Jobs for the family may be legal - but ethical?

Earlier, we questioned the ethics of politicians who abused their power and took advantage of legal loopholes to make personal gains. Many politicians were strongly criticised for cronyism, by appointing people close to them to assist with their work.
NLA president Phornpetch Wichitcholchai’s remarks in response to the latest controversy involving members of the assembly have disappointed many people. They’d hoped NLA members were different from the politicians they scorned.
Phornpetch said the NLA regulations did not prohibit assembly members from appointing their wives, children or relatives as experts or advisers for their teams. The NLA president said the members might want people they could trust to work for them. “The NLA is following the Parliament’s existing regulations. We have made no changes to the rules,” said Phornpetch, who could be likened to the head of the legislature in normal times.
Worse still, Army commander-in-chief General Udomdej Sitabutr, who is also deputy defence minister and secretary general of the National Council for Peace and Order, voiced his support for Phornpetch’s standpoint. “I agree with Phornpetch. It is not against the law. If the family members were qualified, they could be appointed to do the job. This depends on personal judgement. The regulations do not prohibit that,” he said.
This comment reflects the thinking of a key figure in the NCPO, whose main goal is to reform the country. He and his colleagues call for strict scrutiny of politicians’ ethical standards and want this issue to be written into the new constitution.
It is true that what the NLA members did was not against the law. But people with common sense should decide for themselves if it is proper. Do they think the practice is proper if it is done by politicians?
Many may view there should be nothing wrong with appointing family members or cohorts, as they just help the NLA members with their work. But in fact those appointees also get handsome salaries, ranging from Bt15,000 for an assistant, Bt20,000 for a specialist to Bt24,000 for an expert. Critics asked if the appointees were qualified for the positions and whether they actually could do the job.
NLA members who appointed their family members to work for them included those with military backgrounds and also some from the group known as the “40 former senators”, who earlier campaigned for politicians to strictly observe the code of ethics.
Those people called for politicians to comply with ethical standards that are higher than those for ordinary people. They said that what should be done did not necessarily always have to be written in the law.
Credibility is vital for the ongoing reform movement. People responsible for reforming the country should not act in a way that they do not want others to do. If they do so, confidence in the reform movement would be adversely affected. The rules they are writing would be viewed as an attempt to persecute people they disliked.
The same standard must be applied to everyone in the system in a fair manner. The reformists should avoid acting like “the pot calling the kettle black”, or the reform efforts will fail. If they are serious about the reform, they should not practise double standards.