The Connection Of Two Unconnected Events: Thai Opinion

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STREET WISE

The connection of two unconnected events

Achara Deboonme

BANGKOK: -- Last week, two events happened. At a glance, they are not connected, as they involved different groups of people.

The first started off with the finding that applicants for the police entrance examination to get a place in a police constabulary school in Si Sa Ket were found with a vibrating device that was used to indicate answers to multiple-choice questions. This led to the arrest of six people who were allegedly given Bt10.5 million in cash from 30 applicants.

The second took place on June 13 when a maid was shot dead on the bus near Rangsit area, as a result of students' shooting.

Matter-of-factly, the two events differed in nature, but they pointed to a fundamental fact in Thai society. Hardship of low-level citizens and wrong social values are pushing all to do everything to climb up the social status. It seems to be a right tactic, as higher social level should guarantee higher wealth and greater comfort of life. In short, these people are yearning for more choices.

If she earned more than Bt9,000 a month, the bus victim would not need to ride the non-air-conditioned bus, which are frequently caught between student fighting. The shooting was frightening and the shooting which claimed innocent lives like this was not the first and should not be the last. Aside from this danger, riding it involves many discomforts.

It is unfortunate that all are willing to resort to anything, including immoral means, to improve their life. As the civil service considered the most secure job, with many benefits attached, it is unsurprising that most people want to get a place in the civil service. Despite relatively low pays than those offered by private companies, they can look forward to free medical expenses for their parents and free tuition fees for their children. To all, that costs a lot, particularly for those who earn less than Bt10,000 a month.

Recently, I learnt sad news. As Bangkok is recruiting new teachers, there is a movement towards corruption. One applicant is tipped off by someone in the crony ring, that they are guaranteed a place if paying Bt400,000.

It's tempting, even when considering hard time in getting a job at a private company for someone with a degree in teaching. It's tempting even considering the huge debt involved. For a pay of Bt15,000 a month, how many years would the applicant repay all debt? What these teachers could do to support their monthly expense and debt repayment? Aside from offering after-school tutorial classes, they could sell paid-on-installments products for may direct-selling companies. Needless to ask, these would consume their time, better allocated to improve their teaching skills.

We in Thai society need to admit that offers are usually flowing to high-level civil servants and not all are ready to shove off the offers. No matter how much we are campaigning to honour "good" people, Thais tend to pay respect to anyone carrying high social status despite the person's track records. All that status would not matter only if we live in society where social status matters less than the persons' virtues.

All that explains why corruption is rampant, regardless of vehement denial from all parties. It is not surprising that Thailand is now among the top countries in terms of corruption perception. Under the Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index, Thailand was in the 80th place, with the score of only 3.4 out of 10 points. Notably, there are altogether 182 countries on the ranking, with Somalia (1 points) at the bottom and New Zealand (9.5) on the top.

As few adults serve as good examples of how to live a decent life without hurting others, it is unsurprising why our children are getting more edgy and resorting to violent means to end conflicts, no matter how tiny they look.

-- The Nation 2012-06-18

[ramrod711]

I think people tend to look around to see what works for others. One doesn't have to look very far to see who is getting ahead here. A retired Australian police friend of mine was asked by a friend of his to talk to her son, the young man wanted to drop out of university to become a policeman. My friend asked him why, "because I'm tired of being poor" he replied.

[virtualtraveller]

Corruption to get INTO the police force or civil service sets a tone for a lifetime of officials who need to be corrupt just to justify their position. If you are paying 3x your annual salary just to get in the door, then how many months of savings would it take to repay, 10 years perhaps, which begs the question, how much extra on top of their usual salary do they expect to gain to service the debt.

Meanwhile, this article reports that Thailand is now one of the top countries on the corruption index but goes on to say we are ranked 80th out of 180, erm, that puts us somewhere in the middle I would say, we're an average country.

[JurgenG]

I hope Thailand won't fail in the trap "it's the society fault".

Now in Europe nobody is responsible for anything. You rape someone, beat up you wife, ransack a shop ? Not your fault ! You're a victim of the society. That's a message young people hear loud and clear. You talk to young (and less young) people, it's ok to steal, deal drugs, rape ... because you're not responsible, you're a victim of the society.

Please keep the bleeding heart liberals at bay, they made enough damage already. If Thailand should learn something from the west, it should be this.

[Reasonableman]

Since 1995, Transparency International (TI) publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys."^[1] The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private benefit." As of 2010, the CPI ranks 178 countries "on a scale from 10 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt)." http://en.wikipedia....rceptions_Index

Thailand's Corruption Perception Index Rankings (2011->2002)

80 Thailand 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.5 3.3 3.6 3.8 3.6 3.3 3.

Between 2002 and 2011, perceived corruption peaked at 3.8 in 2005 (increased from 3.3 in 2003 to to 3.6 in 2004, declined from 3.8 in 2005 to 3.6 in 2006), and was lowest (3.2) in 2002, followed by 2003 and 2007 (3.3). Interesting.

Edited June 18, 2012 by Reasonableman

[drdoom6996]

This is the example we give our children when they see 2 factions fighting each other in the streets with bad mouthed politicians enciting violence. I don't care what color you are or what you do in parliment. But these constant street meetings that say kill them all is what our children are hearing. If its is good enough for the two factions, one being the government in power, now or almost 2 years ago, why do we blame our children for acting the same way. Adults set the example our children act on. My opinion anyway

[robertson468]

Corruption for Thai youngsters starts even whilst they are children. My Sister-in-Law's Daughter is one of the brightest children in the whole Province, having come top in a quiz conducted for all the schools in the Province. When she wanted to go on to the next school level, her Mother had to entertain a person connected to the School several times to agree how much the Mother would have to pay for her Daughter to be accepted as a Student. And you can bet your bottom dollar (where did that expression come from?) that the Daughter knew of the arrangement. You can just picture the scenario, "it cost me a lot of money to get you in to that school, so you had better do well!" But more frightening is that this relatively innocent child now has benefited from a corrupt system therefore will feel, as many Thais do, if it benefits them, it is okay.