'Officials must be made to swear not to cheat'
THE NATION

A CIVIC group is proposing that politicians vow in front of the Emerald Buddha Temple that they will not cheat.

BANGKOK: -- Kamolpan Cheewapansri, president of the Parent-Youth Network for Educational Reform, yesterday forwarded suggestions for the draft constitution to Sombat Thamrongthanyawong, chairman of the political reform committee.

One suggestion is that candidates for independent organisations such as the Election Commission, National Anti-Corruption Commission and Constitutional Court show decent qualifications for people to scrutinise.

Another is that the new charter should ban permanent secretaries, rectors, chancellors and executives of state enterprises from taking part in private companies, besides ministers, and the prime minister, as in the current draft.

A third idea was that every representative, senator and government official should also take an oath before sacred deities such as the Emerald Buddha or City Pillar - so those who did not honour their vows face disaster.

Sombat said he would forward the Kamolpan report to the president of the National Reform Council and the Constitution Drafting Committee. He also insisted that the NRC stresses people's opinions.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Officials-must-be-made-to-swear-not-to-cheat-30257647.html


-- The Nation 2015-04-08

As public officials, they are duty bound as part of their job not to cheat or defraud the state or the people they are supposed to be working for. This should be well understood already, and no fancy ceremony in front of a statue or monument is going to change that. Is not changing the law to ensure that officials suspected of cheating are prosecuted without exception and if found guilty are subject to far more severe punishments than at present, likely to be rather more effective? Sending a policeman or senior public official to another province, office or awarding them with the famous "inactive post" punishment is clearly little deterrent to embezzlement and corruption, or the problem would have been reduced (never mind solved) many years ago. Instead of moving towards a law-based society, the mob in control at the moment want to maintain a superstition-based society, which is closely related to one of the reasons why corruption and fraud in public office is so rampant in Thai society.

Yep, that'll work!!

preposterous that this item would be Thai editorial worthy. How many times have Thai politicians and government/military leaders pledged before a buddha or "gone to monks?" How many times can Thais cry wolf?

The threat of being reincarnated as a rat is not good enough as they are already comfortable with the situation.

only if it's a Pinky sware

The threat of being reincarnated as a rat is not good enough as they are already comfortable with the situation.

being reincarnated as a rat would be a step up for most of them

If they break their promise they don't have to worry. They can just go give a temple some money and food and make merit and all is forgiven. Just ask YL. She has done it many times

Haha, I almost choked on my coffee reading this headline! Their word is good enough. Rock solid honesty thereafter. Haha ha ha!

If they break their promise they don't have to worry. They can just go give a temple some money and food and make merit and all is forgiven. Just ask YL. She has done it many times

They don't have to worry anyway because with the amnesty they gave themselves, anything they do is not considered wrong or ilegal. They can't be judged or prosecuted.

If they break their promise they don't have to worry. They can just go give a temple some money and food and make merit and all is forgiven. Just ask YL. She has done it many times

They don't have to worry anyway because with the amnesty they gave themselves, anything they do is not considered wrong or ilegal. They can't be judged or prosecuted.

Yingluk's amnesty wasn't passed.

If you realize that the Thai mindset evolves around the mantra: 'those who don't cheat others, cheat themselves', vowing and swearing in front of a statue will only make things worse

A more effective policy might be to gaol those found guilty of cheating for personal gain for a lengthy period of time with no hope of any form of sentence reduction.

Selling all they acquired during the period of time that the corruption took place might also be considered.

No you hide behind orange robes. Which makes you. Above the law. Truth, honesty, Integrity. Very rarely seen. In Thailand

They already swear fealty to the highest institution and vow to serve honestly - but strange that having given their word of honour to the king, none is ever prosecuted for lese majeste.

If they break their promise they don't have to worry. They can just go give a temple some money and food and make merit and all is forgiven. Just ask YL. She has done it many times

They don't have to worry anyway because with the amnesty they gave themselves, anything they do is not considered wrong or ilegal. They can't be judged or prosecuted.

Yingluk's amnesty wasn't passed.

Yes I know that, but the amnesty for Prayuth and his group was. It deemed the coup legal and anything they did during the coup and time in office will be legal and they can never ever be charged or judged.

If they break their promise they don't have to worry. They can just go give a temple some money and food and make merit and all is forgiven. Just ask YL. She has done it many times

They don't have to worry anyway because with the amnesty they gave themselves, anything they do is not considered wrong or ilegal. They can't be judged or prosecuted.

Quite. You might as well exempt the military as regularly overthrowing the government is a bit of a biggie in the cheating stakes...

How about telling them they will do 15 years in General Population at Bang Kwang prison and every cent they have will be seized and donated back to the people of Thailand if they steal money.

Swearing does not work here. Before the coup, PM Prayuth swore and promised "There will be no coup". A BP article written this week stated very clearly "All the 18 coups in Thailand were launched under the guise of stopping corruption, and afterwards the military leaders were all found to have become unusually wealthy " (sic).

We who are seeing the newest version are all limited by narrow time frames...the article was written by a very old Thai man.

A more effective policy might be to gaol those found guilty of cheating for personal gain for a lengthy period of time with no hope of any form of sentence reduction.

Selling all they acquired during the period of time that the corruption took place might also be considered.

And no bail.

I feel certain that Thai officials will have no problem "swearing"...not cheating will be infinitely harder...

Herehereherehere....I have a craaaaaaaazy idea!

What about ...wait for it....PUNISHING those who do wrong???

Huh?

Huh?

There are very few real Buddhists in Thailand

Seroiusly, a This official promising not to be corrupt....thats a joke. How about applying real world penalties on those that do?

The reason so many people/officials cheat is that there are no repercussions. Forget swearing in front of Buddha, which cheaters do not care about anyway, and start putting everyone who is found cheating in prison, regardless of his/her social status or bank account - that will deter a large portion of potential cheaters from cheating.

As public officials, they are duty bound as part of their job not to cheat or defraud the state or the people they are supposed to be working for. This should be well understood already, and no fancy ceremony in front of a statue or monument is going to change that. Is not changing the law to ensure that officials suspected of cheating are prosecuted without exception and if found guilty are subject to far more severe punishments than at present, likely to be rather more effective? Sending a policeman or senior public official to another province, office or awarding them with the famous "inactive post" punishment is clearly little deterrent to embezzlement and corruption, or the problem would have been reduced (never mind solved) many years ago. Instead of moving towards a law-based society, the mob in control at the moment want to maintain a superstition-based society, which is closely related to one of the reasons why corruption and fraud in public office is so rampant in Thai society.

The "mob in control" as you call it has the support of most Thais and your description of the Government is a childish insult.

And here I always thought they took oath before his Royal Highness, Man I better read more. No disrespect meant toward royal household But thought that was how it was done here. But seems I'm wrong forgive me.

Cheating is a gene imbedded already. What a jo$e ALL THAIS are. It's ME 1ST AND EVERYBODY LAST.

Lol yes get em to do that,like all people in power worldwide who promise this and that,let's lie through our teeth to get appointed.

I am not going to resort to thai bashing there are villains in every culture and Thailand is no exception to the rule .