According to a recent poll taken by the Suan Dusit Poll of Suan Dusit University, nearly 47 percent of Thai people believe that no government will ever be able to tackle corruption in the bureaucracy because it has been deeply entrenched in the Thai society and prevalent in all circles due to people’s wrong attitude toward the problem.
The not so encouraging findings is the result of a poll conducted by Suan Dusit Poll of Suan Dusit University in the wake of the exposure of several corruption cases in the past few weeks in the media.
32.54 percent of the respondents are not sure that the incumbent government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will be able to tackle the graft problem as solving it will take a long time. However, 19.96 percent is optimistic and believe that the current government will be able to do it because it has the absolute power and, if it is really serious about the problem, it can succeed as evident in its achievement in tackling some corruption cases.
Of all the corruption scandals which have recently dominated media space, the poll shows that 42.03 percent of the respondents are interested in the corruption concerning student lunch programme; 40 percent in the temple fund embezzlement; 37 percent in the cheats of the fund for the destitute and 21.6 percent in the general corruption in the spending of budgets.
68.35 percent of the respondents believe the root cause of corruption stems from greed and selfishness of the corrupt officials and politicians; 28.42 percent believe the problem stems from monitoring loopholes and complicity of officials in committing corruption; 19.30 percent blame lax punishment and 17.11 percent blame temptations and wrong values about corruption.
Regarding on how to prevent corruption, 38.8 percent believe that instilling of honesty to the people coupled with legal amendment to increase penalties for corrupt practice can be helpful; 31.21 percent believe that tighter control and monitoring can help in fighting the problem. PS – EP
