| Bangkok's political looking glass world recalls a little girl appearing as a witness in a driving case involving her mother. Making sure that she knew the difference between truth and falsehood before swearing her in, the clerk of court asked what happened to people who told lies. "They are punished," the girl replied primly. "Quite so," nodded the official approvingly. "And how are they punished?" The girl said they went to hell. The court clerk approved again but wanted to know what, if anything, happened to them before they went to hell. The girl looked blank. Earthly punishment didn't enter her thinking. The magistrates ruled she was not a fit person to give evidence. |
| That true story from my reporting days in England came to mind when a member of the Thai Senate wanted his colleagues to take an oath before the Emerald Buddha that they would not accept bribes to vote for particular members of independent bodies like the Election Commission or the National Counter Corruption Commission. Presumably, the penalty for lying to the Emerald Buddha would be in the hereafter. When the Speaker rejected the proposal, the senator proposed they should take the same oath before a portrait of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) who recently celebrated his 60th jubilee. This time, the implication was the punishment would be earthly. |
| That, too, was rejected. The Speaker ruled that a senator's initial oath covered all subsequent actions. But if Thai senators are like Indian legislators who, as Atal Bihari Vajpayee claimed, start their careers with the lie of the false election returns, they might feel that one lie more or less makes little difference. |
| All this was caused by the prime minister's sale of his telecommunications giant, Shin Corp, to Singapore's Temasek Holdings for a tax-free 73 billion baht, about $1.9 billion, by passing on the shares to his children. Thais have been up in arms against Thaksin Shinawatra ever since. One curious fall-out is the case of Ruangkrai Leekitwattana against the Revenue Department. Ruangkrai bought some shares at below par prices from his father (rather like Thaksin's children) and was taxed 20,000 baht. However, when he made a political issue of the matter, citing Thaksin's case, the embarrassed Revenue Department refunded the money. Now, Ruangkrai wants it to take back the refund, which the Revenue Department refuses to do. The department itself is in trouble, for the auditor-general's office wants to be satisfied that it did not aid and abet the prime minister or his children to avoid taxes. |
| It's like a daisy chain "" or food chain, if you like "" of corrupt practices that recalls the old Latin maxim, Who will guard the guards themselves? With the kingdom scheduled to go to the polls on October 15, one would expect the Election Commission to hold the balance. But that august body is in even greater trouble than ours faced over Navin Chawla and his wife's non-governmental organisation. Of the five previous members of the Election Commission, one died (in the nick of time, they say), one quit in disgrace, and three went to jail for what the criminal court quaintly calls "malfeasance." They face another malfeasance charge. The court will decide on September 15 whether Thaksin's ruling Thai Rak Thai party hired smaller parties to vote as it ordered in a case involving the ultimate "" or almost ultimate "" guarantor of probity in public life. |
| This is the NCCC, which was set up in 1999. But this super ombudsman has been moribund since October 2004. How can it uphold integrity, Thais ask, when the nine NCCC commissioners awarded themselves pay hikes without parliamentary approval, as the law of the land demands? The Supreme Court found all nine members guilty, whereupon they resigned in May last year. Suspicions about another aspect of NCCC operations were confirmed when more than 80 senators picked the same seven out of 14 candidates during the final selection. In this instance, it's the TRT party that is being accused of graft, the allegation being that the government wants to pack the NCCC with its cronies. |
| Meanwhile, yet another sword hangs over the government's head. After the last experience of EC malfeasance, the Senate appointed a subcommittee of 22 supposedly trusty members to check the credentials of the 10 EC candidates whose names have been forwarded by the Supreme Court. It must do so by next Thursday. But apparently only four of these subcommittee members can be called independent. The others are all said to be in the government's pocket. |
| Thai politics is like an onion. Peel off one layer of corruption and you come to another. Sacred and sacrosanct, untouched by any whiff of slander, the monarch holds the core. But age and ill health are taking its toll "" he is just about able to take a few steps this week after the latest surgery "" and he appears to be passing on many duties to the Supreme Court. |
| Will it one day go the way of the Senate, EC and NCCC? That would be the end of this south-east Asian Ayodhya of legend and imagination. |
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