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But just when you think that this would lead to serious action to terminate corrupt practices and lead the Kingdom towards an unblemished reputation, think again. We have learnt from the past that Thais do not take corruption seriously.

The first case that erupted overseas and received immense interest back home concerned the purchase of CTX bomb scanners from US-based InVision (later merged into the General Electric Group). Implicated was a politician, presumably then transport minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit, who was later grilled in a no-confidence debate. Yet, despite doubts, he made a narrow escape. No politician was punished, despite the existence of a US Department of Justice document that confirmed the bribery payment to a Thai politician.

Recently, we learnt of a similar allegation, following a FBI investigation, against a former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The investigation produced copies of a number of payments from a US businessman to the governor in return for contracts from TAT. The payments were made to the overseas bank accounts of the governor's daughter.

TAT established a committee to investigate this scandal, which had badly tarnished the agency's reputation. But months later, there has been no conclusion about which governor was the person appearing in the FBI report. And as we all know, we can't still name the culprit for the corruption case.

This week, another corruption allegation emerged, this time in Tokyo, not the US. It concerned the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration at the time when current Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was its governor. As the bad news broke out at a time when the government is suffering from multiple attacks, anti-government supporters are hopeful that this will finally bring down the government.

Don't be so sure. So far, only the BMA itself has taken action. But primarily the investigation, ordered by the Democrat governor, is about the details of the water tunnel project and the bid winner alleged to have paid bribes to officials.

Based on the experience of the first two cases, it is easy to assume that no culprit will be found.

Hmm, it's even unclear how long the press will pay attention to this investigation - days or weeks or months. Eventually the latest scandal will evaporate and Thailand will remain on the list of countries where bribery is rampant. This only boosts the cost of doing business for private companies and deprives the public of the full benefits of their tax money.

Old news, indeed.