Bribery is exactly where it all began
Many of us had been involved with bribery even before we were born. Our parents called them “gifts” to the doctors who delivered us, but in many cases those gifts were just bribes with their hair combed. After we die, the “name” changed again, this time to something like “merit money”, with the recipients being senior monks or temple staff who know the way around a tight funeral queue.
Bribery's greatest trick is that it can morph into a generally-accepted tradition over time. People paying extra money for the best childbirth service can feel completely innocent. Those “helping” a famous school build a library so their kids can be enrolled are content and not guilty. In certain cases, giving bribes can even feel holy. It's because of our “merits” that the grand pavilion is now standing in the temple's compound, isn't it?
We Thais live and breath bribery. Paying the doctors is a tradition. Paying the schools is burdensome but it's another tradition nonetheless. Our excuse for paying traffic cops on the spot is because we don't want to waste time settling the tickets at the police station. When facing legal trouble, a little gift to the prosecutor can change our fortune the way we think we deserve. And what's wrong with a journalist joining corporate bigwigs for a game of golf followed by a luxurious dinner, for free?
Because we conveniently accept all of the above, crossing the “next line” is inevitable. We can pay less taxes if we know exactly what “gift” to give and to whom. We can escape serious legal charges because it requires the same principle as paying traffic cops on the spot for not possessing a driver's license. Since we managed to avoid extra fees for bringing in latest smartphone models through the airport, why not try smuggling in a super car? If a journalist can have a VIP status among business executives, a flat-screen ultra-HD TV is surely an acceptable present from them.
Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was right when he cautioned Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha against getting too soft on bribe-givers.
Bribery works both ways, meaning both the receivers and the givers are equally at fault. Sometimes, bribes are demanded, but sometimes they are offered. The problem has been so ingrained in Thai society that it's now a chicken and egg situation, with both sides of the crime feeding off each other.
Prayut wanted bribe-givers to come forward and implicate crooked state officials. On his mind could have been one political maverick, Chuwit Kamolvisit, who made his name by exposing bribe-demanding police who had extorted him when he was running a vice-related business.
People who hailed Chuwit as a heroic whistleblower forgot one important thing, though. It was people like him who fed the bribe-taking culture in this country.
To be fair, Chuwit always claimed he had never been proud of what he did. That was the least he could have said. He wasn't paying a few hundred baht to a traffic cop for forgetting to extend an auto registration. He was paying massive money so that he could operate a business that he shouldn't be doing in the first place. Many bribe-givers are just like him.
More importantly, however, Chuwit didn't have to pay it. Prayut must realise this, or he will never understand the true nature of the bribery problem.
There is an assumption that many people are succumbed for pressure from corrupt officials, but let's just see who normally give bribes. Most are those who want privileges that they would not have got otherwise.
There have been clear-cut bribery cases. Importers pay customs officials so illegal items can be smuggled in or less taxes can be paid. Building owners pay inspectors so the latter will overlook questionable modifications. Foreign corporates pay politicians in power to get the most beneficial concessions. All these are made possible because of grey-area bribery that happens everywhere and every minute and involves virtually everyone. In other words, we wouldn't try to bribe our way out of a manslaughter charge if everyone has to go to the police station and pay appropriate fines for an illegal U-turn.
Vice, not just charity, begins at home. A possible difference is that vice can grow from home more rapidly and progressively. It changes form, disguises itself and reaches the national or political level more quickly and effectively. Bribery at the smallest level starts everything, a big bang of all things evil that we have to face nowadays.
