The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has disappointed the public once again this week with its lame excuse for not completing a long-overdue probe into the high-profile watch scandal involving Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon.
The scandal broke last year, exactly 11 months ago, when Gen Prawit, who is also a key figure in the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and minister of defence, was spotted with a luxury watch on his wrist while taking part in a group photo session with new cabinet ministers at Government House. The watch, a platinum Richard Mille RM 029 with a price tag of 2.5 million baht, as well as his flashy diamond ring, caused a stir because the general had failed to include them in his assets declaration as required by the law.
Public suspicion escalated as some netizens, through an exercise in social media crowdsourcing, discovered documented proof of more than 20 different luxury watches, of various brands ranging from Rolex (at least seven items), to four Patek Philippes, on Gen Prawit’s wrist over the past years. The total value of the luxury collection, none on the declaration list, is almost 40 million baht, an enormous amount of money for someone who has spent his whole working life in the state service. Suspicions were therefore aroused as to where this undocumented wealth had come from.
After a long silence during the scandal, Gen Prawit finally claimed, unconvincingly, that he did not own the watches but had “borrowed” them from a friend who had since died. The general never mentioned the name of the friend or any other details, saying only that the watches “had been returned”. Needless to say, no one was happy with this explanation.
On Friday, in an attempt to show that progress has been made in the controversial probe, NACC secretary-general Worawit Sookboon told the media that the agency had finally received the long-awaited documents regarding ownership of the mysterious timepieces from the respective foreign watch companies.
Mr Worawit said the agency would scrutinise the documents, but failed to provide a timeframe beyond saying that a conclusion is expected to be reached in the not too distant future.
In fact, the anti-graft agency’s insistence on seeking such documents from abroad, rather than acquiring proof of ownership from the family of whom Gen Prawit said was his dead friend not only baffled members of the public but also intensified their suspicions. Many said questioning the family involved, if it exists, would be quicker and more practical for the probe; especially as the NACC has complained about a lack of cooperation from local dealers and the time-consuming nature of contacting foreign companies.
In fact, the NACC has been accused of foot-dragging in this saga from the very beginning. It has not hesitated to show sympathy to the troubled deputy prime minister, who likes to repeat his conspiracy theory that ill-intentioned people want to get rid of him to weaken the regime and his brother in arms Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
This reluctance to move the probe along on the part of the anti-graft body has simply fuelled public anger. It took the agency several months to even accept the case for investigation, before acquiescing to extended deadlines for Gen Prawit to submit documents to support his claim. That prompted some critics to write off the agency as nothing but a lapdog of the regime.
Since the saga emerged, it took an almost unerring amount of time for the embattled Gen Prawit to break his silence. And when we did, his “I borrowed them from a friend” claim hardly convinced anyone except the graftbusters who were unsurprisingly quick in their willingness to drop the case.
Mr Worawit raised eyebrows when he said that if the timepieces were really loaned, the deputy prime minister was not required to have declared them. Such statements drew boos from legal experts who said it would set a bad precedent for political office-holders as it could be used as a tactic to hide undeclared wealth.
Public anger has forced the graftbusters to carry on with their probe, which they continue to do with all due sluggishness.
Needless to say, the luxury watch saga has reduced public trust in the deputy prime minister as well as the graftbusters, to zero. It has also affected the regime’s credibility as it tried to defend one of its own. At one time, prime minister Prayut even asked the media not to be too hard to the troubled general.
However, now that all the documents are in, there can be no further excuses to keep postponing the task further. The NACC must do its best to meet public expectation, and rekindle its trust, by showing integrity and independence.
All of these shenanigans have raised one major question: If our graftbusters can’t handle the watch saga in a straightforward manner, how can the public trust them with even more complicated cases in the future?