A new ad from Thailand takes a hard stand against corruption. So hard, in fact, that some are saying it’s like bad propaganda from Nazi-era Germany.
The ad portrays an agonizing mother feeling the pains suffered by her young son after he’s ostracized by schoolmates because his mother is corrupt, the Bangkok Post said.
The punch line: “Don’t leave any space for corrupt people to stand in Thai society.”
Some have commented on Youtube that the ad rightly shows the stain of corruption on innocent kids.
Others say the ad is more like violence — “the form of a witch hunt and vigilantism” — and is further polarizing Thai society.
The country has been paralyzed by three months of anti-government protests, centered mainly in Bangkok.
Protesters, mainly from the urban middle and upper class, are demanding that Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra quit. The demonstrators want an interim government that will fight corruption through reforms.
The ad is the fourth in a series produced by the Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand, a group of 47 organizations from the public and private sectors.
“Nobody tolerates corruption in whatever manner,” another commenter said about the ad. “But corrupt people are still human. In punishing them, we need to take this fact into consideration or we could end up being corrupt ourselves by robbing them of human dignity the way the Nazis or Khmer Rouge used corruption charges to destroy their political enemies.”
Here’s the ad:
1 Comment
Leaders in the anti-corruption movement have an opportunity here to distinguish themselves by addressing the institutional and organizational processes that might allow for corruption or mis-management of assets. Not that individuals shouldn't be held accountable, but that the time and effort spent could yield longer lasting results if the systems and procedures were addressed first. Nelson Mandela organized reforms that would be very difficult to reverse and he he did it without polarizing the country beyond what it already was when he became president. And Guiliani did it in New York. Its definitely do-able!
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