Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s cabinet, which was initially warmly welcomed by the public, is now facing serious confidence issues after two ministers — Deputy Finance Minister Vorapak Tanyawong and Agriculture Minister Thamanat Prompow — were named in news reports about Cambodia’s scam syndicates and money laundering in Southeast Asia.
The allegations culminated in Mr Vorapak’s resignation from his post, though it is unlikely that his decision to step down will have a significant impact on the Anutin administration’s tarnished image.
While both men have denied the accusations and threatened to file defamation complaints against journalists and netizens who share the reports, the damage to the country’s reputation is done, and it will take more than defamation lawsuits to resolve the problem.
Government officials are public figures. Their faces, behaviour and reputation reflect directly on the administration. As such, it is no surprise that taxpayers expect the government to seriously look into the accusations and investigate the claims in the news reports, which include allegations of money transfers to officials.
But the government has done the opposite, dismissing the reports as “political games” meant to discredit the administration. In fact, when the allegations first came to light, Mr Vorapak was assigned to oversee the official crackdown on scam syndicates along the border.
Our politicians seem to have forgotten that scandals and reports which reflect negatively on the administration can and will erode public trust in the government.
We don’t have to look further than the case which have haunted Capt Thamanat for years — namely, his incarceration in an Australian prison years ago over charges of drug trafficking.
Needless to say, the latest accusations against him did not help with his image. But the country’s reputation has arguably suffered even more — the allegations have helped cement Thailand’s status as a transit point for scammers and their victims as they make their way to scam boiler rooms in Cambodia and Myanmar.
If the government wants to restore Thailand’s reputation, it has to ensure its crackdown on scam syndicates has an impact.
The Anutin administration can’t afford to take the passive stance adopted by past governments about the issue. The Chinese government sent intelligence about scammers in Myawaddy when Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha was in power, but the tip-off did not get a good response from Thai authorities. It wasn’t until Beijing sent high-ranking officials to Myanmar earlier this year to deal with the matter that the government woke up and began responding in a meaningful way.
The US government has confiscated cryptocurrency worth almost 500 billion baht from scam networks, while the UK government seized assets belonging to Chen Zhi, founder of the Cambodian business empire, Prince Group, who was accused of masterminding a forced-labour scam and money laundering. Prince Group is known to have invested in various real estate projects in Thailand. Many taxpayers are waiting for the National Anti-Corruption Commission and Anti-Money Laundering Office to look into its businesses that might be linked with scam syndicates along the border.
Right now, the government is focusing on freezing accounts linked to scam syndicates to help recover victims’ money. However, this likely won’t be enough to dismantle the growing network of scammers in the region.