Corrupt and powerful III

While the Bangkok Post seems unconcerned about political prisoners, it has got agitated regarding the “patronage system.” Indeed, it has a very useful detailing of the known events surrounding the case of an alleged maid-abusing Pol Cpl Kornsasi Buayaem and here top-ranked connections and their influence. We recommend reading “More than maid abuse.” It is a remarkable web of inter-connections, corruption, and abuse.

For PPT’s earlier posts, see here and here.

Thinking about the patronage system, one can go back to the criticism of Jakrapob Penkair. A former spokesman for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, he made a speech at Bangkok’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) on 29 August 2007. Royalists declared the speech anti-monarchy and he had to resign as a minister in May 2008. Jakrapob fled Thailand and remains in exile.

In that speech [opens a PDF that may be considered lese majeste in Thailand], Jakrapob talks of the modern era where the “[p]atronage system is problematic because it encourages unequality [inequality] among individuals. And that’s a direct conflict to Democracy. It encourages one person into thinking of depending on the other or others. It breeds endless number of slaves with a very limited number of masters. It prevents Thailand from coming out of age.”

When the regime talked about patronage, it was usually as something embedded in the electoral democracy associated with Thaksin.

Read the Post story for Rangsiman Rome’s comments on people in the police holding paid but non-existent positions. Think the armed forces and the bureaucracy as well. Who is pocketing the billions? Who is getting a cut?