Thai politics: Beating corruption needs strong action and enhanced scrutiny

[webfact]

BURNING ISSUE
Beating corruption needs strong action and enhanced scrutiny
Attayuth Bootsripoom

BANGKOK: -- Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has clearly stated that ordinary laws would be applied in dealing with state officials accused of involvement in irregularities. This assurance has allayed concern among many people who were afraid that special powers might be used.

Many people are calling for Prayut, in his capacity as leader of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), to use his widespread powers under Article 44 of the provisional charter. For them, this absolute power could be applied easily to tackle the deep-rooted problem of corruption. They expect Prayut to act swiftly and severely against allegedly corrupt state officials.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) appears to be highly hopeful of results after submitting to the prime minister a list of public officials suspected of graft. They are also set to submit an additional list to the government's National Administrative Centre against Corruption.

It is understandable that many people are placing high hopes on the government's efforts to tackle the corruption problem. This "social cancer" has long been weakening our country. For those people, this move may be their last hope.

Extra care must be taken in dealing with this matter. It is risky to apply special powers in punishing state officials on the list. The authorities involved could be in danger of making a mistake, as the scrutiny process is less efficient than when it is carried out through the normal justice process.

Certainly, corrupt officials deserve punishment and they should not complain about that. However, we cannot be completely sure all the suspects named on the list actually committed irregularities.

It is through the normal justice process that we can believe without doubt that the accused are actually the wrongdoers - because the accused can produce evidence to prove their innocence.

Punishment through special powers is no different from abrupt transfers of senior officials by some previous governments that were described as unfair. Although the officials involved may have actually committed the wrongdoing, they could distort the facts by claiming they were victims of political persecution. This is different from a normal justice system in that all the accused and the accuser must accept the courts' verdicts.

Certainly, the normal justice process is slow. But if all parties involved work together against the corrupt officials, the guilty will eventually end up in jail.

Thailand's corruption problem is deep-rooted and it is unlikely to be solved through a shortcut method or just by severe penalties against some wrongdoers. We need to look into the root cause of the problem - a system that makes it easy to be corrupt.

A system that facilitates corruption is one in which scrutiny is weak or inefficient. This refers to a system where the authorised official is extremely powerful.

If only one senior official is authorised to issue a permit, there is a strong likelihood that individuals will end up being corrupt, although the official may previously have been honest. This is because personal desires could corrupt anyone.

So, it is better to have a group of people to do the screening and make decisions than having to rely on only one person.

Big corporations with good governance and countries with minimal corruption do not achieve that through severe punishment alone. Rather, they have a stringent and effective scrutinising system.

To get rid of corruption, we do not just allow good people to hold power; but we should assume there is the likelihood for anyone to become corrupt. The solution is to keep full power out of the hands of any one individual as much as possible.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Beating-corruption-needs-strong-action-and-enhance-30258057.html


-- The Nation 2015-04-16

[ezzra]

Beating corruptions need an incorrupt people to start with, once you have that, the rest

is easy....

[NongKhaiKid]

And for laws and procedures to be applied without fear or favour and that won't happen easily.

[Roadman]

The writer touches the deep seated issue of the corrupt system being the problem but then fails to really expose what it is - patronage. Remove patronage and the controls of corruption and the application of equal law for all will then be able to be applied. Unfortunately rightly or wrongly depending on what side of the fence one sits, the Army itself also defends the most grandeur example of the system. Even the Shinawatra's figured it out with their "first family" white washing of the country.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Roadman

[oneday]

Beating corruptions need an incorrupt people to start with, once you have that, the rest

is easy....

...and those non-corrupt officials MUST be at the very top. Only then can you work your way down.

[quandow]

Helloooooooo - foxes are in charge of the chicken coops. You have to replace the foxes with honest shepherds first, and while foxes are making the laws, this won't happen.

[jackanapes]

corruption and vice are so deeply entrenched I think its going to take a long time to deal with the problem and some good men to stick with it to ensure that its dealt with properly best of luck chan- ocha .

[connda]

What? They're going to dismantle the patronage system? Not anytime in the foreseen future, and therein lays the root of corruption at all levels of Thai society.

[lvr181]

Some good comments to date. But, do most Thai people understand or care about "strong action and enhanced scrutiny"?

Many educated people do but they are not the majority in command!

Edited April 16, 2015 by lvr181

[puck2]

The corruption starts already in the schools.

When the children are watching what can be done with some connection or some money they see it working and getting used to it. So, if Thailand would like to change this attitude it should start in the education unit. From the children it would spread to the adults. There is only one problem. This change would take time, lots of years to get rid of the giant number of rotten apples/teachers. Or something like a (soft) revolution, as showh in world history to change corrupt and debauched systems.

[Nobb]

Is corruption just for senior officials or for lower government officers also. My neighbor comes home and brings supplies and works on his house on government time. These people have been doing it for a long time and think it is okay. Khun PM please get your government in order if you really want Thailand to be respected in the world. Free lunch free dinners what are they giving in return?

[Thai at Heart]

Get rid of the defamation and then let the fun begin

[phoenixdoglover]

"It is through the normal justice process that we can believe without doubt that the accused are actually the wrongdoers - because the accused can produce evidence to prove their innocence."

Uh oh.

[Cake Monster]

And only about 10 days ago, the present " Graft Buster " of Thailand openly reported that there were no inroads being made into the " corruption culture " of Thailand.

[Your Thainess]

The military is easily the most corrupt institution in the country. Impossible to take them seriously when they claim to want to root out corruption. Their agenda is to purge rivals, not make the country function more ethically. The Thai military is a disgrace. They don't even abide by the wishes of the HOS.