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Ghost of Thaksin's past visits Abhisit
By Seth Kane
WASHINGTON and BANGKOK - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva recently
returned from meetings in the United States where he assured investors and
diplomats that recent protests and unrest were in fact a sign that Thailand's
democracy is vibrant and on the right track.
While he may have impressed certain foreign audiences with his polished
presentations, his inability to impose his will on an increasingly unwieldy and
seemingly corrupt coalition has raised questions domestically about his
government's credibility and legitimacy.
Abhisit rose to power late last year through a controversial constitutional
court decision that dissolved the People's Power
Party (PPP) and the coalition government it led. The PPP was aligned to former
and now exiled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006
military coup justified partially on allegations of massive corruption for
which he was later on one count criminally charged and convicted.
Now similar corruption allegations are taking the shine off Abhisit's coalition
government. The Oxford-educated Abhisit has successfully portrayed himself as a
squeaky clean politician who lacks the perceived commercial conflicts of
interest that hounded Thaksin's governments. That can't be said, however, for
the rest of his party and coalition members. Media attention has focused on the
Bhum Jai Thai, an upstart party made up of former Thaksin allies that broke
away from the PPP to join Abhisit's Democrat party.
Most damning, perhaps, has been the corruption controversy surrounding the
government's Community Self-Sufficiency Project, which draws philosophical
inspiration from King Bhumibol Adulyadej's self-sufficiency economy, or sethakit
por piang, concept.
Allegations of irregularities in related projects have included overpriced
equipment, transfer of funds to politically connected villages before project
approval and a lack of consultation with participating communities. Deputy
Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu resigned as chairman of the project and his
younger brother Prapoj Sabhavasu resigned as deputy director of the office
officially "to allow the government a free hand to investigate the alleged
irregularities".
Another scandal surrounded the government's plan to lease, for a suspiciously
high price, natural gas-fired buses for mass transport in Bangkok. Once alleged
irregularities surrounding the lease agreement were leaked to the press,
Abhisit put the brakes on the deal which was to be funneled through the Bhum
Jai Thai-controlled Transport Ministry. In a seeming about turn, on September
29, the cabinet approved the 64 billion baht (US$1.9 billion) deal with 40
senators promising to set up a watchdog group to monitor project
implementation. Similar controversy is now brewing over plans to expand one of
Bangkok's airports.
These controversies have coincided with the recent acquittal of banned
politician and de facto Bhum Jai Thai head Newin Chidchob and 43 other
defendants of corruption in a long-awaited verdict on a rubber saplings
procurement project. The verdict has already led to a war of words with the
Office of the Attorney General accusing the now disbanded Assets Scrutiny
Committee of bungling the case. The allegations date back to Newin's
ministerial role in one of Thaksin's former governments, but the not guilty
decision has been handed down in the context of his de facto leadership of a
key party in Abhisit's coalition.
Scandals have also hit Abhisit's own Democrat Party. In July, the Election
Commission disqualified 13 Democrat members of parliament (MPs) out of a group
of 28 investigated for holding stakes in private companies, which is barred for
politicians and senior officials by the 2007 constitution to avoid conflicts of
interest.
Among those ruled guilty was Democrat power-broker and Deputy Prime Minister
Suthep Thaugsuban, who agreed to give up his parliamentary seat but through a
legal loophole maintained his ministerial positions. In early September, the
Election Commission found 16 more MPs guilty under the same constitutional
clause. Half are from the Thaksin-aligned opposition Peua Thai party while the
others are members of four coalition parties, including three incumbent deputy
ministers. Final rulings by the constitutional court in both cases are pending.
The Democrats have also faced allegations, still being considered by the
Election Commission, that the party illegally received 258 million baht for the
2005 general election from publicly listed company TPI Polene through a nominee
advertising outfit. The party is also being investigated for misusing 29
million baht given to a political party development fund by the Election
Commission.
Culture of corruption
The National Anti-Corruption Commission recently found that government
corruption is on the rise over the past five years with "tea money to
politicians estimated at 314,050 baht per case in 2009, up from 143,389 baht in
2003. The average bribe per case to the Customs Department in 2009 is estimated
at 111,948 baht, up from 33,583 baht in 2003". The University of the Thai
Chamber of Commerce indicated in their recent business survey that corruption
was at its highest levels under the Thaksin administration.
One justification for the People's Alliance for Democracy's (PAD) street
protests and ultimately the 2006 military coup was that Thaksin's and his
aligned administrations were attended by extraordinary corruption. The PAD and
other anti-Thaksin elements accused him, his party, and coalition members of
scores of cases of abusing their government authority for private monetary
gain.
The most high-profile conflict of interest case for which Thaksin was found
guilty, and which spurred his flight into exile, was his former wife's 2003
purchase of a chunk of downtown Bangkok real estate from one of his
government's agencies. Several close Thaksin allies have also recently been
formally convicted on corruption charges, including his former spokesman
Yongyuth Tiyapairat, for submitting a false asset declaration.
To be sure, corruption allegations in Thailand have become highly politicized.
Any honest assessment of the situation should take into account that corruption
is rampant, top to bottom, in all segments of Thai society. It is telling that
the recent corruption allegations have touched upon all of Abhisit's coalition
partners, including elements of his own Democrat Party.
Yet the number of corruption cases exposed and criminally pursued by Abhisit's
government could paradoxically indicate a move towards better governance.
Empowering and depoliticizing the judiciary to carry out its mandate in
investigating and prosecuting corruption, whoever the culprit may be, would
shore up Abhisit's reform credentials while simultaneously tarnishing his
coalition government's public image.
A late June ABAC poll conducted in 17 provinces showed that over half of the
Thai population feels that corruption among politicians is acceptable if they
are also able administrators, while 85% thought that business corruption was
acceptable. Those public perceptions, if accurate, raise questions about the
political gains Abhisit would likely accrue from aggressively fighting graft,
as, for example, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has enjoyed in
his anti-corruption campaign.
Newspaper columnist and commentator Chang Noi distinguishes between genuine
reform and what he calls the "Chuan effect", a reference to former Democrat
prime minister Chuan Leekpai. "He of course is clean as a whistle, but he has
to keep his coalition afloat. Whenever a scandal breaks, he says in his soft
voice that everything will be taken care of by the law. His own halo serves as
an umbrella for his less angelic colleagues," he wrote.
Chuan's anti-corruption legacy is conflicted. His first government was famously
brought down in the mid-1990s by the Suthep-led Phuket land scandal. His second
administration in the late 1990s notably tackled the military's private
interests and deposed then party power broker and interior minister Sanan
Kachornprasart on a petty corruption scandal that made his government appear to
be imbued with the 1997 constitution reform spirit.
Sanan, under the Chart Pattana Party banner, is tellingly now a deputy prime
minister in Abhisit's current coalition. Thus far, Abhisit has arguably not
done enough to prove his administration's ways and means are decidedly
different than that of his now key advisor, Chuan. In the short term, Abhisit
will face pressure from powerful political forces to keep the coalition intact
while over 700 billion baht worth of extra fiscal spending is distributed over
the next calendar year.
Some analysts believe that the distribution of those government funds will be
crucial to both the Democrat's and Bhum Jai Thai's prospects at the next
general elections, which likely will be held coincident with an expected
economic upturn in the middle of next year. Whether Abhisit can maintain his
personal clean hands image while in league with coalition partners and Democrat
party members that seem increasingly bent on self enrichment will determine his
reform legacy.
But his government appears increasingly conflicted as the inherent
contradiction of fighting corruption within a graft-prone coalition he must
keep afloat for political purposes, plays itself out.
Seth Kane is a MA candidate at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced
International Studies (SAIS ) in Washington DC and was recently a Visiting
Research Fellow at Chulalongkorn University's Institute for Security and
International Studies (ISIS) in Bangkok.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
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