CORRUPTION is Phuket's biggest problem, but how can it be beaten? Phuketwan journalists went to Singapore to talk to Ora-orn Poocharoen, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at the well-regarded Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
Senior scholars from the university are likely to take up individual investigations of Phuket's problems and offer strategic solutions. Help is on the way, Phuket. Jet-skis, tuk-tuks, extortion in just about every aspect of Phuket life from the airport on . . . all these issues have answers.
But much more needs to change before corruption can be beaten, Ajarn Ora-orn says. Phuket people are now gaining good advice on how they can face the future in a clean, green Phuket - what Phuketwan is calling the Planet Phuket Project: Challenge for Change.
Here's the continuing conversation:
Phuketwan Corruption is not as difficult to write about as it once was. There was a public meeting in Patong not long back when it was admitted there were 14 organisations that take money in Patong for different reasons, at different levels. Phuket is still like the pot of gold for people looking in. It attracts people for the wrong reasons. It's a beautiful place but it will be destroyed very quickly unless something happens to change it.
Ajarn Ora-orn One area of research that I am doing is on budget transparency. I see that there is a role for journalists to play, as you already have a website, to actually put up budgets of local and central governments so people can see how much how much has been allocated to Phuket for different sectors. if local governments are willing to cooperate with you and have their budgets put up, that's already a huge step for transparency. Then have people start to debate whether such allocations are appropriate for different parts of the island.
People can write in. It won't go directly to detecting corruption, but usually the budget documents would have targets. For example, if they state that five schools are going to be built, people can see if five schools have been built, not with one missing. It's an advocacy program. I call it social auditing because people can just audit. You don't need to go to the Auditor General. You have the information, you can hold governments accountable. and actually, if I'm not mistaken, under Thai law, budgets for local government have to be made public. And if they already have it on their website, you can put it in a way that's easily digestible for the public, that can generate discussion and awareness.
If they don't have it then if you put it up, that will be a good thing. That's one work that I do, on budget transparency, but I look at the national level in Thailand. it's part of a larger project run by an NGO in Washington called Open Budget Initiative, and actually we have partners around the world to check transparency levels in 82 countries, but we've never gone to the local government level. My passion is to get this to the local level as well.
We also have study trips where we bring our masters students overseas - the 35-year-old ones - and the last two years I've brought them to Thailand, looking at ecotourism. Phuket is a great place for students to go and the students can be exposed to all types of problems and meet all types of people, and challenge them. ''Ok, you've learned the theory in class. This is the real world. What are your recommendations?''
Phuketwan People are looking at Phuket now in terms of Singapore-style growth, if not necessarily a Singapore-style outcome, for Phuket. What happened in Singapore to solve the problem of corruption?
Ajarn Ora-orn From my understanding, from my studies of corruption and how Singapore tackled it, it was very much top down and it was about law enforcement. A very good example is that Thailand's corruption law has the death penalty, Singapore does not have the death penalty for corruption, yet Singapore has been able to enforce all of their anti-corruption laws. In Thailand you don't see hardly anybody being jailed.
There's been one minister so far in the entire history of the country. So the problem is law enforcement. In Singapore they were not reluctant to put people, top ranking people, in jail one after the other - bom-bom-bom - to show the public that this is serious, the law is enforceable, and to me it's a strategy of catching the big fish. You don't waste time to catch people for petty corruption, you just go for the top. Go for the highest.
That's really strategically using your resources for the most effective outcome. I wrote a report for the National Counter Corruption Commission of Thailand. They always complain that ''We don't have enough people, we don't have enough budget, our mandate is so wide in the country, how can we curb corruption?'' All my interviews with other governments, mainly the Swedish Government, the Norwegian Government, the Finland Government, in Singapore and in South Korea, they all say the same thing, ''You have to choose the big cases to work on and make that successful. Don't waste your time on small cases.'' That would be my recommendation for Phuket. Focus on that, keep on reporting that, keep on investigating that, keep on shining light on that. Force the law to be enforceable.
The other tactic that Singapore used was to separate out new people from old culture so the public servants that came in from the year that they started the anti-corruption strategy were being separated and being trained on a completely different program so that they don't blend in with the old culture. In Singapore in the past, police were so corrupted as well.
They actually had this training program for 10 years until they saw a complete overhaul of organisation culture. So it wasn't overnight, it was across 10 years. It was a deliberate training program that they had installed, working with each cohort and making sure that each cohort was not eaten up - took leung - by the old culture.
Phuketwan How do you start that? 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.
The Planet Phuket Project: Hunt for a Lee Kuan Yew SolutionSenior scholars from the university are likely to take up individual investigations of Phuket's problems and offer strategic solutions. Help is on the way, Phuket. Jet-skis, tuk-tuks, extortion in just about every aspect of Phuket life from the airport on . . . all these issues have answers.
But much more needs to change before corruption can be beaten, Ajarn Ora-orn says. Phuket people are now gaining good advice on how they can face the future in a clean, green Phuket - what Phuketwan is calling the Planet Phuket Project: Challenge for Change.
Here's the continuing conversation:
Phuketwan Corruption is not as difficult to write about as it once was. There was a public meeting in Patong not long back when it was admitted there were 14 organisations that take money in Patong for different reasons, at different levels. Phuket is still like the pot of gold for people looking in. It attracts people for the wrong reasons. It's a beautiful place but it will be destroyed very quickly unless something happens to change it.
Ajarn Ora-orn One area of research that I am doing is on budget transparency. I see that there is a role for journalists to play, as you already have a website, to actually put up budgets of local and central governments so people can see how much how much has been allocated to Phuket for different sectors. if local governments are willing to cooperate with you and have their budgets put up, that's already a huge step for transparency. Then have people start to debate whether such allocations are appropriate for different parts of the island.
People can write in. It won't go directly to detecting corruption, but usually the budget documents would have targets. For example, if they state that five schools are going to be built, people can see if five schools have been built, not with one missing. It's an advocacy program. I call it social auditing because people can just audit. You don't need to go to the Auditor General. You have the information, you can hold governments accountable. and actually, if I'm not mistaken, under Thai law, budgets for local government have to be made public. And if they already have it on their website, you can put it in a way that's easily digestible for the public, that can generate discussion and awareness.
If they don't have it then if you put it up, that will be a good thing. That's one work that I do, on budget transparency, but I look at the national level in Thailand. it's part of a larger project run by an NGO in Washington called Open Budget Initiative, and actually we have partners around the world to check transparency levels in 82 countries, but we've never gone to the local government level. My passion is to get this to the local level as well.
We also have study trips where we bring our masters students overseas - the 35-year-old ones - and the last two years I've brought them to Thailand, looking at ecotourism. Phuket is a great place for students to go and the students can be exposed to all types of problems and meet all types of people, and challenge them. ''Ok, you've learned the theory in class. This is the real world. What are your recommendations?''
Phuketwan People are looking at Phuket now in terms of Singapore-style growth, if not necessarily a Singapore-style outcome, for Phuket. What happened in Singapore to solve the problem of corruption?
Ajarn Ora-orn From my understanding, from my studies of corruption and how Singapore tackled it, it was very much top down and it was about law enforcement. A very good example is that Thailand's corruption law has the death penalty, Singapore does not have the death penalty for corruption, yet Singapore has been able to enforce all of their anti-corruption laws. In Thailand you don't see hardly anybody being jailed.
There's been one minister so far in the entire history of the country. So the problem is law enforcement. In Singapore they were not reluctant to put people, top ranking people, in jail one after the other - bom-bom-bom - to show the public that this is serious, the law is enforceable, and to me it's a strategy of catching the big fish. You don't waste time to catch people for petty corruption, you just go for the top. Go for the highest.
That's really strategically using your resources for the most effective outcome. I wrote a report for the National Counter Corruption Commission of Thailand. They always complain that ''We don't have enough people, we don't have enough budget, our mandate is so wide in the country, how can we curb corruption?'' All my interviews with other governments, mainly the Swedish Government, the Norwegian Government, the Finland Government, in Singapore and in South Korea, they all say the same thing, ''You have to choose the big cases to work on and make that successful. Don't waste your time on small cases.'' That would be my recommendation for Phuket. Focus on that, keep on reporting that, keep on investigating that, keep on shining light on that. Force the law to be enforceable.
The other tactic that Singapore used was to separate out new people from old culture so the public servants that came in from the year that they started the anti-corruption strategy were being separated and being trained on a completely different program so that they don't blend in with the old culture. In Singapore in the past, police were so corrupted as well.
They actually had this training program for 10 years until they saw a complete overhaul of organisation culture. So it wasn't overnight, it was across 10 years. It was a deliberate training program that they had installed, working with each cohort and making sure that each cohort was not eaten up - took leung - by the old culture.
Phuketwan How do you start that? 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.
Look for the next part of the Phuketwan interview: How you can help beat corruption
The Search 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
Planet Phuket Project: Making Tuk-Tuks, Taxis Fair
The Quest for Answers Phuketwan's Planet Phuket Project, with Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy, aims to find ways of solving corruption and other problems on the holiday island.
Planet Phuket Project: Making Tuk-Tuks, Taxis Fair
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
Ajarn Ora-orn I guess that's where leadership comes in.
And if those same leaders are themselves corrupt, and wish it to continue ??
Posted by LivinLOS on March 11, 2011 08:18
Editor Comment:
You need to wait for the next installment, LivinLOS