Praise for starting the cop cleansing
I praise PM Prayut for going where no man has dared go before and detaining a serving police general for bribery.
Former Criminal Investigation Bureau chief Pol Lt-General Pongpat Chayaphan and the other suspects in this case must be given a fair and fast trial, so that justice is not only done, but seen to be done and to send a clear message that PM Prayut takes reform seriously and that even the police are not above the law.
Cleansing the police force must be a top priority for the government; a 2014 Chulalongkorn University survey found that cops’ greed was second only to that of land office staff.
But it is not enough to punish corrupt individuals, when the next government might replace them with more rotten apples. Rather, the infrastructure supporting corruption must be completely reformed.
Corruption now does not require cash payment, reports Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission head Prayong Preeyajit. Instead, those who want job positions serve the interests of those who can get them the posts, not the public interest, and corruption has become policy-oriented. These new forms can cause far greater damage than old-fashioned bribery, through misallocation of public funds.
So, PM Prayut should promote the transparency and good governance practices that the PACC head recommends, with evaluation and promotion based only on clear, transparent, measurable key performance indicators (KPIs). The Vasit Dejkunjon Commission recommendations should be promptly reviewed, updated, and applied, for example by upgrading compensation, making station activities more problem-focused and community-oriented, and monitoring police performance and relations with the public through an independent committee of complaints. Thus, for example, a KPI might be the percentage by which traffic fatalities have dropped in a given precinct, or the increase in approval ratings from a community.
Well done, PM Prayut. Now let’s overhaul the enabling structure.
Burin Kantabutra
