Graft is Good: a wake-up call to take issue seriously

EDITORIAL
'Graft is good': a wake-up call to take issue seriously
By The Nation
Published on July 26, 2011


Poll's shocking finding shows we are all responsible for moral slide towards culture of corruption

A new survey by Abac poll on how we perceive corruption, produced the alarming finding that the majority of Thais, especially young adults, believe graft is acceptable.

The survey released last week found that 64.5 per cent of respondents said they had no problem with government corruption in certain cases: first, if the corrupt government could make the country prosper, second, if corruption promoted people's well-being, and third, if corruption benefited the poll's respondents.

The percentage of those happy to see a corrupt government as long as they themselves benefited was particularly large (70 per cent) among respondents aged under 20 and between 20 and 29.

If this survey proves to be an effective measure of our moral judgement, we have to acknowledge the sad fact that our ethical standards are deteriorating, especially among the young generation. And who else is there to blame for this deterioration but we adults, who set the standards for youngsters?

It is a universally held belief that corruption is evil. Corruption is the enemy of development and good governance. It is absolutely wrong for government agencies or officials to abuse the system for their own material benefit at the expense of the overall benefit to society.

However, it seems the majority of Thais now no longer have a problem with corruption if they also benefit, albeit in the short-term, from the abusive practices. These citizens could live with corruption as long as they can get a "slice of the cake".

The graft-happy respondents have apparently quantified their moral standards into the amount of money they would earn. Their moral judgement is based on the material benefit they would receive, not on selfless values for the greater good. It begs the question, are we reaching a point where we are accepting corruption as a social norm?

But these 65 per cent of respondents are not totally blameworthy (and at least they were honest enough to say what they thought). Rather, corruption has become so pervasive in our society because everyone shares the responsibility for letting the disease grow to such a chronic and almost incurable level.

We must all accept a share of the blame for creating the environment in which graft has flourished. First, corruption has increasingly become acceptable at an individual level. Second, in spite all the anticorruption rhetoric, Thai society has cherished people who achieve material wealth while ignoring the means - too often questionable - by which they amassed their fortunes. Third, our system of governance has failed to punish politicians or people accused of corruption, even when we see their scandal-mired names in newspaper headlines on a daily basis.

In addition, many of us have voted back to power politicians who have never cleared their names after corruption scandals. This is despite the fact that in other Asian countries such as Japan, a single, minor corruption charge can end a politician's career.

We like to casually discuss how bad corruption is, but we have become complacent about it. Now, this Abac poll should serve as wake-up call for everyone to act and address the issue seriously.

For those who might not care about the ethical side of the issue, here's our argument: pervasive corruption will also wreck the country's competitiveness and the ability of the common man to earn more money. Dusit Nontanakorn, chairman of the Board of Trade and Thai Chamber of Commerce, recently warned that corruption would be the biggest obstacle to Asean Economic Community integration. The cost of business would increase because of the large amount of money allocated for bribery.

Corruption robs people - especially the have-nots - of the opportunity to better themselves, because they do not have the money or power to engage in bribery.

Some may be happy to receive short-term benefits from corruption but, ultimately, graft undermines the fair and just environment that gives them, along with the rest of us, the opportunity to prosper.

We are all responsible for corruption, even the 35.5 per cent of respondents who said they would not tolerate it. We have been deprived of our voice to say the right thing and, for a long time now, we have failed to raise our voices against this evil.