Corruption undermines Thais’ trust in democracy
Corruption has existed in Thai society for a long time. It has contributed to the failure of government projects. The Klong-Dan water treatment scandal in the late 1990s spent around 23 billion baht (US$ 638 million) of public funds needlessly. More recently, the rice-pledging scheme suffered losses of around 700 billion baht (US$ 14 billion) but resulted in little concrete improvement in poor farmers’ welfare. These instances provide some evidence of the increasing magnitude of damages caused by corruption. Corruption is not only an unsolved problem in Thailand, it’s a worsening one. And its enduring presence has caused more damage to the country than just losses in revenue and slowed progress in national development.