Despite the military government’s post-coup crusade to stamp out corruption, Thailand saw no improvement in a global anti-graft survey released Wednesday by a watchdog group.
In its Corruption Perceptions Index 2015, Transparency International said Thailand placed 76th among 168 countries, tied with such nations as Burkina Faso, Tunisia and Zambia. While the country's relative ranking improved from 85th place last year, its score of 38 remained the same, marking no improvement by the government or private sector in curbing graft.
However, those 38 points were good enough for third place in Southeast Asia, behind Singapore, at 8th overall, and Malaysia (54th).
Inertia was a hallmark of most Asean countries this year when it came to battling corruption. Vietnam (112) moved up seven places, but scored the same number of points (31) as last year, Laos (139) and Cambodia (150) moved up six places in the relative rankings, but scored the same. Myanmar improved to 22 points from 21, good for 147th place. Malaysia gained two points but slid four places to 54th while Indonesia lost two points, yet moved up to 88th from 107. The Philippines at 95th gained lost points and fell from 88th place in the world rankings.
"So why this picture of zero progress?" Transparency asked in its report. "Despite boastful efforts on petty corruption, Malaysia's 1MBD scandal brought the crux of the challenge into sharp focus: is political leadership genuinely committed to fighting corruption throughout society? The Malaysian prime minister's inability to answer questions on the US$700 million that made its way into his personal bank account is only the tip of the iceberg."
Hours before Wednesday morning's release of TI's latest index, Malaysia's top prosecutor cleared Prime Minister Najib of corruption, putting a spotlight on graft strangling the country's public sector. The attorney-general on Tuesday said some $681 million that Mr Najib received in his bank account were a personal donation from the Saudi royal family.
Elsewhere in Asean, TI added that it believes Cambodia is "exacerbating corruption by clamping down on civil society". Thailand's May 2014 military coup and the ensuing, much-ballyhooed campaign against corruption was not acknowledged.
"Reversing corruption is clearly not solely down to governments, but they're the ones with the largest role and the power to create enabling environments for others," the organization wrote of Asia-Pacific's graft woes in the report.
"This year's poor results demand that leaders revisit the genuineness of their efforts and propel the region beyond stagnation. They must fulfil promises, and ensure efforts aren't undermined in practice."
Overall, two-thirds of the countries measured by TI scored below the 50-point mark out of a top score of 100.
Nordic countries -- Denmark, Finland and Sweden -- topped the chart with their clean public sectors as in previous years, while strife-torn or repressive states -- Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia -- brought up the rear.
Emerging giants, in particular, showed a worrisome picture in the index used widely used as a gauge of the level of corruption by governments, legal systems, political parties and bureaucracies.
Dots representing the relative level of corruption in Asia-Pacific countries. Thailand (second row, fifth from left) is third-best in the Asean region. (Transparency International graphic)
"All the Brics are challenged, the countries that are the really up and coming in the world economy, they all score below 50 in our index," Robin Hodess, TI group director for research, told AFP, referring to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The benchmark Transparency International CPI is based on expert opinions of public sector corruption, looking at a range of factors like whether governmental leaders are held to account or go unpunished for corruption, the perceived prevalence of bribery, and whether public institutions respond to citizens' needs.
The US rose one spot this year to 16th place with a score of 76, tying with Austria. The UK rose three spots to place 10th, with a score of 81 that tied it with Germany and Luxembourg. The other top spots, from second to ninth, were occupied by Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore and Canada.
''The 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index clearly shows that corruption remains a blight around the world,'' said Transparency head Jose Ugaz. ''But 2015 was also a year when people again took to the streets to protest corruption -- people across the globe sent a strong signal to those in power: it is time to tackle grand corruption.''
