Doing Business in Thailand: Local Corruption Barometer
January 30 2012 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand No comments yet
According to the Bangkok Post, Assumption University and the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission have jointly polled 2,129 people on the issue of corruption in Thai society.Hopefully, the entire results of this survey will be published soon, but some interesting elements of the survey have already been revealed by the Bangkok Post.
Apparently the sample surveyed not only included businessmen but also members of parliament.
According to the result given 59.2% of the general population and 65.1% of businessmen said that the corruption problem has reached a most serious level and 39.8 % of the general population and 50.6% of businessmen admit to have paid bribes at one moment or another. I’m actually quite surprised by the percentage of the general population admitting having paid a bribe. I was expecting more just because anybody who has a car or a bike has at least had the opportunity to pay a bribe to a police officer.
But the most surprising part of the survey is that 28.4 and 30.2 per cent of the MPs and senators surveyed find that corruption is “nothing unusual” and that 26.5 and 15.4 per cent of the MPs and senators don’t mind corruption because all government are corrupt and that corruption help to bring development to the people.
I will grant them a point. All governments are corrupts at one lever or another. Whether it is called bribing or lobbying it exists everywhere.
This having been said I do not believe that corruption brings development to the contrary it slows progress and sometimes endangers the people. For example purchase of low grade medicines instead of efficient one just because the producer of the low grade product offers a bigger kick back. Any politician that views corruption as benefiting the people should be kicked out of the parliament or senate immediately. Unfortunately I guess that the survey was conducted anonymously and that we will ever know who they were.
Finally I don’t believe that the fact that corruption exist everywhere else makes it more acceptable. To the contrary it should motivate people to fight it more vigorously.
About the Author:
The author Rene-Philippe DUBOUT is a lawyer since 1990 when he was admitted to Geneva bar (Switzerland). He practiced as a litigator there for 10 years until he moved to Thailand in 1999. In 2002 he founded with a group of Thai lawyers Rene Philippe & Partners Ltd a local law firm that specialized in Cross Borders Investments and Real Estate. He has been lecturing in several Thai Universities and a speaker to numerous conferences and seminars. He is the author of a must read book:”How to Purchase Real Estate Offshore Safely: The Case of Thailand”.
http//:www.renephilippe.com
© Copyrights 2009 – Rene Philippe Dubout – This article may be reprinted if information about the author, the websites, and the URLs remain intact.
Originally posted 2009-11-20 10:24:24.
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