Regional News
Thai PM Say’s Within 20 Years Thailand Will be Free of Corruption
Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha delivers a speech under the theme Hand in Hand to mark the Anti-Corruption Day at the Bangkok Convention Centre in Bangkok.
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BANGKOK – Addressing an audience on anti-corruption day in Bangkok, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the government has launched a long-term strategic plan to root out graft and that Thailand will be free of corruption within the next 20 years.
“Corrupt people must be weeded out, and we must stop people falling prey to the scourge in future,” he said.
The plan focuses on several areas, ranging from building awareness among students and school children to improving ways to prevent and punish corruption the Bangkok Post reported.
Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT) chairman Pramon Suthiwong said everyone should join hands to fight corruption, calling on Thais to be “active citizens” in curbing graft.
“We are campaigning to create awareness. We have to honour our duties and careers and not bow to the money offered to buy our dignity,” he declared.
At the end of 2015, under military rule the Corruption Perception Index for Thailand as reported by Transparency International ranked Thailand at 76th, the same as the previous year with a score of 38 out of 100, according to the annual report.
With such a low score, Thailand’s rate of corruption level was considered as a country with a ‘serious corruption level’, the report said. Countries with score higher than 50 were considered as relatively clean from corruption. The world average score is 43, it said.
Thailand’s level and score is the same as 2014, it said, suggesting there was no significant improvement in anti-corruption efforts.
The country is at the same level as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, India, Tunisia and Zambia, it said. The level and score are better than many other Asean countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.
