Corruption remains Thailand's most vulnerable factor

[News Bandit]

BANGKOK, Sept 5 – The Yingluck Shinawatra government has failed to deliver its promised crackdown on corruption, according to a poll at Bangkok's Dhurakij Pundit University (DPU)

DPU research centre director Kiat-anan Luankaew said the government’s anti-corruption performance received 4.6 of a total 10 points, describing corruption as a deep-rooted culture in Thai society, particularly in the political and public sectors.

The only anti-corruption alternative left is to strengthen the public sector, in cooperation with the media, to strenuously follow the performance of politicians and government officials while educating the public on the cancerous nature of corruption.

“Lessons learned from Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong prove that it is a curable problem if we persistently fight against it,” he said.

The survey on corruption in Thailand was conducted Aug 26-Sept 4 and announced Wednesday on the eve of National Anti-Corruption Day. A total of 1,028 people in 20 provinces were questioned in the poll.

Asked if corruption is a vital problem for Thailand, 88.3 per cent of the respondents agreed that it was serious while 7.2 per cent said it was not and 4.5 per cent said they were not sure.

In dividing graft to three categories: political, state and private sectors, 81.9 per cent, 72.5 per cent and 54.7 per cent of the respondents said corruption has increased in the political, state and private sectors.

In addition, the respondents predicted increasing corruption rates next year with 72.2 per cent, 65.5 per cent and 50.1 per cent of respondents seeing more corruption in the political, state and private sectors.  (MCOT online news) 
 

View the full article