be revised to impose sentences/penalties equal to the crime and severe enough to change these behaviors or at least greatly discourage people from committing acts of corruption. The law must be enforced, and that means you would need effective and productive investigative services, police operations and swift judicial action. Having lived here on and off for 18 years I personally understand how difficult such an undertaking would be.

Corruption permeates every level of strata in Thai society, and a stratified society it is. That is part of Thai culture as well. But you know what? Every "National" society is corrupt almost everywhere in the world. And the United States (my country of origin) has proven to be the world's most legally corrupt society in the world. Read Matt Tabibi, Rolling Stone Magazine who has written nationally recognized reporting on the worldwide financial crisis. Whether politicians give their control over to lobbies who give big political contributions and write the framework for legislation and regulatory enforcement, it is the same thing as what transpires here in Thailand at all levels. When you participate in corruption, you give up some measure of your control. You have entered into an unmoral contract and you put yourself at some risk.

Thai moral culture will need to evolve to stay relevant in globalized world. This should really be a very easy thing for Thais to get to. All they have to do is truly believe in the spiritual philosophy (religion) most people profess to adhere to. I would love to see this country free from it's moral hypocrisy. Buddha did not believe in big Wats (Temples) and the whole structure of organized buddhism. It's all about money. Prestige (higher up the strata) means more influence, more power. There are a few groups and Temples around the country that are truer to Dharma. Who recognize Buddhism was never meant to be a congregational religion with a highly organized structure. Did Buddah ever care about any of those things? I think not.

Thank you for your post. I wish this topic was still available on TV so others could read what you said.

... well said, Dokmai123 ... I am glad to see that most of the more thoughtful informed replies here are made in context to Thailand's cultural values ... I really do not see the Thai behavior of corruption as the problem, but rather a symptom of the real problem ... inferior cultural values, upon which behaviors are based.

... I have long ruminated over this problem in the raising of my adopted Thai children ... teaching them quality values is a tremendous personal challenge here ... inferior values are understood by my family to be unacceptable, and damaging to their personal character and their intrinsic value as decent human beings.

... I've identified many disturbing Thai cultural values, many almost universally accepted and practiced here, which I consider damaging to their characters and demeaning to them as human beings, and have gone about expunging them from our family life ... it is working somewhat ... still, my kids are exposed to their wide acceptance and practice in their everyday lives here ... these practices are indemic throughout Thai society, high and low, so glaring that even children see them for what they are.

... changing a country's cultural values is impossible within anything less than multiple generations, even if there were a will by a society's leaders to do so ... my children's lives here will be far less because of them ... so, I am preparing them to live in other countries in the future, should they so choose.

... sad.

[LingLek]

Makes Thailand sound like Ferenginar from the Star Trek universe. For those who do not know, the Ferengi are aliens who place profit above all else. They even have a code of behavior called, "The Rules of Acquisition."

The #1 rule is "Once you have their money ... never give it back." Sound familiar?

Here are a few other gems:

There's nothing wrong with charity ... as long as it winds up in your pocket. (Didn't some tsunami money disappear?)

There's nothing more dangerous than an honest businessman.

Never place friendship above profit.

A deal is a deal ... until a better one comes along.

The flimsier the product, the higher the price.

Enough ... is never enough.

Trust is the biggest liability of all.

Anything worth doing is worth doing for money.

Not even dishonesty can tarnish the shine of profit.

The justification for profit is profit.

Never ask when you can take. (People walking into homes and grabbing what they want).

TheWalkingMan

Ghastly place all in all. Better to wipe it off the face of the earth. Can't imagine why anyone with moral standards would want to live there.

[Semper]

I have just one question after reading this highly imformative news.

Do bears shit in the woods ?

Do drivers pi$$ on the roadside?

Does the Pope were a funny hat ?