Politicians will not cooperate in efforts to fight corruption because they are concerned only about their own interests, Phakdee Photisiri, a member of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), said yesterday.
Mr Phakdee was speaking at an NACC training programme held yesterday on high-level management of corruption prevention.
"The common bad habit of politicians in many countries is they care more about their own interests than that of their nations. So, it's unlikely that we can seek cooperation from politicians to counter corruption," he said.
He also called on pro-government groups to stop threatening the NACC over its investigations into caretaker government figures.
The NACC is a member of Transparency International, an international organisation fighting against corruption globally, he said.
Through experiences shared among the 120 member countries, the NACC had learned that anti-graft agencies elsewhere also faced threats whenever they carried out an investigation against important politicians, Mr Phakdee said.
Transparency International has posted on its website information about the threats the Thai NACC has faced as a result of its probe into caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for her role in the rice-pledging scheme that has been tainted with graft allegations.
Transparency International's statement said the NACC is coming under increasing pressure in a tense political situation because it has named Ms Yingluck in its rice scheme investigation.
There are allegations that the scheme, which is headed by the prime minister, is involved in a scam that has cost Thai taxpayers US$15 billion over the past two years, the statement said.
The NACC has had to protect its staff from grenade attacks and issued a statement explaining it is acting as a neutral entity while government supporters are claiming it is biased and have barricaded its offices.
Now that Transparency International has published its statement about the situation facing the NACC, the rest of the world should know about it, Mr Phakdee said.
Normally, such an international organisation did not attempt to intervene in the internal affairs of any country unless the situation was really serious or unacceptable, Mr Phakdee said.
"The investigation into the rice-pledging case in Thailand is now being closely watched by the rest of the world because this case involves a well-known figure in the [caretaker] government," Mr Phakdee said.
Privy Councillor Kasem Watthanachai, told the NACC training programme in his lecture that Thai society tended to accept the rich more than "good people".
"This has led to a tendency to protect wrongdoers and materialism," he said.