Death Urged as Deterrent to Corruption in Thailand by Phairath Khampha 27 December 2001 Society indicted for turning blind eye The death penalty could be an effective weapon against corruption, which had become a norm in Thailand, a seminar was told. Constitutional Court judge Amorn Raksasat said politicians and state officials convicted of corruption should be executed. Mr Amorn agreed with several others at the seminar on corruption and unusual wealth that corruption could flourish in Thailand because of lax law enforcement and the Thai people's inherent culture of greed, selfishness and a lack of shame. The judge said Thai people never admitted to their wrongs, unlike the Japanese who would not hesitate to kill themselves if they were found to have done a dishonorable deed. Mr Amorn claimed to have the names of 20 corrupt people in hand. "But if I tell society who they are, somebody will ask me to show a 'receipt' as proof," he said. Some government officials had bought the post of department chief for 40 to 50 million baht (US$1 = 44.5 Thai baht), he said. "One can only wonder, in a country where most of the people are relatively impoverished, where these officials obtained such a vast sum of money and why they would be willing to spend it on such a position if they did not intend from personally profiting from this position to a sum at least as great as the amount they spent to achieve this position." "These people, if arrested, should be given death by a firing squad," Mr Amorn said. Vasit Dejkunchorn, a former deputy interior minister, said corruption had become "acceptable" to Thai society. Breaking the law appeared to be generally perceived as normal behaviour, Pol Gen Vasit said, adding that many offenders also could easily escape legal punishment. "It also embarrasses the nation because these people, when they go to work or live in other, more law-abiding countries such as Britain, Canada or Australia, continued to behave similarly, trying to break rules, drive cars improperly, steal and commit fraud wherever and whenever they could," he said. "This is shamelessness," he said. Existing anti-graft measures, earlier thought to be a magic cure, did not work because Thai society had become tolerant of all kinds of evil, he said. "Most Thais are inherently dishonest now, always looking at a way to defraud or take from others," he said, "We are a society of thieves and con-artists." Corrupt people usually were let off the hook with the help of officials who took bribes and with enormous use of influence by the powers-that-be among the country's economic and political elite. Pol Gen Vasit said cheats must be made to face the harshest penalty. "They must be given a death sentence," he said. Former prime minister Anand Panyarachun, chairman of the Organisation for Transparency in Thailand, which hosted the seminar, suggested the National Counter Corruption Commission follow Singapore's practice of giving importance to anonymous letters and check if their corruption allegations had grounds. But many Thais and social critics have determined that the NCCC is also rife withcorruption, thus rendering it ineffective and more or less an instrument of the corrupt economic and political eliteand used to give an appearance of an attempt to curb corruption in Thailand. Mr Anand also said people who were required to declare their assets and debts should also be made to disclose their annual tax payments, and such information should be posted on the Internet. Bid-rigging suspects named Meanwhile, Thailand's National Counter Corruption Commission on December 27 named two senior officials as being behind bidding irregularities in connection with the construction of Suwannabhumi Airport in 1996. NCCC secretary-general Klanarong Chantik said the commission had recommended criminal and disciplinary proceedings be taken against the two. An agency investigation found Pramual Hutasingh, vice president of New Bangkok International Airport Co (NBIA), and his assistant Permsak Patanapong had adjusted the benchmark price to help one constructor. The NBIA organised a bidding round for ground improvement at the airport construction site, setting the benchmark price at 10.8 billion baht (1 US Dollar = 44.1 Thai Baht). The bid winner was Italian-Thai Development (ITD) with an offer price of 12 billion baht, which the contractor later agreed to reduce to 11.9 billion baht. Pramual, as chairman of the bidding committee, subsequently fixed the benchmark price at 12.2 billion baht, before recommending that the NBIA board award the contract to ITD. The difference was pocketed by corrupt officials and politicians connected with the project. ITD might be prohibited from bidding on new projects if it is black-listed because of this development.