In an interview with The Nation, Thirapat, a political scientist and former university lecturer, said he was putting together the so-called conflict-of-interest bill for consideration by the government so that corrupt practices in the public sector can be dealt with more effectively.

Allegations of rampant corruption and conflicts of interests were cited by the military as one of the four reasons for staging the coup that toppled the Thaksin administration.

Thirapat said instances of conflict of interests were widespread in Thailand because politicians mixed up public and private interests, and this resulted in massive corruption.

At present, there are only a few articles in the National Counter Corruption Commission law that deal with conflicts of interest. Article 100, for instance, states that public office holders (including the prime minister and Cabinet members) and their spouses are barred from entering into contracts with state entities because there could be a conflict of interest.

The Assets Examination Commission is investigating if it was illegal under this article

for Khunying Pojaman Shinawatra, wife of former premier Thaksin, to have bought a multi-million-baht plot of land from the state a few years ago.

According to Thirapat, existing regulations are insufficient to prevent new conflicts of interest by politicians.

"Cases of politicians abusing their power have become more sophisticated and complicated so we need a new unified law to deal with them - to cover more areas of conflict of interest," he said.

"For instance, some former Cabinet members used advance knowledge on Cabinet resolutions to buy or manipulate stocks, or to buy large land plots when they knew in advance that new highways would be built.

"Besides the use of inside information for personal or private benefits, the new law should also cover post employment of public office holders. For instance, there should be a silent period of, say, one or two years before they can join the private sector," he said.

On democratic reform, he said he would propose to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont that a permanent independent body be set up to provide long-term political education to the public.

"I think democracy is a way of life. It's not just about going to vote and then having a government that may be corrupt. We need to have more democratic substance.

"If our education system is failing as far as political education is concerned, we need to reform it. In fact, we used to have this kind of political development back during the reigns of King Rama V and King Rama VII - when the first political development master plan was formulated.

"I hope the government can come up with a master plan in the next three to six months. Last but not least, is reform of the mass media, which is essential as far as democratic reform is concerned. Mass media outlets need to have more freedom as well as accountability. Free and fair information flow is key. Prior to the September 19 coup, I rarely watched any free TV channels because I felt the content was rather useless," he said.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

The Nation