The Problem of corruption has been around for a long time in Thailand and its roots are
deep in the culture.
The problem of corruption is its corroding effects on economic growth. While huge
amounts of money will be lost during the implementation of projects due corruption
itself, more will be lost while trying to fight against it and stop it. Of course this is a
necessity if trying to look for a better future.
Thais have made efforts to clean up their own nest by introducing new laws and trying to
move on to good governance at the same time. One must understand the huge egg and
chicken problem in the fight against corruption: the ones reigning over the society are
often up to their ears in the soup and have little if any interest in chancing anything while
enjoying huge economical benefits.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has used very rough methods to control
the media, which should be one of the most powerful watchdogs against corruption. For
example during his fight against drugs, television news announced over and over again
that the victims were killed as a result of gang feuds. In this war, actually, the police
literally swept out the dealers from the streets. This was highly efficient in terms of
reducing drug selling but offended naturally the concept of basic human rights. Everyone
should be entitled a fair trial before conviction which has clearly not been the case during
these measures that rose to the press titles latest when a little girl was killed during a
pursuit along her drug dealing mother in Bangkok in the spring of 2003. Behind all this
may be, among other things of course, the fear of corrupt buy outs during the tribunal
handlings. Still it is questionable if this makes up with the killing of over 2000 people.
Mr. Thaksin himself was a highly successful media tycoon before moving in to politics
and has not been ashamed to use his financial power against those who dear to oppose
him. This study reveals to some extent, how complicated the problem of corruption is in a
country like Thailand and what kind of hurdles there are to go over while fighting against
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it. The fact that domestic announcements of companies, the media and private persons
often require reading between the lines, is a sign that the freedom of word does not
wholly exist and people still feel fear to come forward at least when very high state
officials are involved.