Former prime minister Chuan Leekpai has thrown down the gauntlet to Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul: Help prove that politicians can be wealthy and remain uncorrupt.
Chuan was speaking today during the parliamentary debate on the policy statement presented by the government of Prime Minister Anutin.
The statement commits the government, among other things, to “drastically and earnestly eliminating corruption and abuse of power.” However, it provides to specific directions on how it will be done.
Chuan, a key figure and a former leader of the Democrat Party, said vote-buying in elections is one of the root causes of corruption.
“When politicians win elections through vote-buying, it’s natural that they would resort to corruption to recoup their investment,” he said.
Chuan said once in office these politicians would appoint bureaucrats who are corrupt to help them regain the money invested. These bureaucrats in turn would appoint subordinates who are corrupt as well, he said.
He said that it has been proven that no matter how wealthy they are, politicians can still be corrupt.
He pointed out that the current prime minister and his two predecessors -- Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Srettha Thavisin have one distinctive feature. “They are all super rich,” he said.
Then he went on to challenge Prime Minister Anutin whose family runs a major engineering and construction firm.
“Help prove that politicians can be wealthy and remain uncorrupt,” he said.
