Lamentable 'tradition' in Thailand's battle against graft

[webfact]

EDITORIAL
Lamentable 'tradition' in Thailand's battle against graft
The Nation

People accused of corruption should get thorough trials, not flowers from supporters

BANGKOK: -- Through all of Thailand's lacklustre fight against corruption, one practice has stood out. It's the practice of "giving moral support" to the accused. Some gatherings were low-key, involving just a few people and a few flowers. Others were not, featuring vociferous, sometimes aggressive, crowds who had to be kept within barricades. The demonstrators have the right to do what they do, but there is one thing that they should keep in mind.

Such rallies do more harm than good in a country where corruption is one of the biggest problems. High-profile morale-boosting demonstrations for people accused of corruption can turn what should be straightforward criminal cases into highly charged political affairs. They put pressure on investigators. They make whoever serves as the judges feel threatened. Slowly but surely, they associate anti-corruption drives with politics. Before we know it, no big corruption case can be finalised because some big-name politicians or powers-that-be are bound to be involved.

Corruption in Thailand and fights against graft have often been badly politicised. The practice of giving "moral support" creates an impression of those accused being victimised by conspiracies. Only small-time graft cases can be settled without much of a fuss. For big cases concerning prominent people, "evidence" appears to give way to how many people show up to support them.

When corruption is politicised, it's really difficult to tackle it. When former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra allowed his ex-wife to buy a plot of state-auctioned land on Ratchadapisek Road, the fact that he clearly violated the law was overshadowed by political claims and "conspiracy theories." With the political strife in Thailand going on unabated, the campaign against corruption - which has largely been ineffective - could become even more toothless.

We should stop holding gatherings for the accused or giving them flowers - and start paying attention to the evidence. For a country to successfully combat corruption, a few key steps must be taken. First is the empowerment of investigators. Then punishment must be swift and not selective. Thai governments never pushed for penalties on their own people, and anti-graft investigators have never been given unconditional support from anyone, including society itself.

The flowers and "moral support" gatherings reflect Thai society's biggest shortcoming when it comes to fighting corruption. Here, graft has become an "us or them" issue; condemnation of crooks and their punishment rarely reflects the magnitude of the crimes. People take sides when corruption is concerned while that should never be the case. Instead of admitting guilt, the accused just point at possibly bigger crimes that have gone unpunished. Instead of deploring graft cases unequivocally, the public appears to be divided between apologists for one camp and vocal critics against the other.

Thailand is bracing itself for another major anti-corruption verdict. And it's too late to call for the case on the rice scheme to be "de-politicised". The scandal has already become a "political" prosecution in many people's eyes. It's unfortunate that "evidence" will again be overlooked. One side of the political divide will be more than happy to see former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra punished, no matter what the evidence says. And the other side will loathe her punishment, again, no matter what.

Whether Yingluck is right or wrong is a big deal. But it's no bigger than the fact that her case is an explanation of why there remains no light at the end of the tunnel. The country may have to wait a a very long time for the day when all Thais view corruption cases with the same, unbiased attitude. Until that day really comes, Thailand's place on the global transparency index will remain pathetic, and deservedly so.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Lamentable-tradition-in-Thailands-battle-against-g-30272057.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-02

[noitom]

Supporting her is an expression of free speech and individual freedom. Surprising that the Thai press would discourage free speech.

[selftaopath]

Yes.... Thailand will remain pathetic in the view of countries where Rule of Law (ROL) is followed. Thailand's decline will never end if there is not a change and no democracy can prevail w/out ROL.

[worgeordie]

Maybe those supporting her were also gainers in the rice scheme,

Thailand's moral compass is defiantly out of kilter,and money can

buy anything here,with no change in sight and with so many of the

Thai population thinking corruption is OK and a way of life,the way

things are done here, is never going to change which is very sad

for Thailand and its people.

regards Worgeordie

[ChrisY1]

Surely giving moral support, flowers etc., is simply that....99% of the time the support is towards people that have not been convicted or found guilty of an aleged crime....

[slapout]

no one now eve33n dare mention a name, compny, etc may be involved directly or even indirectly, in illegal activity as thiscan bring on threat or actually filing of a lawsuit against all involved in the investigation, etc.

The lawyers and their clients who tie up and continually disrupt a overloaded judical system by using mentioned threat and filing should be required to pay court costs times 10. The multiple delays asked for would be charged as just mentioned, then the backlog of cases would be reduced greatly. Send a few lawyers to inactive posts for a couple years for being party to this type of travisty and it would put a sock in a lot of the big mouths who use these threats, apparently quite successful.

[waldroj]

Another pathetic politic tirade disguised as an editorial by The Nation.

Has absolutely no relation to the problem of graft in Thailand. And, certainly laughable to think that investigators would be pressured or judges threatened any more or less than they seem to be by the junta.

Evidence overlooked again - if that is so, then why not focus on that?

[craigt3365]

Supporting her is an expression of free speech and individual freedom. Surprising that the Thai press would discourage free speech.

I don't think that's the case here. The article is spot on. This is one of the biggest problems here. Support for massively corrupt politicians. And making the cases political instead of focusing on the facts. Yes, many times the cases are political, as the article points out. But if a crime has been committed, punishment should be handed out, but rarely is here.

Best of luck to Thailand in sorting this out.

[AlQaholic]

Supporting her is an expression of free speech and individual freedom. Surprising that the Thai press would discourage free speech.

The Nation is not press.....

[trogers]

Surely giving moral support, flowers etc., is simply that....99% of the time the support is towards people that have not been convicted or found guilty of an aleged crime....

And when placed into power, would never been convicted nor found guilty. Remember the blanket amnesty?

[rethaier]

Yes.... Thailand will remain pathetic in the view of countries where Rule of Law (ROL) is followed. Thailand's decline will never end if there is not a change and no democracy can prevail w/out ROL.

And, in what countries is ROL followed 100% of the time? Certainly not the USA, UK or Australia. And I doubt any European countries.

[Eric Loh]

Surely giving moral support, flowers etc., is simply that....99% of the time the support is towards people that have not been convicted or found guilty of an aleged crime....

And when placed into power, would never been convicted nor found guilty. Remember the blanket amnesty?

That one the coup leaders gave themselves?

[Valentine]

Another pathetic politic tirade disguised as an editorial by The Nation.

Has absolutely no relation to the problem of graft in Thailand. And, certainly laughable to think that investigators would be pressured or judges threatened any more or less than they seem to be by the junta.

Evidence overlooked again - if that is so, then why not focus on that?

I do not recall reading of any threats to judges, investigators etc from the junta but there have been many instances prior (an example has been threats, at public rallies, to give out addresses of those concerned).

[lvr181]

"Lamentable 'tradition' in Thailand's battle against graft"

What battle? Talking does not win battles. ACTION wins battles!

[razer]

People need to know how corruption effects them .... think about dams on the Mekong. If the water represented money flowing into Thailand and every corrupt official represented a dam, then the amount of money getting to the people is small. The amount of money going to building infrastructure, social services, hospitals and education is reduced every time a corrupt official redirects the flow of money to his own personal wealth.

[smedly]

Supporting her is an expression of free speech and individual freedom. Surprising that the Thai press would discourage free speech.

The press are not being critical of free speech they are being critical of what they want to use it for - or rather what they are being cohersed to use it for, organizing rallies in support of criminals or those suspected of criminal activities including graft is fundamentally wrong and is part of the problem here, even some of these convicted criminals are using their stolen money to fund support, the people don't release that the money they are being given was stolen from them in the first place

The article is correct in every way, no problem for people to have a certain political leaning but they should all be strongly against criminals who break the law and demand that they be punnished no matter who they are

[Strangebrew]

Well here you have pay police to do the job there paid for. IE: say family member dies but you think they may have been murdered instead of police doing the job sweep it under carpet, only to find truth is to pay the police to look into the case. Here it is the golden rule he who has the gold rules. But as a guest I have no choice but to except or move on. But that aside that there are many things more important as my reason to stay here. Weather being one cost of living in total comfort another and yes there are some real decent hard working honest Thai's that I know. But all in all it could be worse.

[fred Kubasa]

The main reason the War On Corruption will never succeed, like the War On

Drugs", is that many of the accused/guilty are friends/associates/relatives of the corruption fighters. Note that many so called Targets are warned days, sometimes months ahead of probe into their activities -- allowing for

plenty of time to transfer funds/property, doctor up paperwork or just flee.

Others, elsewhere, don't warn, confiscate passports, lock up bank accounts &

sometimes even confine the accused but this is Thailand !

" BIRdS Of A Feather, FLOCK TOGETHER "

[chilli42]

Supporting her is an expression of free speech and individual freedom. Surprising that the Thai press would discourage free speech.

Free speech indeed. I guess you think those red shirt gathers were all populated with Political Science majors who had taken time off work.

[MZurf]

Surely giving moral support, flowers etc., is simply that....99% of the time the support is towards people that have not been convicted or found guilty of an aleged crime....

And when placed into power, would never been convicted nor found guilty. Remember the blanket amnesty?

Which amnesty are you talking about? The attempted amnesty under the PTP government or the actual amnesty the junta granted themselves after overthrowing the elected government?

[chilli42]

There are many lamentable traditions that accompany graft like: I am entitled, it is part of the benefits of the job or office I hold, it's OK everyone is doing it, how do I get some of that, they are so clever the way they swindled the government, they must be very powerful etc. They problem is not the problem, the problem is the attitude to the problem (courtesy of Captain Jack). Rather than being incensed and outraged by corruption, people admire and wish to emulate the culprits. Perhaps that is the point the article is trying to make. Nothing is going to change until the attitude of people changes. Unless of course they make graft over a certain level a capital crime.

[Thai at Heart]

Simply ban rallies around court cases as being prejudicial to the case.

[smutcakes]

When people have very little respect for the 'independent' agencies and the impartiality and credibility of the court, they put very little faith in any judgements they come up with. They don’t feel they are defending guilty people as they quite simply don’t believe that the courts hold enough credibility to even rule on the cases.

When you have a police and justice system which has proved over and over to be partial, open to influence etc you have very little margin to expect people to abide by any laws/judgements these agencies/bodies are supposed to uphold.