Corruption Runs Much Deeper Than A Few Bad Mps: Thailand

[webfact]

BURNING ISSUE

Corruption runs much deeper than a few bad MPs

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's international corruption ranking will never improve as long as people in the national anti-corruption body, and the elite, maintain their narrow perspective on corruption by simply pointing the fingers at politicians.

Thailand has dropped further in the international corruption index compiled by Transparency International (TI), falling eight places from last year to 88th on the 176-country list for 2012.

It's easy to say, as national anti-graft commissioner Wicha Mahakun put it, that corrupt politicians have brought the country down - but such an assessment will never lead to any good solution.

Wicha's analysis of the root cause of corruption in Thailand is very shallow as he blames only politicians for the corruption. Politicians sought power in the administration in order to have a chance to exploit the national budget for their own benefit, he said. And politicians who intervene in the reshuffle of senior officials merely want to create a patron-client network within the bureaucracy for their own interest and that of their associates.

National Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Panthep Klanarongran shared the same idea, saying: "Politicians might not have a good image [regarding] corruption, but they have to accept reality and cooperate on fighting corruption."

The Thai elite, who feel uncomfortable with electoral democracy, tend to blame politicians for all that is wrong with this country.

They have managed to have former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra shown as a bad guy in this political discourse. Any politicians associated with Thaksin and his camp would never be good or clean. Many people in this country try to make themselves look good simply by criticising Thaksin.

The elite, who subscribe to this perception, often imagine Thailand would be clear and clean from corruption if it had no politicians. The country and administration must be run by good people from the bureaucracy, in particular the military, which usually holds moral authority.

The Thai elite - mostly well-educated persons in the capital - tend to consider elected provincial politicians, whom money or modern day populist policies can often buy, corrupt. They invest a lot to get power, so they want a return when they manage to achieve that power.

Of course, it's difficult to deny there is corruption among politicians, but they are not involved in corruption as a single group. Corruption indeed has deep roots and has spread throughout this country for a long time, perhaps from before its formation centuries ago.

The bureaucracy, the military, the police, the legislature, the courts - even the anti-corruption commission office itself - have never been free of corruption. Those who have good memories should not forget the scandal in the office of the auditor-general or the case of raising the salaries of anti-graft members in 2005.

Bribe-taking is common in many bureaucratic agencies and is perhaps established in the culture of this society. Motorists are willing to pay Bt100-Bt200 to Traffic Police for traffic infringements during commuting, rather than take tickets and pay the costly charges.

Project developers at all levels, with or without the involvement of politicians, need to pay between 15-35 per cent of construction costs to "responsible and authorised persons" as commission fees. Those who call for transparency or do not want to pay, will never get the job.

The patron-client system, which Wicha blamed politicians for creating, has been a part of Thai culture since ancient times, long before the formation of the modern state. Frankly speaking, the patron-client system was created by the elite. Politicians who came later just adapted and applied it for their political benefit.

Corruption has been implanted and embedded in the culture for centuries. Pointing a finger at any particular group does not make anybody in this country look good and cannot solve the problem.

-- The Nation 2012-12-12

[dcutman]

Corruption has been implanted and embedded in the culture for centuries. Pointing a finger at any particular group does not make anybody in this country look good and cannot solve the problem.

It might be unfair, but you have to start somewhere!

[noitom]

Check out this preposterous comment - "Pointing a finger at any particular group does not make anybody in this country look good and cannot solve the problem."

Just exactly what does this newspaper person think should be done? Who should be called out as standing in the way of "the right thing to do?" Who does the newspaper believe is standing in the way? What needs to change and who should "take responsibility?"

[fareastguy]

As with most things corrupt or illegal yes you have to start somewhere.. you could liken it to the war against drugs..

So do you start to take out the poor guy's at the bottom of the ladder (which never has any impact) as the operation will just continue with another peddler, or do you go for Mr BIG at the top which sends a strong message to all below that things are about to change !!

Thailand has neither the power or the motivation to stop corruption because within the Thai system it now benefits too many.

Until the threat of loss of position, face, worldly goods or more long term imprisonment it will always be the same.. just hollow talk.

[Katipo]

"You are corrupt".

"No, YOU are corrupt!"

..... just XXXX the lot of you. You are ALL corrupt, and you are ALL the reason that Thailand is little more than a 3rd world country with a few extra shiny bits.

[OzMick]

"They have managed to have former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra shown as a bad guy in this political discourse."

Fancy showing Thailand's largest criminal as a "bad guy". The low-hanging fruit gets picked first.

[DocN]

Corruption runs much deeper than a few bad MPs

No shit, Sherlock?!

With 63% of the population accepting corruption if it benefits them...it is not only a few bad MPs!

Interesting and rather controversial theory!

NOT!

[arthurboy]

This article is dross. Empty words with absolutely nothing new or informative. Dross.

Next.

[maidu]

Thais accept corruption and often don't know to call it corruption even when they're wading in the thick of it. They couldn't change corruption any more than they could walk around nude in public. It's an indelible part of the Asian psyche.

[chainarong]

Well you lead by example , If the upper end of town can do it ,so can the rest of the population, this corruption influence has developed over hundreds of years , to stop it now , would be akin to stopping the tide , it can't be done, one remembers when the junta was in power,improvements have been made , but with four hundred items to be addressed by Thai banks, to make the IMF happy chappies, there's along way to go.

[maidu]

The poster boy for corruption, Mr. "I'm through with politics" Thaksin, is also the most popular and powerful politician in the land. Go figure. Thais don't care how a person got his wealth or whether he's as corrupt as Vlad the Impaler - the important thing is he stinks of money, so all else is secondary. Money is God, here in Land of Smiles.

[MaxLee]

Of course it's not all on the MP's and politicians, but they do quite their share to encourage corruption; there are several other mafias involved in Thailand:

1. The TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand), which would go over dead bodies "to promote and maintain the Tourism image of Amazing Thailand"; several travelers, young and old have been murdered, abused and oppressed by corrupt tour guides, police forces on several so called paradies islands like Koh Samui, Phuket or Krabi; furthermore those poor adventurers have been MYSTERIOUSLY POISENED, and none of their families are ever gonna get compensated, because TAT is too busy to promote Tourism Image...

2. The Telecommunication Networks of Thailand; Zero has been invested in proper infrastructure for technologies like 3G or real highspeed internet; the customer pays for a lousy service with several temporary disconnections, power outages, and slow connection speeds in prime time hours due to broadband traffic overload; Thailand still doesn't have 3G, and I guess the continues Finalization process about who RIPS the most benefits out of it, is still going to continue,... FREE WIFI INTERNET???? (STILL) NOT IN THAILAND.... even in places like Starbucks, you have to pay 120 Baht and more, while they already charge high prices for their coffee. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me almost everywhere else in the World Starbucks WIFI is for free, is it??? Nothing in Internet is really free...

3. The Education ministry of Thailand is f******ing and screwing around with millions of kids and students and their parents. POLICY AND CAMPAIGN WHAT??? It only sounds promising on the surface EVERY YEAR, but the results are all the same, procedures as well: Pack the classrooms full with 100 students, one teacher, and if there's a farang, he or she is screwed anyway, because they can't talk Thai and control 100+ students in a classroom; Teachers get ripped off anyway in many occassions, I know some friends who were teachers and who did get ripped odd by the so called agencies who wouldn't pay them or do all sorts of illegal stuff to them; for the students it means going through a workload of many, many examination processes and boring ass lessons that do not encourage self learning or critical thinking, or otherwise they get the sh***** beaten out by their Thai teachers; in other words, if you haven't got money, you can't learn any proper English or get into an overpriced International school

4. The Transportation ministry of Thailand; they invested ZERO in improving the railway system which has led to many deaths; BMTA who is responsible for BTS and MRT charge quite high prices for their usage; the bad thing is, for example at BTS, if you travel from or to the new stations and extention lines, you pay 15 Baht extra on your rabbit pass even if you have upgraded for 30-50 trips -> you still gotta pay extra, what an insult, which will cost at least 900+ Baht extra plus your 50 trips discount of 1000 Baht; that equals 2000 Baht a month (30-31 days)

5. the Water Management ministry of Thailand which sh****tloads on other provinces of Thailand, meaning literally: Protect Bangkok ONLY BANGKOK, and drain pump the water into other provinces. The so called water management plans only look scientific on the surface, to please the public in the hopes they would be stupid enough to buy into that crap, but in the end the citizens get ripped off; the local communities of other provinces get ripped off the most, because Government sponsored and protected greedy project managers get their okay to build dams in unprotected communities, to dump sh*****ty water on to them TO PROTECT BANGKOK; same tactic all over, sh****tload on other provinces in order to protect Bangkok...

The list actually goes on and on and on.... but those are just a few examples of the most dangerous mafia organizations in Thailand...

[seajae]

you need to start at the top and work your way down, once the king pins have been removed the rest will naturally follow. You cant even run a straight business in Thailand without having to supply "incentives" to have the work done by the different government offices. You "help" the local official then the one above him and so on an so forth all the way to the elected govt official so by removing the head the body will die. The politicians are the crux but so are the elite, they think they are above the law and so are their families(as seen with the 16 y/o car killer), they also need to be put in place so that everyone is treated equally in everything. As long as those that have money are able to get their own way then this will never change, an independant, non aligned office to expose all of these people would be great but how do you get independant in Thailand unless you use ferangs, everyone else is just not trustworthy.

[Thai at Heart]

The whole corruption system works on pyramids, the bottom feeds the top, with the top also able to avail itself of big one time payments for large favours.

I can't really see any other way than the start by cutting off the heads. i really like the Norwegian idea, that a tax return is public knowledge. There are so few top rate tax payers in the country, and yet, apparently, an ever increasing amount of people are buying a lot of extremely expensive cars or properties. If they have paid their taxes properly on the income they earnt, nothing to worry about.

Wouldn't it be lovely to input someone's name and address and see that whilst having what appeared to be a millionaires lifestyle, the nominal income of the that stamp keeper behind the desk declared an income of only 25k per month. It would certainly put the cat among the pigeons that is for sure.

[JetsetBkk]

"Corruption runs much deeper than a few bad MPs"

And we have another winner of the "Stating The Bleedin' Obvious" award.

[thomash]

I think the only hope to possibly stopping the massive amount of corruption in Thailand and changing the general Thai attitude that corruption is okay is for the 2 most highly respected institutions in Thailand, namely the Royal family and the Buddhist Monks, unite to do a massive campaign against it. They could really promote how Un-Buddhist like corruption is, how much it hurts the country, your fellow Thai and the Thai culture in general. Someone has to put their foot down to stop this and those 2 institutions are the only ones that have the moral authority to be successfully at doing this as most Thais in general do listen to and respect those 2 institutions . Otherwise I think it is hopeless and will only get worse.

[VyvianB]

On a global level if you look at the index itself you will see that some countries are just better at masking corruption as mentioned in the following from the report: "The Index, which is closely watched by investors, economists, and civil society campaigners, is based on expert assessments and data from 13 surveys from independent institutions, covering issues such as access to information, bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, and the enforcement of anti-corruption laws. While critics note that measuring perceptions of corruption is not the same as measuring corruption itself, the latter is almost impossible to do - as the corrupt are usually keen to cover up their tracks, hard data on graft and bribery is notoriously difficult to come by." The sad part is that in countries like Thailand, the people who are the most impacted are the ones that can least change their circumstances, so they begrudgingly accept it as part of life- creating the infinite loop.

[CockneyGit]

Corruption runs much deeper than a few bad MPs

You think..??

[thomash]

Oh yeah they would also need to set up a system and actually enforce it that would both prevent corruption and punish corruption along with independent over site to prevent even that system becoming corrupt. But I am afraid this is all to logical of a solution for the Thais to actually do.

[DocN]

I think the only hope to possibly stopping the massive amount of corruption in Thailand and changing the general Thai attitude that corruption is okay is for the 2 most highly respected institutions in Thailand, namely the Royal family and the Buddhist Monks, unite to do a massive campaign against it. They could really promote how Un-Buddhist like corruption is, how much it hurts the country, your fellow Thai and the Thai culture in general. Someone has to put their foot down to stop this and those 2 institutions are the only ones that have the moral authority to be successfully at doing this as most Thais in general do listen to and respect those 2 institutions . Otherwise I think it is hopeless and will only get worse.

For that yo happen, the Buddhist Monks have to stop being corrupt first.

Unfortunately, there are many, many examples of monks who preach water and drink wine and who absolute behave as un- buddhist as many "normal" Thais.

[easybullet3]

you dont say !!

[waza]

Thai corruption isnt just the exclusive industry of the politicians as anyone who has paid tea money can see. But the politicians are the ones that the electrate can punish or support through the electral cycle and through them can influence the judicial syatem to combat that corruption.

However, corruption is so entrenched in Thai society that all politicians from all sides are considered corrupt and election just become a competition to elect the corrupt politician whos on your side, rather than the politician who is good for all.

[Tatsujin]

I think the only hope to possibly stopping the massive amount of corruption in Thailand and changing the general Thai attitude that corruption is okay is for the 2 most highly respected institutions in Thailand, namely the Royal family and the Buddhist Monks, unite to do a massive campaign against it. They could really promote how Un-Buddhist like corruption is, how much it hurts the country, your fellow Thai and the Thai culture in general. Someone has to put their foot down to stop this and those 2 institutions are the only ones that have the moral authority to be successfully at doing this as most Thais in general do listen to and respect those 2 institutions . Otherwise I think it is hopeless and will only get worse.

Not having encountered Buddhism before coming to Thailand, I was of the understanding that bribery is what Thai Buddhism is all about, i.e. pray and leave an offering and ask for what you want. I give to you, you give to me. Is that not correct?

[HHBM]

There is no real will to change. We're far from reaching any sort of tipping point.

[waza]

I think the only hope to possibly stopping the massive amount of corruption in Thailand and changing the general Thai attitude that corruption is okay is for the 2 most highly respected institutions in Thailand, namely the Royal family and the Buddhist Monks, unite to do a massive campaign against it. They could really promote how Un-Buddhist like corruption is, how much it hurts the country, your fellow Thai and the Thai culture in general. Someone has to put their foot down to stop this and those 2 institutions are the only ones that have the moral authority to be successfully at doing this as most Thais in general do listen to and respect those 2 institutions . Otherwise I think it is hopeless and will only get worse.

Not having encountered Buddhism before coming to Thailand, I was of the understanding that bribery is what Thai Buddhism is all about, i.e. pray and leave an offering and ask for what you want. I give to you, you give to me. Is that not correct?

I think your confusing corruption with charity

[kevvy]

Of course it's not all on the MP's and politicians, but they do quite their share to encourage corruption; there are several other mafias involved in Thailand:

1. The TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand), which would go over dead bodies "to promote and maintain the Tourism image of Amazing Thailand"; several travelers, young and old have been murdered, abused and oppressed by corrupt tour guides, police forces on several so called paradies islands like Koh Samui, Phuket or Krabi; furthermore those poor adventurers have been MYSTERIOUSLY POISENED, and none of their families are ever gonna get compensated, because TAT is too busy to promote Tourism Image...

2. The Telecommunication Networks of Thailand; Zero has been invested in proper infrastructure for technologies like 3G or real highspeed internet; the customer pays for a lousy service with several temporary disconnections, power outages, and slow connection speeds in prime time hours due to broadband traffic overload; Thailand still doesn't have 3G, and I guess the continues Finalization process about who RIPS the most benefits out of it, is still going to continue,... FREE WIFI INTERNET???? (STILL) NOT IN THAILAND.... even in places like Starbucks, you have to pay 120 Baht and more, while they already charge high prices for their coffee. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me almost everywhere else in the World Starbucks WIFI is for free, is it??? Nothing in Internet is really free...

3. The Education ministry of Thailand is f******ing and screwing around with millions of kids and students and their parents. POLICY AND CAMPAIGN WHAT??? It only sounds promising on the surface EVERY YEAR, but the results are all the same, procedures as well: Pack the classrooms full with 100 students, one teacher, and if there's a farang, he or she is screwed anyway, because they can't talk Thai and control 100+ students in a classroom; Teachers get ripped off anyway in many occassions, I know some friends who were teachers and who did get ripped odd by the so called agencies who wouldn't pay them or do all sorts of illegal stuff to them; for the students it means going through a workload of many, many examination processes and boring ass lessons that do not encourage self learning or critical thinking, or otherwise they get the sh***** beaten out by their Thai teachers; in other words, if you haven't got money, you can't learn any proper English or get into an overpriced International school

4. The Transportation ministry of Thailand; they invested ZERO in improving the railway system which has led to many deaths; BMTA who is responsible for BTS and MRT charge quite high prices for their usage; the bad thing is, for example at BTS, if you travel from or to the new stations and extention lines, you pay 15 Baht extra on your rabbit pass even if you have upgraded for 30-50 trips -> you still gotta pay extra, what an insult, which will cost at least 900+ Baht extra plus your 50 trips discount of 1000 Baht; that equals 2000 Baht a month (30-31 days)

5. the Water Management ministry of Thailand which sh****tloads on other provinces of Thailand, meaning literally: Protect Bangkok ONLY BANGKOK, and drain pump the water into other provinces. The so called water management plans only look scientific on the surface, to please the public in the hopes they would be stupid enough to buy into that crap, but in the end the citizens get ripped off; the local communities of other provinces get ripped off the most, because Government sponsored and protected greedy project managers get their okay to build dams in unprotected communities, to dump sh*****ty water on to them TO PROTECT BANGKOK; same tactic all over, sh****tload on other provinces in order to protect Bangkok...

The list actually goes on and on and on.... but those are just a few examples of the most dangerous mafia organizations in Thailand...

this is why as one OP stated , thailand is a 3rd world country with a few shiny bits

[thomash]

I think the only hope to possibly stopping the massive amount of corruption in Thailand and changing the general Thai attitude that corruption is okay is for the 2 most highly respected institutions in Thailand, namely the Royal family and the Buddhist Monks, unite to do a massive campaign against it. They could really promote how Un-Buddhist like corruption is, how much it hurts the country, your fellow Thai and the Thai culture in general. Someone has to put their foot down to stop this and those 2 institutions are the only ones that have the moral authority to be successfully at doing this as most Thais in general do listen to and respect those 2 institutions . Otherwise I think it is hopeless and will only get worse.

Not having encountered Buddhism before coming to Thailand, I was of the understanding that bribery is what Thai Buddhism is all about, i.e. pray and leave an offering and ask for what you want. I give to you, you give to me. Is that not correct?

I think your confusing corruption with charity

That could also be a description of what goes on in a lot of Churches to so that really is not about just Thai Buddhism, but actually it is called giving a donation.

[fareastguy]

I think the only hope to possibly stopping the massive amount of corruption in Thailand and changing the general Thai attitude that corruption is okay is for the 2 most highly respected institutions in Thailand, namely the Royal family and the Buddhist Monks, unite to do a massive campaign against it. They could really promote how Un-Buddhist like corruption is, how much it hurts the country, your fellow Thai and the Thai culture in general. Someone has to put their foot down to stop this and those 2 institutions are the only ones that have the moral authority to be successfully at doing this as most Thais in general do listen to and respect those 2 institutions . Otherwise I think it is hopeless and will only get worse.

The monarchy I would agree could do something, maybe an audience with his majesty & some of the higher ranking officials with a word in their ear that enough is enough.

As for the Buddhist institution I'm not so sure that that is as squeaky clean as most would think.. not all are above temptation as you would believe them to be.

[Halion]

Wake up. The problem in Thailand is not the politicians, it is the system. Is does not mater which party is in power ,the outcome is the same because the system is the root cause. This country is not run by politicians. What ever party is in power, it is controled by the capitalist elite and they have the most to loose. Politicians are meerly pawns in a much bigger game who take the opertunities provided to feather their nests while in office. The capitalist elite not only created this monster they continue to thrive and prosper as a result of it.

Level the playing field and see how many of these big money family conglomerates would crash and burn if not protected by the pet monster they perpetuate.

[indyuk]

Very underwhelming indeed!