The accusation that the country's most famous whistle-blower has been extorting money from a senior official at the Department of Rice has grabbed all the headlines this week and serves to highlight the vacuum of good governance at the Ministry of Agriculture.
The ministry has been rocked by accusations of corruption before. Last year, officials at the Livestock Department and former ministers were accused of complicity in the illicit import of pork. This month, the Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation was accused of irregularities in its bidding to purchase two plants for rainmaking.
Mr Srisuwan Janya and his two accused accomplices, Yoswaris "Jeng Dokchik" Chuklom --the chief of a political movement linked with the United Thai Nation (UTN) Party and former UTN MP candidate Phimnattha Chiraphutthiphak were arrested on Friday on suspicion of extorting money from Natthakit Khongthip, director-general of Rice Department. Three suspects reportedly asked him to pay 3 million baht -- a sum later dropped to 1.5 million baht -- not to publicise four suspected cases of corruption in rice development schemes aimed at upgrading the capacity of farmers and the market.
Mr Natthakit, who told police later that he had done nothing wrong, said he had already paid 150,000 baht last year but, this time, had determined to gather the evidence of the bribe attempt.
The arrest of Mr Srisuwan will come as a shock to those members of the public who have backed his "fight against corruption". While Mr Srisuwan must be treated as innocent until proven guilty, it remains to be seen whether the hitherto political activist can clear his name and climb back out of the gutter.
But it would be a loss if the public and media focused on sordid details such as voice clips in which the accused and the wife of the department's chief discuss how to pay money and the names of the media and politicians who know about it. The case shines a light on fundamental problems with the rice development budget. It can only be hoped that Agriculture Minister Capt Thamanat Prompow and policymakers will conduct a probe to make sure the department's rice development plan is spent in a transparent manner.
This case is just one small problem. The Department of Rice usually receives a small budget -- 2 billion baht a year for conducting all activities, such as holding activities and paying salaries. Despite the Prayut government substantially boosting the fiscal budget to 15 billion baht, a 700% increase, over 10 billion baht of the additional sum is going to finance subsidies.
By comparison, R&D remains underfunded, receiving just 100-200 million baht a year as usual. It cannot go without comment that the state rice agency of Vietnam received over one billion baht a year alone for developing rice seeds last year. Thailand's tiny research budget speaks volumes about why the Thai rice industry is lagging behind Vietnam's in terms of productivity.
The current scandal at the Rice Department is just the tip of the iceberg. The government must not stop at ending the corruption; it must also shift rice policy away from subsidies and instead embrace spending on R&D to boost competitiveness with our neighbours.