Thailand chalks one up against
corruption By David Fullbrook
BANGKOK - Just over a week ago he was exercising
alone in a leafy public park. Now he keeps fit in a
dusty prison yard, eyed by hundreds of convicts bemused
to see former Thai public health minister Rakkiat
Sukthana doing time for corruption.
Were it not
for the work of unrelenting activist medical workers,
Rakkiat would have remained at liberty like any other
graft-stained politician or official. These figures will
not be joining him, however; while political will
remains absent and the public apathetic, the tide will
not turn against corruption in Thailand.
Rakkiat's arrest, in a suburban Bangkok park
early on October 30, apparently after a tip-off from a
passer-by, came a year after the Supreme Court sentenced
him to 15 years in jail. Rakkiat absconded before
sentencing and after being found guilty of receiving a 5
million baht (US$122,600) bribe to force hospitals to
buy overpriced medicines while serving in former prime
minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's 1997-98 cabinet.
That he managed to elude police for so long
while living under their noses leaves some wondering how
hard they were looking and also how long he will remain
jailed.
"I think it's better than nothing, but I
don't think it shows the government is serious about
corruption - he was able to avoid the courts and police
without punishment," says Dr Giles Ungpakorn, a
Chulalongkorn University civil-society researcher. "We
also have to see how long he stays in jail."
During Rakkiat's year on the run, when he was
not jogging in the park, investigators suspect he was
squirreling away his assets, which the court ordered
seized. Under Thailand's 1999 anti-money-laundering law,
even assets transferred legally to friends and relatives
are liable for seizure. He may have been working hard to
ensure an appeal hearing rules favorably.
Jailing of politicians or senior officials for
corruption happens but rarely in Thailand, and even then
there are political undertones. With Thailand's courts
regularly vying with Indonesia's as the world's most
corrupt, it may seem surprising that Rakkiat could not
induce a not-guilty verdict, or at worst community
service.
It appears Rakkiat squandered political
and personal goodwill, making enemies when he really
needed friends to help him beat the rap. His conviction
probably came as a surprise, as vigorous pursuit of
graft cases is not the hallmark of state agencies,
especially when political bigwigs or powerful senior
officials are involved - which is most of the time.
Even the most determined, diligent investigator
has to be extremely careful in challenging powerful
politicians and officials. Push too hard and their
reward is a transfer to something as exciting and
stimulating as filing immigration cards. At worst, they
risk catching a few well-placed bullets.
In this
case, however, angry rural doctors and pharmacists
teamed up with veteran anti-corruption campaigners to
collect evidence, file suit and constantly badger state
agencies into taking action. Public support of this kind
gives lazy officials a much-needed nudge, the resolute
the support needed to survive.
"There is a
movement from the NGOs [non-governmental organizations]
that kept pressuring the system to continue probing this
case," says Siripan Nogsuan, a lecturer on Thai politics
at Chulalongkorn. "I think this is a very good example
that civil society action can make [an] impact."
Yet that impact cost much cash and time.
Repeating it will not be easy. "You have to put so much
effort into it, for one case, how can you do it for 50
or 100 cases? It's impossible," says Professor Kevin
Hewison, director of the Southeast Asia Research Center
at Hong Kong's City University. "What's happened to the
role of the government, the state? Should civil society,
NGOs, be fulfilling the role of the state?" he asks.
Realistically it serves to remind apathetic,
jaded Thais that corruption is still an issue, but not
an impenetrable one if the will is there. Meanwhile,
those busy milking state coffers may be a little more
careful in the future, and perhaps a few investigators
might take more courageous action, pushing a little
harder. "In the broader picture, it's one small victory
in a skirmish in the war on corruption," says Hewison.
Of recent corruption-related cases, this is
perhaps the least political. This year Kamnan Poh, one
of Thailand's most powerful godfathers, controlling
dozens of members of parliament (MPs) and the industrial
eastern seaboard, began a 25-year jail sentence for
murdering a rival.
His jailing, whether by
accident or design, may cause his political pawns to
find new kings, wrapped in the governing Thai Rak Thai
(TRT) party colors perhaps. Though his son, Sontaya
Kunplome, a Chart Pattana MP, has held on to the tourism
and sports portfolio in recent cabinet reshuffles, he
faces a clouded outlook given that TRT can still command
a handsome parliamentary majority without Chart Pattana.
Democrat Party kingmaker and retired army
general Sanan Kachornprasart was banned from politics
for five years in 2000 after being found guilty of
concealing some assets, which politicians are required
to disclose publicly. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
beat a similar charge shortly after coming to power in
2001, despite even more compelling evidence.
These and the odd other case or two before the
lauded, but ultimately flawed, 1997 constitution,
however, remain aberrations, usually politically
motivated. The constitution attempted to force
once-closed political and bureaucratic systems to open
up under a system of checks and balances, and was
designed to chip away at corruption in Thai political
culture.
"There have been a few high-profile
cases, even before the new constitution came in. But
they are single cases, they don't add up to a movement
against corruption," Hewison says. "My guess this
[Rakkiat case] isn't a major breakthrough. It's the one
that didn't get away, but there are plenty of other
people who got away and will continue to get away."
However, though the 1997 constitution leaves
scope for the dominance of one very, very wealthy man,
it has put in place institutions, foundations and
subsequently laws, such as the anti-money-laundering
legislation, that at least mean there are more tools for
activists and police to tackle corruption should they
choose. "I think the constitution has had an impact, but
it takes a long time for these legal changes to be
embedded in the system," says Hewison.
But even
with the best laws in the world, well-financed activists
and determined officials, corruption will be very hard
to beat. Ordinary Thais often admit the biggest enemy is
themselves; their dual standard of being against
corruption publicly while engaging privately, from the
bottom to the top - from a few hundred baht that causes
an underpaid policeman to overlook a traffic
infringement to the hundreds of millions passed around
when big infrastructure projects are up for grabs.
Only when people respect the law at all times,
no matter how inconvenient or painful to the wallet,
will some politicians find the will to tackle the
untouchables.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
