Bureaucrats must be made to answer
Govt must break the conspiracy of silence by officials if the AEC is to succeed in its corruption probe
Members of the Assets Examination Committee (AEC) assigned to investigate alleged corruption by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and some of his Cabinet ministers have been complaining for a while that their work is being held up because government officials are not cooperating. In order to do its job properly, the AEC needs to get the heads of agencies where cases of bribery, graft or embezzlement supposedly took place to file formal complaints against wrongdoers and supply AEC investigators with relevant evidence to back up those charges.
However, many officials are reluctant to admit that corruption had taken place in their agencies, because they previously served under the Thaksin government, as well. By admitting that corruption had taken place, they could put themselves in an awkward situation, if not actually present themselves as potential targets of investigation. That is because Cabinet members could not have engaged in acts of corruption if it were not for the acquiescence or active participation of bureaucrats.
Another possible reason for their reluctance to cooperate is that some senior bureaucrats who colluded with the Thaksin government's numerous corruption scandals are still half expecting Thaksin or some of his proteges to stage a triumphant comeback through the general election that is supposed to be held by the end of the year. Apparently in an act of self-preservation, these officials would rather sit tight and do nothing than cooperate with the AEC and possibly face Thaksin's wrath.
The AEC said that foot-dragging was evident in at least two alleged cases of corruption against Thaksin and his cronies. These were the land purchase by Thaksin's wife, Pojaman, from the Bank of Thailand's Financial Institutions Development Fund, which reeks of conflict of interest; and the corruption scandal surrounding the rubber-saplings procurement project at the Agriculture Ministry and the Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund.
The Surayud government and the Council for National Security (CNS) have done little to prod permanent officials at those agencies - at both the permanent-secretary and director-general levels - into action, despite the fact that dealing with the corruption that took place on Thaksin's watch was cited as a major justification for the overthrow of the Thaksin government last September 19.
In some respects, the reticence that bureaucrats have shown comes as little surprise. Even though both the current government and the CNS are now wielding virtual absolute power, it is obvious they are trying their best not to offend senior members of the state bureaucracy, which is one of the Kingdom's most influential interest groups. But both the government and the CNS must realise that their vacillations are sending the wrong signal to government officials who may interpret their inaction as a sign of weakness and therefore continue to sit on their hands.
The Surayud government must quit its hand-wringing and do what needs to be done. Let us not forget that the AEC, which is an ad-hoc body, will be disbanded and leave the scene as soon as the Surayud government and the CNS hand over power to the new democratically elected government around the end of the year. It cannot be emphasised enough that a failure by the Surayud government and the CNS to turn the screws and make government officials cooperate with the AEC's investigations and enable it to prove Thaksin's guilt in connection with numerous corruption scandals would be nothing short of disastrous.
Such a failure would not only diminish the credibility of the Surayud government and the military council, but also pose a threat to the future of Thailand as a democracy. As self-appointed restorers of democracy who promised to rid Thai politics of corruption, the Surayud government and the CNS must act decisively and compel any uncooperative government officials to change their ways or face punishment. After all, the Surayud government, like its predecessors, has the power to hire and fire top bureaucrats at any ministry who do not cooperate with its anti-corruption campaign, one of its top priorities.
