Things Prayut can learn from the Rajabhakti project

So, what can the Rajabhakti “scandal” and related developments teach our prime minister?

1. Corruption has reigned supreme in Thailand because it infects only “the others”, and not “us”. To people in power, when a graft scandal breaks and potentially involves their men, the first instinct is to label it a political conspiracy. Which may or may not be true. The bottom line is that no conspiracy will work if corruption really didn’t take place. 

2. The second instinct of the powers-that-be is to protect the person at the centre of the scandal. People are innocent until proven guilty, they will say. But this attitude has long been used as a shelter for suspects, protecting them against resigning to demonstrate their accountability, and discouraging investigation and other legal proceedings.

3. The third instinct of those in power is to go after the whistle-blower. In the Rajabhakti Park case we have seen how someone who tried to use a graphic to explain the “scandal” became a target of high-level scrutiny. Rather than subjecting the accused to the toughest of scrutiny, Thailand’s powers-that-be put pressure on the accusers.

4. As one social media user put it, “Poop shit stinks, whether it’s big or small.” We don’t know for certain whether the Rajabhakti Park project was marred by corruption, or how extensive the dishonesty was. But even if the project was only tainted by a little corruption, that doesn’t mean no action should be taken. Failure to act against minor fraud only sows the seeds for bigger and bigger graft.

5. The “nobility” of a project is always used as a shield. It’s easy to crack down on graft in low-profile projects; it’s a lot tougher to pick apart “popular” mainstream undertakings, for obvious reasons. But the devil is always in the details, so the more popular a project, the more transparent it has to be. In order to eradicate graft, no one must be allowed to hide behind the “Noble Idea”, not least because any idea can be promoted as noble.

6. If the Rajabhakti project is exempt from scrutiny thanks to military power, it won’t be different from any project exempt from scrutiny by political power. And we are all are back at Square One in the losing battle against graft. Thailand needs a system where we don’t have to depend on a coup to fight political corruption, or a popular uprising to take care of military graft. (If this sounds like a pipe dream, it probably is.)

7. Alleged corruption in the Rajabhakti project is being politicised. Thailand’s powers-that-be don’t like it when they are at the receiving end of political attacks over graft. However, the point is that we actually need corruption cases to be heavily politicised and sometimes blown out of proportion. Corruption has become so bad that we need fault-finders to be at their most combative, to leave no stone unturned and to cry foul over the smallest signs of irregularity. If that makes it more difficult for rulers to govern, so be it.

8. The same goes with conspiracies. If the watchdogs can put crooks – big or small, powerful or amateurish – in fear of being caught, then we accept the downside of disruption to government work. 

9. The points above tell us that fight against corruption is being stymied by double standards, lack of political will, paranoia, prejudice, over-protectiveness, self-pity and vanity. In most cases, the powers-that-be are to blame. They may think they are protecting their own regimes, but the truth is that every failure to act cedes more ground to graft. And corruption in high places benefits nobody in the long term. If moral principles aren’t enough to eradicate corruption, selfish motivations should be considered. Corruption can come back to destroy everyone, especially in places where power can change hands every few years via a popular vote.

10. Corruption thrives on lip service. The more a leader “denounces” it, the more they feel inclined to distance themselves from graft, hence the over-protective attitude towards people in their political circle. In the end, corruption laughs its way to the bank, slowly but surely infecting everyone and everything around it.