The contracts in question were awarded under the Democrat Abhisit administration, and Supoth's immediate boss, the transport minister, was BJT- ie a ruling coalition member. There has been utterly no love lost between PT and BJT the last few years for obvious reasons- so why are they trying to implicate PT in this? They would not have been part of this gravy train at all. Notice the not so subtle attempts to divert attention from the Democrats. I also notice the 'dummy' CCTV camera scandal involving the BMA has gone all quiet, and of course we hardly hear about the mystical bomb detectors or the yet to be delivered Ukrainian APC's any more. How interesting that those who directly benefited from the coup's various seem to escape the scrutiny that democratically elected administrations find themselves under, and indeed should rightfully expect.Originally Posted by StrontiumDog
It is bad enough that the Bangkok press shows blatant and amateurish bias, but you could at least put up with that if it performed it's role of reporting the news. When it starts muddying the waters, and obfuscating matters revolving around a high level corruption enquiry, it's role goes beyond the passive to arguably an accomplice or henchman. They really do 'watch each others backs' in Amart circles, and it is this deep seated culture of corruption that Thailand needs to change. Why do our resident 'anti-Thaksin' brigade solely focus on Thaksin's corruption? I accept he was corrupt, but he was a parvenu, an interloper who basically muscled into long standing corruption scams carved up between various Amart elements. The most lucrative honeypots, of course, revolve around procurement contracts & government departments that do a lot of purchasing, such as the Interior Ministry and Defence. BJT was 'given' (rather, negotiated) the Interior Ministry as a reward for it's treachery- you read that routinely in the Thai media at the time. The tawdry results are no more a surprise than several questionable military procurements post coup. Henchmen expect their due rewards. This particular scandal appears to revolve around the distribution of corruption monies, and I somehow doubt it will purely be an internal BJT spat, given they were the junior member of a tacked together coalition that usurped political power.
We are talking about a deep seated culture of corruption, and that culture resides within Thailand's self styled aristocracy. Parvenu's are merely tolerated, but only if they 'know their place'. Thaksin, with his characteristic arrogance, did not. As I've long said, the most positive longer term developments from the 'Thaksin effect' are likely to be in spite of, not because of, the man.