Thailand slips in global corruption survey

[KIWIBATCH]

...wait for it....wait for it......HUB of corruption...!!!............ there i"ve said it

[hellodolly]

Maybe I saw it wrong again but I thought on the graph that during Abhisits command corruption had DECREASED. was this right 2008-2010. ???

It looked like there was a sharp rise after the army left it and when Abhist got on it leveled off so to speak. When he was voted out it took of like a Atlas rocket on it's way to outer space.

Curtasy of your friendly photogenic Prime Minister and the rest of her Mafia working under the Godfather in Dubai.

One would have to be up to their neck in the corruption or simple minded to be fooled by them.

[hellodolly]

I would be interested in your reasoning on why the Democrats can not do it. So far all I hear is talk.

I was here when they were in office and know that they had way to many people to please to do the job properly. Piss one party off and they would with draw there support and it would be election time. They were not given a chance and people who don't know any thing about the government are thinking they did have a chance. If they had been able to push through bills there would be a far better Thailand today. They were not perfect but there is no such thing as a perfect party unless you count the perfectly corrupt PTP.

Would some one explain to me how a party leads a minority government depending on Thaksin trained corruption specialist and the main opposition has a military arm that they are using.

How do they do that and still do every thing perfectly for Thailand. Even against those odds they did better than the current government who needs no outside support. They have more seats than all the other parties put together. Now even a half wit would know that with that kind of support they could do great things for Thailand instead they did great things against Thailand.

Heya HelloDolly,

After many years of pondering and sharing threads with yourself I have come to realise that one party is self-serving, one party is less self serving. One party has a leader that genuinely cares, has international experience, and another does not. One has international respect, and another is tolerated by title only while her unelected relation illegitimately negotiates shady back door deals with other countries ranking low on the survey.

What needs to happen IMO is that a major shake up needs to take place, removing people who make statements such as "I would not allow my daughter to marry a Farang", and "The UN is not my father" - two statements made by the genius currently leading the protests. They may as well put a TradeMark on the statement "Mai roo" (I don't know") for the leader of the current political establishment, it has been worn out more than the bottom of an Ethiopian marathon runners shoe.

I agree with the movement, but the leader is not internationally respected and the wrong man for the job if they wish the movement to get positive press abroad. Only then will the government be forced to buckle, unless they continue gunning people down in the street and allowing their supporters to burn people alive in buses.

We don't hear much about the political issues here in the Deep South (Yala) at the moment BTW, less what we see on the news - it doesn't seem to count for much here.

Have to agree with you. Suthep is the obvious choice to lead the protest that way leaving Abhist clear. How ever he needs some better advisers. With the new corruption rating the protestors if handled rite will get a big boost. Giving unconstitutional ultimatums will rouse the people but it will not settle any thing or look good on foreign media..

Yala is another world of it's own the wife's daughter was working in Nonkong Si Tammarat (sorry about the spelling) They tried to transfer her to Yala and she quit. Now she her husband and two daughters are living and working here in Chiang Mai.

[hellodolly]

It then ranks countries on a scale of 0-100, where 0 means a country’s public sector is considered highly corrupt and 100 means it is regarded as very clean.

Thailand is in 102. Is this not considered very clean?

Thailand is 35 down from 37 last year. You should really read the post

I usually think it can't get much worse in the area of corruption, but I suppose there is always room for deterioration.

I wonder why the US is not way up there? Here every little fart can steal, just like India etc. in the US the fraud is much bigger, but way up, all the way up

Well that is definatly coming out of the Blue Sky and this affects Thailand's rating exactly how. You are on a English speaking forum about Thailand.

[EricBerg]

Not too strange that Thailand is going worse with corruption as well. The prime minister gives a diplomatic passport to a fugitive convicted criminal. Overpaid rice is rotting away. The missunderstood criminal decided the rice should be stored in warehouses to dictate the international price. Now Thailand is no longer the number one rice exporter in the world. India and Vietnam filled the gap easily that Thailand created. The voters for the thaksin maffia get paid more for the rice they produce than the rice is worth. The palai farmers get nothing... they don't vote for the maffia after all. Somchai and other corrupt members of the thaksin maffia are being restored in the high ranks after a five year ban by the court.

When the top of politics is so openly rotten more and more others will go for a corrupt peace of the cake as "everybody does it".

On the other side Suthep is a bad guy as well. But he now is good enough to lead the protests. If the protests result in the ousting of the thaksin maffia, then Suthep has served his purpose and can make room for clean(er) leaders. Perhapsthen a start can be made with fighting corruption.

[attento]

Note this is a Corruption PERCEPTION index.

This may or may not reflect the true picture.

Edited December 4, 2013 by attento

[Ulic]

Once you are outside the top 60 does it really matter.

[monkeycountry]

Is anybody surprised?

Percent wise it's score fell much less than Australia. So good on ya Thai mates.

Yes, one should always aim for the lowest common denominator :-D

I only got 5 out of 100 in my math test, but at least I beat the monkey next to me, so I am proud of myself :-)

Edited December 4, 2013 by monkeycountry

[monkeycountry]

I usually think it can't get much worse in the area of corruption, but I suppose there is always room for deterioration.

I wonder why the US is not way up there? Here every little fart can steal, just like India etc. in the US the fraud is much bigger, but way up, all the way up

We are talking about corruption here. You can't compare USA and Thailand. Yes, money can be lost due to

Mismanagement there, but not lining someone's pockets like in Thailand

Can you sat Bernie Madoff?

What on earth had Bernie Madoffs scam got to do with corruption? Are you sure you understand what corruption means?

[puukao]

I do not believe there is corruption anywhere in the world. humans are genuinely a nice species. they will help me out when in need, and be honest while not taking advantage. there is good in everyone.

phone rings: "hello farang, you owe 24,000 baht this month in rent. and you broke door mat, so now owe 50,000 baht today. if thai, you pay 4,000."

one more call: "oh, you want visa run? 10,000 baht and massage is only 4,000 baht for 20 minutes. you pay and we smile or i call police and you pay more."

seems legit.

[Thai at Heart]

That's a slip?

Diplomatically put.

[LuckyLew]

If PTP stay in power at least one more year they will blow past Vietnam and Indonesia

[Friendly Stranger]

Everything is a survey now, no wonder nothing gets done in the world anymore as too much time is spent on this and nothing really productive. lol

Also, would it even matter if Thailand was last on the list? How would that affect anyones life for better or worse, as life goes on..

[fareastguy]

After the "Trillion baht" scam gets pushed through without "transparency" on where it ends up Thailand will no doubt drop a few more places next year too!!

The "Shin clan" should be so proud of themselves!!! .

Unfortunately true democracy dictates an open vote for a new government, and as always the Shin's can count on the faithful illiterate to always support them.

Thailand has no hope of a future until education takes over greed, but successive governments have destroyed the education available to the masses & installed greed at the highest levels!!

Thailand as a whole has no hope of a future, just an ever widening divide between the rich and the poor!!

[bkkfaranguy]

I travel to all these countries for business and I am not surprised that Thailand is more corrupt than the Philippines. There newly elected PM Akino has really cracked down on corruption and is making a difference there. I am surprised that they consider Indonesia and Vietnam worse though, I would rate Thailand more corrupt compared to them as well.

Edited December 4, 2013 by bkkfaranguy

[HuaHinHarold]

Is anybody surprised?

Only those that feebly pronounce..... but, but Ahbisit!!!

and falsely claim his corruption was far worse than the current version of Thaksin administration.

[HuaHinHarold]

Red supporters might like to note that on the graph it started to improve when Abhisit was in office then took off skyward when Yingluck took over.

shhhhh.... you'll destroy one of their favorite talking points claiming the exact opposite.

[AleG]

Great to see the World recognising PM Thaksin's Yingluck's stunning achievement on this one !

Just imagine, if fighting corruption were not one of his her top-priorities, how much worse it might have been ?

Same as with exports, 1% growth (if that) from the expected 9% in spite of Yingluck globe trotting promoting Thai products... well, at least that was the excuse for all the travelling anyway.

Or how much turmoil there would be now if she hadn't set reconciliation as one of her top priorities, or how bad the rice industry would be without "her" rice scheme, etc, etc...

"Her" government is the definition of omnishambles.

By the way, has Yingluck instructed her government MPs to comply with the NACC request for information about the parliament wall clocks scandal?

Edited December 5, 2013 by AleG

[Keesters]

Transparency International based the findings on opinions polls from 13 pollsters.

13.....that was a large poll...NOT.

[thailiketoo]

I wonder why the US is not way up there? Here every little fart can steal, just like India etc. in the US the fraud is much bigger, but way up, all the way up

We are talking about corruption here. You can't compare USA and Thailand. Yes, money can be lost due to

Mismanagement there, but not lining someone's pockets like in Thailand

Can you sat Bernie Madoff?

What on earth had Bernie Madoffs scam got to do with corruption? Are you sure you understand what corruption means?

Methinks you don't know how Bernie got away with it for so long. Or why on earth Nixon said, "I'm not a crook." Maybe you should google, "too big to fail" or "of course you can keep your insurance policy" or weapons of mass destruction." Then try Jimmy Hoffa and Mayor Daley and every mayor Detroit and Washington DC has had for more years than I can remember. Or you can check out the following link

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/03/338027/top-10-ways-us-is-most-corrupt-country/

Edited December 5, 2013 by thailiketoo

[simple1]

Great to see the World recognising PM Thaksin's Yingluck's stunning achievement on this one !

Just imagine, if fighting corruption were not one of his her top-priorities, how much worse it might have been ?

Same as with exports, 1% growth (if that) from the expected 9% in spite of Yingluck globe trotting promoting Thai products... well, at least that was the excuse for all the travelling anyway.

Or how much turmoil there would be now if she hadn't set reconciliation as one of her top priorities, or how bad the rice industry would be without "her" rice scheme, etc, etc...

"Her" government is the definition of omnishambles.

By the way, has Yingluck instructed her government MPs to comply with the NACC request for information about the parliament wall clocks scandal?

Another example...

It was today reported that only 370k tonnes of rice have been shipped to China out of the contracted 4.8 million tonnes via the government to government deal. Government agencies are refusing to supply the documentation of shipments from the warehouses to NACC for investigation. Yet another coverup of a large scale corrupt government transaction.

EDIT: It is reported that a few years back corruption in Thailand equated to 2.8% of GDP, compare that to the estimated 7% of GDP created by the tourism industry in Thailand, it's a huge monetary impact on Thai society.

Edited December 5, 2013 by simple1

[monkeycountry]

I wonder why the US is not way up there? Here every little fart can steal, just like India etc. in the US the fraud is much bigger, but way up, all the way up

We are talking about corruption here. You can't compare USA and Thailand. Yes, money can be lost due to

Mismanagement there, but not lining someone's pockets like in Thailand

Can you sat Bernie Madoff?

What on earth had Bernie Madoffs scam got to do with corruption? Are you sure you understand what corruption means?

Methinks you don't know how Bernie got away with it for so long. Or why on earth Nixon said, "I'm not a crook." Maybe you should google, "too big to fail" or "of course you can keep your insurance policy" or weapons of mass destruction." Then try Jimmy Hoffa and Mayor Daley and every mayor Detroit and Washington DC has had for more years than I can remember. Or you can check out the following link

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/03/338027/top-10-ways-us-is-most-corrupt-country/

As always you have a lot of info that I and the US courts who convicted Madoff do not have, so I urge you to publish the info, or at least give it to the courts, so they can convict the guilty.

I assume of course you have something to give them other than just another conspiracy theory?

[hellodolly]

I travel to all these countries for business and I am not surprised that Thailand is more corrupt than the Philippines. There newly elected PM Akino has really cracked down on corruption and is making a difference there. I am surprised that they consider Indonesia and Vietnam worse though, I would rate Thailand more corrupt compared to them as well.

It takes more than a casual passing through a country to see the depth of it's corruption. Haven't seen this years rankings but I know in the past Indonesia has been getting better and better at stopping corruption. They still have a long ways to go.

[thailiketoo]

Methinks you don't know how Bernie got away with it for so long. Or why on earth Nixon said, "I'm not a crook." Maybe you should google, "too big to fail" or "of course you can keep your insurance policy" or weapons of mass destruction." Then try Jimmy Hoffa and Mayor Daley and every mayor Detroit and Washington DC has had for more years than I can remember. Or you can check out the following link

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/03/338027/top-10-ways-us-is-most-corrupt-country/

As always you have a lot of info that I and the US courts who convicted Madoff do not have, so I urge you to publish the info, or at least give it to the courts, so they can convict the guilty.

I assume of course you have something to give them other than just another conspiracy theory?

You could read the newspaper. I have posted nothing that is not readily available in in the press.

"Yet what is most remarkable about Madoff is not the scale of his greed and deception, but that he got away with it for so long. US regulators have already found evidence of misconduct stretching back to the 1970s."

SEC boss Christopher Cox last week denounced multiple failures at his agency and launched an internal investigation of the relationships between his officials and Madoff, including Eric Swanson, who had at one point been involved in monitoring Madoff’s firm and later married his niece, Shana Madoff.

The FBI and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants are probing Madoff’s auditor, whose three employees watched over the largest hedge fund in the US from a broom-cupboard office in a suburban strip mall.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/bernard-madoff/3869934/Bernard-Madoff-how-did-he-get-away-with-it-for-so-long.html

So you think I'm posting a conspiracy theory? Well the SEC and the FBI are hot on the trail.

Edited December 5, 2013 by thailiketoo

[crazydrummerpauly]

What a 'dog's - dinner' on the presentation of results front ! Score goes up, ranking goes down etc...

[bkkfaranguy]

I travel to all these countries for business and I am not surprised that Thailand is more corrupt than the Philippines. There newly elected PM Akino has really cracked down on corruption and is making a difference there. I am surprised that they consider Indonesia and Vietnam worse though, I would rate Thailand more corrupt compared to them as well.

It takes more than a casual passing through a country to see the depth of it's corruption. Haven't seen this years rankings but I know in the past Indonesia has been getting better and better at stopping corruption. They still have a long ways to go.

Hellodolly I am just so amazed at how you think you can read between the lines and then post a comment. I do not just pass through I stay for extended period of times, rent cars, travel and have extensive business dealings in most all Asian countries. I can tell you this I have never been approached by the Generals of any of these countries handed an inventation to a event and told to bring a 100,000 Bahht donation to ensure a good business relationship, I have never been pulled over in Rental car and had to pay tea money for some bogas charge, I have never had to fight or argue with a taxi driver over either not turning a meter on or not clearing it off before we drive away and I could go on and on and on.

You are correct about Indonesia though they are making major improvements, mainly in the area of import and export where they have major corruption issues in the past, just this year they rewrote the rules that is cleaning that up.

Edited December 5, 2013 by bkkfaranguy

[bunuel]

To quote the late great Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, " The problem with Africa is not corruption - its disorganized corruption."

As anyone who has worked in different countries knows, corruption is everywhere - even in the countries at the top of this list. The issue is, can you figure out what the street tax is, and plan accordingly? If you are in a country where you have to pay for the same thing several times, and are still in uncertainty, you will probably think twice about doing business there. Some countries I have worked in subSaharan Africa would, frankly, be off the charts on this table!

[JRSoul]

Transparency International based the findings on opinions polls from 13 pollsters.

13.....that was a large poll...NOT.

FYI pollsters are people that conduct polls, and would have a good idea of public opinion on a range of subjects.

As has been pointed, this is a ranking of perception of corruption, not corruption itself. A country that has discreet corruption may rank quite well. However in Thailand corruption is quite blatant because those in power expect to get away with it, as they usually do.

[catweazle]

Surprise, surprise...

[ableguy]

Now waiting for a speech from PM Yingluck stating the improved ranking was a result of all the hard work she and her government had put into corruption

May want to re-read the article...

Thailand fell 14 places... Meaning it is much more corrupt vs last year ...

The quote was meant to be sarcastic, you just missed the whole point.