SINGAPORE taxi drivers are a little different to Phuket's taxi and tuk-tuk drivers. If they charge an extortionate fare or get out of line, they can be sacked within the space of an hour.
Aspiring to make Phuket corruption-free, Phuketwan paid a visit to the island nation to talk with Ora-orn Poocharoen, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
The highly-regarded school, which attracts scholars from around the world for its post-graduate research programs, aims to look more closely at some of Phuket's long-running problems in the hope of finding solutions.
Here's the conclusion of our interview with Ajarn Ora-orn:
Phuketwan: How do you start turning an island from a corrupt place to a not-corrupt place?
Ajarn Ora-orn: I guess that's where leadership comes in. You need somebody who is totally committed to see this through for the next 20 years. A training program will have to be designed and started. Somebody will have to provide funding. Somebody is going to put their strategy and resources into curbing one of the most controversial aspects of corruption of the island. I guess leadership is a key. If we have to wait for a breaking point in society, I don't think that's good, where people are coming out to protest and be very radical . . . that might not be good.
Phuketwan: With Singapore, did corruption end under Lee Kuan Yew as a one man thing, or was it more than just one man?
Ajarn Ora-orn: In my view it was pretty much a one-man thing, but a smart-man thing. He surrounded himself with only people who were good, reliable and smart. So it wasn't him who was controlling everyone. He was relying on advice from everyone. So he was smart in that sense. But of course, if somebody was so different and opposed his opinions, then of course, they wouldn't be on his team. Dissent hinders the decision making process. You don't value diversity. You value people who are on your team and looking to move in the same direction.
Phuketwan: Lee is viewed differently now to the way he was looked at 20 years ago. The view has changed radically in his favor. Twenty years ago, most people in the West were not fans.
Ajarn Ora-orn: Sure, authoritarian, lack of freedom of expression. Even now still . . . but people might not have the justification for complaining when everything seems to be working perfectly fine. The system is working.
Phuketwan: People who achieve prosperity will tolerate a lot. Look at Brunei. Basically one family benefits extremely at the expense of everybody else, but because everybody else is being cared for at a much higher level than previously, Brunei people are reasonably content to let the family have their way.
Ajarn Ora-orn: For Singapore, I think because the sources of income is more varied than Burnei, Singapore is pretty much a finance city and every other sector as well, IT, science, research, education . . . so I think the economy is diverse enough in that sense.
Phuketwan: Singapore seems to be adapting to vast numbers of overseas workers as well. That would be a real test for most societies.
Ajarn Ora-orn: It's still a test but Singapore's leaders are very clear to say that they're here for our economy and if there is a financial crisis, the overseas workers will leave.
Phuketwan: One of the perceived problems on Phuket, whether it's an actual problem to the same degree that gets reported, is a sense that some Thais are intent on ripping off the tourists. Certainly quite a few expat residents have formed this view that greed is a big motivation. There is a sense that it doesn't matter if you offend someone, there will always be other tourists to replace them.
Ajarn Ora-orn: That's certainly not the case in Singapore. If you get into a taxi, and you are asked for more money than you should be, you can make one phone call, and within an hour that person will be sacked. It's that fast, you know. It is that fast. Because the Singapore system is like that, people know that they will be punished for things that they do wrong. So people just don't do it. The law is enforceable.
Phuketwan: On Phuket there is the situation where they have too many tuk-tuk and taxi drivers, all charging extortionate rates, and when challenged about it, they say: 'We have to charge these rates because some of these drivers only get one fare a day.' Many of them, having charged a ridiculous amount for one small trip, sit around all day, doing very little at all.
Ajarn Ora-orn: That sounds like a market mechanism. Maybe it is because someone is willing to pay?
Phuketwan: Tourists are on occasions willing to pay. There is no alternative. I mean, if you want to get from A to B . . .
Ajarn Ora-orn: So it's not the market. It's a monopoly. Because it's a monopoly they can keep the price high and work one round, and have a day's earnings. That's good for them. They can use their time to do something else. But the monopoly needs to be broken if it is going to be more fair to the consumer.
Phuketwan: I don't know how you do that. That's one of the perennial issues on Phuket. The tuk-tuk drivers are one of the prime sources of complaints from tourists. Prices, attitude . . . nobody has had the courage to compete. There was a bus service that started once between Patong and Karon but the driver got beaten up, and that was the end of that.
Ajarn Ora-orn: How easy is it to get a tuk-tuk license? Can anybody get it? Maybe there's a need to look at regulation, who gets allowed to enter. Here, cab drivers have to train for over three months. They need to pass an exam. They need to be trained for their attitude. They tell you all essential information in advance, so there is no miscommunication. They will all say exactly the same thing. If you have something to put in the back trunk, they will always come out to help you. The expectation is so clear, and all of that is through regulation of the licencing, who gets to drive, and who cannot drive.
Phuketwan: The prices on Phuket are six times the prices in other parts of Thailand. One of the frustrations of the tuk-tuk and taxi monopoly on Phuket is that every Thai family has to provide their own transport, so some large families might have four or five motorcycles for short trips and two large cars for longer trips. Roads are under huge pressure. Every resort needs its own bus system to bring its workers to work. Jet-skis are another problem. The previous governor tried a world-first insurance system, but that no longer really works. We have suggested the Navy should take charge and patrol the beaches. The military does need to protect national security. But the more people go away with the right impression of Thailand, the better.
Ajarn Ora-orn: Little by little, the more people can realise that having long-term sustainable development is important, the better. Loving your land is the most important thing, and wanting to have it for future generations.
Phuketwan: That's the current problem with the reefs. Some guides haven't been taught how to handle situations where tourists stand on the reefs or try to souvenir pieces of the reefs, so they just let it happen. Phuket's problems are all very immediate. The island probably has five years to address some of these things. I can be proved wrong, I hope.
Ajarn Ora-orn: The good thing about this is that the LKY students have to produce a policy paper. That will be useful for someone. We have 60 students each year, a troop of researchers, waiting for a good research project.
Phuketwan: You can send them all to Phuket. Phuket has 60 problems they could begin looking at right now. (laughter.)
Talks are underway for the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy to begin sending post-graduate scholars to Phuket to research answers for corruption and other Phuket problems.
Planet Phuket Project: Crunching CorruptionAspiring to make Phuket corruption-free, Phuketwan paid a visit to the island nation to talk with Ora-orn Poocharoen, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
The highly-regarded school, which attracts scholars from around the world for its post-graduate research programs, aims to look more closely at some of Phuket's long-running problems in the hope of finding solutions.
Here's the conclusion of our interview with Ajarn Ora-orn:
Phuketwan: How do you start turning an island from a corrupt place to a not-corrupt place?
Ajarn Ora-orn: I guess that's where leadership comes in. You need somebody who is totally committed to see this through for the next 20 years. A training program will have to be designed and started. Somebody will have to provide funding. Somebody is going to put their strategy and resources into curbing one of the most controversial aspects of corruption of the island. I guess leadership is a key. If we have to wait for a breaking point in society, I don't think that's good, where people are coming out to protest and be very radical . . . that might not be good.
Phuketwan: With Singapore, did corruption end under Lee Kuan Yew as a one man thing, or was it more than just one man?
Ajarn Ora-orn: In my view it was pretty much a one-man thing, but a smart-man thing. He surrounded himself with only people who were good, reliable and smart. So it wasn't him who was controlling everyone. He was relying on advice from everyone. So he was smart in that sense. But of course, if somebody was so different and opposed his opinions, then of course, they wouldn't be on his team. Dissent hinders the decision making process. You don't value diversity. You value people who are on your team and looking to move in the same direction.
Phuketwan: Lee is viewed differently now to the way he was looked at 20 years ago. The view has changed radically in his favor. Twenty years ago, most people in the West were not fans.
Ajarn Ora-orn: Sure, authoritarian, lack of freedom of expression. Even now still . . . but people might not have the justification for complaining when everything seems to be working perfectly fine. The system is working.
Phuketwan: People who achieve prosperity will tolerate a lot. Look at Brunei. Basically one family benefits extremely at the expense of everybody else, but because everybody else is being cared for at a much higher level than previously, Brunei people are reasonably content to let the family have their way.
Ajarn Ora-orn: For Singapore, I think because the sources of income is more varied than Burnei, Singapore is pretty much a finance city and every other sector as well, IT, science, research, education . . . so I think the economy is diverse enough in that sense.
Phuketwan: Singapore seems to be adapting to vast numbers of overseas workers as well. That would be a real test for most societies.
Ajarn Ora-orn: It's still a test but Singapore's leaders are very clear to say that they're here for our economy and if there is a financial crisis, the overseas workers will leave.
Phuketwan: One of the perceived problems on Phuket, whether it's an actual problem to the same degree that gets reported, is a sense that some Thais are intent on ripping off the tourists. Certainly quite a few expat residents have formed this view that greed is a big motivation. There is a sense that it doesn't matter if you offend someone, there will always be other tourists to replace them.
Ajarn Ora-orn: That's certainly not the case in Singapore. If you get into a taxi, and you are asked for more money than you should be, you can make one phone call, and within an hour that person will be sacked. It's that fast, you know. It is that fast. Because the Singapore system is like that, people know that they will be punished for things that they do wrong. So people just don't do it. The law is enforceable.
Phuketwan: On Phuket there is the situation where they have too many tuk-tuk and taxi drivers, all charging extortionate rates, and when challenged about it, they say: 'We have to charge these rates because some of these drivers only get one fare a day.' Many of them, having charged a ridiculous amount for one small trip, sit around all day, doing very little at all.
Ajarn Ora-orn: That sounds like a market mechanism. Maybe it is because someone is willing to pay?
Phuketwan: Tourists are on occasions willing to pay. There is no alternative. I mean, if you want to get from A to B . . .
Ajarn Ora-orn: So it's not the market. It's a monopoly. Because it's a monopoly they can keep the price high and work one round, and have a day's earnings. That's good for them. They can use their time to do something else. But the monopoly needs to be broken if it is going to be more fair to the consumer.
Phuketwan: I don't know how you do that. That's one of the perennial issues on Phuket. The tuk-tuk drivers are one of the prime sources of complaints from tourists. Prices, attitude . . . nobody has had the courage to compete. There was a bus service that started once between Patong and Karon but the driver got beaten up, and that was the end of that.
Ajarn Ora-orn: How easy is it to get a tuk-tuk license? Can anybody get it? Maybe there's a need to look at regulation, who gets allowed to enter. Here, cab drivers have to train for over three months. They need to pass an exam. They need to be trained for their attitude. They tell you all essential information in advance, so there is no miscommunication. They will all say exactly the same thing. If you have something to put in the back trunk, they will always come out to help you. The expectation is so clear, and all of that is through regulation of the licencing, who gets to drive, and who cannot drive.
Phuketwan: The prices on Phuket are six times the prices in other parts of Thailand. One of the frustrations of the tuk-tuk and taxi monopoly on Phuket is that every Thai family has to provide their own transport, so some large families might have four or five motorcycles for short trips and two large cars for longer trips. Roads are under huge pressure. Every resort needs its own bus system to bring its workers to work. Jet-skis are another problem. The previous governor tried a world-first insurance system, but that no longer really works. We have suggested the Navy should take charge and patrol the beaches. The military does need to protect national security. But the more people go away with the right impression of Thailand, the better.
Ajarn Ora-orn: Little by little, the more people can realise that having long-term sustainable development is important, the better. Loving your land is the most important thing, and wanting to have it for future generations.
Phuketwan: That's the current problem with the reefs. Some guides haven't been taught how to handle situations where tourists stand on the reefs or try to souvenir pieces of the reefs, so they just let it happen. Phuket's problems are all very immediate. The island probably has five years to address some of these things. I can be proved wrong, I hope.
Ajarn Ora-orn: The good thing about this is that the LKY students have to produce a policy paper. That will be useful for someone. We have 60 students each year, a troop of researchers, waiting for a good research project.
Phuketwan: You can send them all to Phuket. Phuket has 60 problems they could begin looking at right now. (laughter.)
Talks are underway for the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy to begin sending post-graduate scholars to Phuket to research answers for corruption and other Phuket problems.
The Quest for Answers Phuket has the offer of expert help now to prepare the island for a corruption free future, necessary to achieve fairness and balance for future generations.
Planet Phuket Project: Crunching Corruption
The Planet Phuket Project: Hunt for a Lee Kuan Yew Solution
The Quest for Answers Phuket and its melting pot of people and problems may become a study case for some of the brightest public policy students in the region. We'll tell you what happens next.
The Planet Phuket Project: Hunt for a Lee Kuan Yew Solution
Planet Phuket Project: How Phuket Went Wrong
The Quest for Answers Clarity is being sought to solve Phuket's problems with some help from scholars at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
Planet Phuket Project: How Phuket Went Wrong
The Planet Phuket Project: Crunching Island Corruption
The Quest for Answers Phuket has the offer of expert help now to prepare the island for a corruption free future, necessary to achieve fairness and balance for future generations.
The Planet Phuket Project: Crunching Island Corruption
Dear PM, Please Make Phuket Corruption-Free
Latest Happy Birthday, Mr Prime Minister. Here's a gift to you, an idea that could make Phuket and perhaps Thailand better places. Start your fight against corruption here, on one small island.
Dear PM, Please Make Phuket Corruption-Free
Phuket Corruption: Enough, Say Patong Victims
Photo Album A public seminar on Phuket has senior officials revealing the scale of existing corruption among 14 government bodies - and attempts by more to join in.
Phuket Corruption: Enough, Say Patong Victims
Fine sentiments, but, what is the point?
Yes, they send students that point out the problem, but, then what?
Unless people with real power are willing to make difficult decisions, nothing will change.
Unfortunately, it's the people with real power that are the root causes of Phuket's problems.
Posted by Sir Burr on March 21, 2011 12:38
Editor Comment:
Attempting to find practical answers and role models is better than acquiescing and hoping that solutions will emerge from a chatroom one of these years, Sir Burr. Knowing where the problems lie is easy. Offering realistic solutions is not so easy.