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EDITORIAL
Krisda Mahanakorn case embodies our problems
The Nation

Big corruption scandals often take way too long to settle

BANGKOK: -- The good news is that a massive and strong verdict has finally been delivered, but the bad news is that it took a decade. And the curtain is not quite completely drawn on the Krisda Mahanakorn loan scandal despite the legal punishment handed down on some top bankers.

The case, how it began, its aftermath and the snail-paced legal attempts to find and bring culprits to justice represent everything that is wrong about Thailand's badly-intertwined business, political and legal systems.

Even reporters needed to look into old files to refresh their memories on what the case was all about. Young journalists who started their careers six or seven years ago might have no idea what the case is about. It takes a very long time for a corruption case to be settled in Thailand, and that probably explains the dismal state the country is in.

The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders sentenced Suchai Chaovisit and

Viroj Nualkhair to 18 years in prison for a Bt8 billion loan extended by the Krungthai Bank to subsidiaries of the Krisda Mahanakorn Group in 2003. The former was the state-owned bank's chairman and the latter its president.

Another defendant from the bank's loan-approval committee also got 18 years. A 12-year prison term was handed to 15 bank executives and borrowers. Charges against Thaksin Shinawatra, who was defendant No. 1 in the case, were deferred.

The loan was supposedly for refinancing and land acquisition, but allegations abounded about fraud, political influence and poor judgement by the bank, which reportedly suffered heavy financial damage as a result of the controversial loan approval.

It has been 12 years since the loan was granted. Admittedly, many banking frauds surface slowly.Thailand's problems, however, have to do with how corruption cases are handled after they are discovered. A lot of things can get in the way, not least attempts by the powers that be to cover up, distort or amplify them. Before we know it, simple fraud cases become something else entirely.

The Krisda Mahanakorn scandal is a case in point. Its political aspects have blurred the real issue and blinded many. As expected, it became heavily politicised, so much so that it turned into a proxy. Instead of being looked at how it was, the case was linked to how good or how bad Thaksin was. To many, the loan scandal underlined failures in Thai democracy. To others, the fact that charges against Thaksin were deferred hinted that his opponents always conspired to overthrow him.

The truth is, the case simply took too long. Better systems handle corruption cases a lot more quickly, and they hand down punishments uninfluenced by who is in power. That has a lot of benefits, including there not being enough time for cases to be politicised and infested with many irrelevant things. Long tampered-with processes only increase doubts, no matter what the final rulings are.

To welcome the Krisda Mahanakorn ruling is an awkward thing to do, because it more or less endorses the Thai syndrome of allowing corruption cases to drag on and on. This syndrome has been a major cause of the political crisis. Office holders or high-ranking business executives should have no privileges when it comes to criminal cases. The word "equality" has been too ideological and abstract for too long. To make it right, maybe we should associate the word with basic things like swift and just legal processes. Simply put, we should speed things up in cases like this one.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Krisda-Mahanakorn-case-embodies-our-problems-30267772.html

-- The Nation 2015-08-31

[WhizBang]

The entire Thai legal and judicial system needs to be completely reformed.

But who will actually do it? Centainly not this government.

[ramrod711]

The entire Thai legal and judicial system needs to be completely reformed.

But who will actually do it? Centainly not this government.

The last government would have put an end to all such cases, with an amnesty bill. Obviously the right path, all these old cases, keep people unhappy. Allowing corruption to continue, was not only what the previous government wanted, they wanted it to grow. They knew how to make Thais happy while they lined their pockets, remember all the smiling farmers that committed suicide when they didn't get paid. If this case had been handled in a timely manner, maybe corruption wouldn't be as prevalent today.

[Jonmarleesco]

'Office holders or high-ranking business executives should have no privileges when it comes to criminal cases.' Thailand is certainly not exceptional. But, assuming the jail terms are upheld, the punishments offer lessons to such as the UK, with its ludicrously lenient treatment of the likes of HSBC, or the Benelux countries' feather to the wrists of Fortis executives.

[FangFerang]

The entire Thai legal and judicial system needs to be completely reformed.

But who will actually do it? Centainly not this government.

The last government would have put an end to all such cases, with an amnesty bill. Obviously the right path, all these old cases, keep people unhappy. Allowing corruption to continue, was not only what the previous government wanted, they wanted it to grow. They knew how to make Thais happy while they lined their pockets, remember all the smiling farmers that committed suicide when they didn't get paid. If this case had been handled in a timely manner, maybe corruption wouldn't be as prevalent today.

Mark Twain said, "If you don't read the news you are uninformed. If you read the news, you are misinformed."

You are the poster child for misinformed people everywhere.

"If this case had been handled in a timely manner, maybe corruption wouldn't be as prevalent today." Your amazing lack of information about Thai history over the last 50 years is astonishingly ignorant, pleasantly plebeian, and vapid, at best. Corruption was here and in the lifestyle before Thaksin was a twinkle in his daddy's eye.

The banks caused those suicides. "All the smiling farmers that committed suicide" did so because the banks refused to finish the payouts (making many suspect an upcoming coup). Once the coup was over...the banks suddenly fulfilled those obligations to which they had already agreed. And five five 'smiling farmers' killed themselves, not "all those farmers'.

See the attachment from AP. In 2013, the Yingluk government prosecuted and leveled charges against human slavers and traffickers -- double the number after the coup, and we all remember Prayuth declaring that no Army people were involved. Sorry, human slavery is a far worse corruption than graft, and when reporters made reports they were threatened by the current corrupt government. If they had not "suddenly" found the (recently exhumed) graves, some of which, with Thai precision still had bodies in them, the pressure from this corrupt government and threats of defamation suits (which are criminal, not civil matters here) would NOT have suddenly vanished. Those reporters were threatened, intimidated and harassed, which is also a vile form of corruption.

Read it, live with it, and eat roasted spin-doctor crow.

People who read the news from sources not quoted in TVF (and there are many) are not buying the pro-junta oral diarrhea. It is childish and team-oriented sport, which is reprehensible and smugly stupid in an adult.

Edited August 31, 2015 by FangFerang

[trogers]

We can use this case as a measuring ruler, on procedure and time taken, for the present scandal involving the Malaysian PM.

[ramrod711]

The entire Thai legal and judicial system needs to be completely reformed.

But who will actually do it? Centainly not this government.

The last government would have put an end to all such cases, with an amnesty bill. Obviously the right path, all these old cases, keep people unhappy. Allowing corruption to continue, was not only what the previous government wanted, they wanted it to grow. They knew how to make Thais happy while they lined their pockets, remember all the smiling farmers that committed suicide when they didn't get paid. If this case had been handled in a timely manner, maybe corruption wouldn't be as prevalent today.

Mark Twain said, "If you don't read the news you are uninformed. If you read the news, you are misinformed."

You are the poster child for misinformed people everywhere.

"If this case had been handled in a timely manner, maybe corruption wouldn't be as prevalent today." Your amazing lack of information about Thai history over the last 50 years is astonishingly ignorant, pleasantly plebeian, and vapid, at best. Corruption was here and in the lifestyle before Thaksin was a twinkle in his daddy's eye.

The banks caused those suicides. "All the smiling farmers that committed suicide" did so because the banks refused to finish the payouts (making many suspect an upcoming coup). Once the coup was over...the banks suddenly fulfilled those obligations to which they had already agreed. And five five 'smiling farmers' killed themselves, not "all those farmers'.

See the attachment from AP. In 2013, the Yingluk government prosecuted and leveled charges against human slavers and traffickers -- double the number after the coup, and we all remember Prayuth declaring that no Army people were involved. Sorry, human slavery is a far worse corruption than graft, and when reporters made reports they were threatened by the current corrupt government. If they had not "suddenly" found the (recently exhumed) graves, some of which, with Thai precision still had bodies in them, the pressure from this corrupt government and threats of defamation suits (which are criminal, not civil matters here) would NOT have suddenly vanished. Those reporters were threatened, intimidated and harassed, which is also a vile form of corruption.

Read it, live with it, and eat roasted spin-doctor crow.

People who read the news from sources not quoted in TVF (and there are many) are not buying the pro-junta oral diarrhea. It is childish and team-oriented sport, which is reprehensible and smugly stupid in an adult.

My, MY, I seemed to have touched a nerve, name calling and everything. The banks caused nothing, the government hatched a scatterbrain plan, didn't plan how they would fund the program if things went south, which they were destined to do. PTP sat down to a table stakes poker game with an inadequate bankroll and a crappy hand, then they tried a bluff, whoops. I never said Thaksin created corruption, he certainly helped it along, and the fact that defendant number one was allowed to hold a political position and appoint surrogates as well did nothing to help hinder corruption. Surely even a cheerleader like you can see that. This is how a grown up responds to a temper tantrum from a child.