On September 1, 2016, a conference, Tackling Corruption in Thailand – Strategies, Challenges and Prospects, was presented at the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University by TU’s German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG) and the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The motto of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, according to its website, is in the service of democracy, peace and development. Among the speakers were Khun Wisoot Tantinan, programme specialist, Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy Unit, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and John Frangos,  a consultant at Tilleke & Gibbins Thailand. Khun Wisoot explained that the goal is to implement a system change, so that anti-corruption may be integrated into the system. Public procurement, or how public authorities such as government departments or local leaders purchase goods and services from companies, must be managed differently. Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and Public Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) “lack enforcement power,” Khun Wisoot noted, adding that these organizations can only report their findings to the government and media. Although current laws in the Kingdom are insufficient, a United Nations partnership for sustainable development goals offers hope for the future. He pointed to open data, or data anyone can obtain from businesses or governments, to help promote anti-corruption in public procurement. In March, Thai Open Data Day was celebrated at the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre (BACC) with the goal of using

government open data for a more citizen-oriented society.

The availability of open data encourages people to

write applications, liberate data, create visualizations and publish analyses using open public data to show support for and encourage the adoption of open data policies by the world’s local, regional and national governments.

By advocating government transparency, accountability and public participation, as much information as possible is made available to the public on the open data website. Widely sharing this information can help fight corruption as well as create economic opportunities and make more informed business decisions possible. Khun Wisoot looks to open data as a means of making anti-corruption part of the public procurement process. Last year, the international non-profit network Open Knowledge published an Open Data Index ranking Thailand 42nd out of 122 countries for publishing data about governmental spending and decision-making. This means Thailand ranks relatively high among other countries where transparency is also considered important, such as Taiwan, Austria, and the United States.

Khun John Frangos offered a lawyer’s perspective on what he termed

Anti-Corruption Law: Punishing the Bribe-Givers.

Although to date there have been no criminal prosecutions of Thai companies for bribery, after amendments to Thai law last year, Khun John “expects to see” such prosecutions. The point is that laws can make corruption “so expensive,” and the fear of being sentenced to prison might also motivate corporations to establish an ethical business environment. For Khun John, leadership is a key element in making companies more ethical. The “tone at the top,” or how business leaders think and behave, will inspire workers to take anti-corruption seriously and behave ethically.

University students in leadership roles.

According to the UNDP website, a key element of the anti-corruption movement is

instilling norms and values, such as integrity, democracy and transparency, through youth empowerment with a platform to give them a voice and ways to exercise their citizenship and promote civic education… Designing a national youth campaign and organise university-level anti-corruption camps across the country, to eventually form a Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network, to reach over 6,000 students in more than 90 universities nationwide.

This is essential because a 2014 integrity survey conducted by the by UNDP and the College of Local Administration of Khon Kaen University asked 1,255 university students about their attitudes to corruption. Kwanpadh Suddhi-Dhamakit, a programme analyst at UNDP Thailand, added:

Universities are perceived as privileged spaces for academic learning. The hierarchical administrative systems and relationships between students, professors, and administration staff have also contributed to a culture of silence on issues related to bribery, patronage, and abuse of resources. Empowering university students with knowledge and tools would help break this culture of silence and improve governance and leadership of public universities in the long run.

Part of raising awareness led to establishing the

“Refuse to Be Corrupt” Café in partnership with the private café chain, True Coffee Ltd and a number of universities. This initiative aims to provide youth with a space to map out their plans to tackle corruption. The profits from the café will go directly to support forthcoming anti-corruption activities. Pilot an innovative University Students’ Integrity Survey to assess the levels of integrity among university students. Using the findings from the Student Integrity Survey, develop and incorporate integrity and anti-corruption education into university curricula to assist in shaping good values among students to counter and work actively against a corrupt society.

Among the first such cafés to be opened were at Khon Kaen and Ubon Ratchathani Universities. Clearly this project which started in 2014 and ends this year, places a high importance on university students as the future of Thailand. Starting with 36 students from 15 universities, the Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network, sponsored by UNDP Thailand now includes over 3,400 students from 90 universities in the KIngdom. Since many students spend a lot of time in cafés, why not fight corruption while doing so? There are signs that these and offer efforts are producing results. In January, The Nation cited a survey by Thailand’s Private Sector Collective Action Coalition against Corruption (CAC) stating that 48 per cent of 828 directors and business leaders saw a continuous decline in severity of corruption over the past two years. There is much still to be done. 90 percent of respondents rated corruption in Thailand as high or very high.

At last year’s International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) in December, Thai students played a prominent part. Even those who did not visit “Refuse to Be Corrupt” Cafés may have participated in the UNDP’s Young Journalists for Anti-Corruption training programmes. Students submitted investigative multimedia reports about causes and possible solutions of corruption drivers, dynamics and possible solutions. Student filmmakers from Bangkok University, Srinakharinwirot University, and Ubon Ratchathani University received special recognition for their anti-corruption short films. Pannathat Sirirak, a freshman from the College of Social Communication Innovation at Srinakharinwirot University, observed:

Our film demonstrates how the family, or the smallest institution in society-albeit the most fundamental-can shape the values and principles of today’s generation, particularly youth’s acceptance of and tolerance towards corruption. It acts as an urgent call to young people to help foster a culture of integrity.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).