On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon chaired a signing ceremony between the armed forces and agencies under the Ministry of Defence and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) pledging to perform their duties with transparency and make the military free from corruption.
The Defence Ministry units, including the Royal Aide de Camp Department, were the latest batch to join more than 100 government agencies that have signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the NACC will 65 others, including police agencies, are expected to join later this year.
After the signing, NACC president Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit, a former police general, commended Gen Prawit for cooperating with the NACC, saying the ministry has expressed its strong will to combat graft by joining the MoU.
Such an initiative by Gen Prawit to make the ministry transparent in its procurement should be lauded, and expanded to other aspects of duties by the armed forces -- from regulating motorcycle taxis and minibuses on Bangkok's roads to restoring peace in the southernmost provinces -- as taxpayers' money should be put to good use.
Nopporn Wong-Anan is deputy editor, Bangkok Post.
The general public should be encouraged to monitor the work of these defence agencies, and other government offices, ensuring that the rule of law is observed in their work as well as to help weed out staff who are corrupt and abuse their power from the forces.
Questions from critics and whistle blowers must be tended to, addressed and taken up for consideration, investigation and action. Watchdogs or monitoring groups should not fear reprisals or persecution.
But that's just my wishful thinking, which won't materialise anytime soon.
Last month, the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4 sought power of attorney from the Royal Thai Army and submitted a complaint to Yala's Muang police station on May 17 about a report by human rights defenders on torture in the far South.
The torture report, released in February, clearly detailed 54 credible cases of alleged army mistreatment of detainees in the South. Instead of probing those suspected cases, the powerful agency sought to accuse the three human rights defenders and authors -- Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, Anchana Heemmina, and Somchai Homlaor -- of criminal defamation and computer-related violations.
The charges are for alleged criminal defamation under Section 328 of the Thai Criminal Code, and violation of the Computer Crimes Act (2007), Section 14(1)2.
Isoc Region 4 spokesman Pramote Prom-in told the Bangkok Post that the lawsuit was meant to protect its image and integrity as these activists had "ill intentions" toward the Thai military and were spreading negative information. "NGO workers are not privileged people who are above the law," Col Pramote declared. But in the eyes of international human rights groups, the lawsuit is meant to intimidate the whistle-blowers.
"The Thai military is targeting human rights activists for reporting grave abuses and standing up for victims," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement last week.
"The government should order these criminal complaints withdrawn and do what it should have done in the first place: seriously investigate the report's allegations of torture," he said.
A group of 66 local and international NGOs issued a petition on Monday calling on the Isoc to drop the charges.
"By quashing Ms Pornpen, Ms Anchana and Mr Somchai's efforts to support torture victims to publicly complain about human rights violations by authorities, the Royal Thai Army is seeking to make it more than impossible for torture victims to voice their complaints."
More importantly, the latest move of the regime to obstruct a campaign by the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship to set up centres to monitor fraud in the Aug 7 referendum will merely create suspicion, if the UDD is truly serious about tackling graft.
Core red-shirt leaders launch an anti-fraud centre at the Imperial Department Store on June 5. The centres have been banned by the regime. (Photo by Thanarak Khunton)
Of course, the regime may find it difficult to trust the red shirts, and suspect they merely want to reap political gains. But at least it has all the laws and tools to deal with the group, and ensure things do not get out of hand.
By shooting the messenger and slapping the activists with lawsuits, the military is not being open and transparent on how it has dealt with suspects involved in the decade-long insurgency in the far South.
As author Bruce W Sanford puts it in his book, Don't Shoot the Messenger: How Our Growing Hatred of the Media Threatens Free Speech for All of Us, "Shooting the messenger" may be a time-honoured emotional response to unwanted news, but it is not a very effective method of remaining well-informed."
Therefore, the army should investigate the case, not intimidate the bearers of bad tidings. Such legal action against their legitimate work is against the public interest.