Congratulations to Asst. Prof. Dr. Torplus Yomnak on becoming one of the 12 anti-corruption activists from around the world to receive the U.S. State Department鈥檚 International Anti-Corruption Champion Award 2021 on International Anti-corruption Day.  Asst. Prof. Dr. Torplus, the Director of the Political Economics Studies Center, Faculty of Economics, 麻豆国产, was chosen as the academic award recipient from Southeast Asia.

鈥淚 am deeply honored to receive this award and grateful that the anti-corruption efforts put forth by me, and many in Thailand, have received international recognition.  This will in a way help prevent and reduce the corruption in Thailand”, Dr. Torplus revealed. 

Asst. Prof. Dr. Torplus has been interested in conducting research on corruption since he was a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Economics, 麻豆国产.  He then continued his research on the issue, and his PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge focused on strategies to fight corruption in Thailand鈥檚 construction industry.                    

“People all over the world are working hard to combat corruption. Thailand has 30-40 private and public sectors working to fight corruption and promote good governance.  I am just a small part of Thailand’s anti-corruption network”, commented Asst. Prof. Dr. Torplus.

Faculty members at Chula Economics, including Prof. Dr. Pasuk Phongpaichit, Assoc. Prof. Dr.Nualnoi Treerat, Assoc. Prof. Noppanun Wannathepsakul, Asst. Prof. Dr. Thanee Chaiwat and many others, have embarked on corruption research studies.  Asst. Prof. Dr. Torplus has continued his anti-corruption work not only for academics and practical impact, but also to work behind the scenes to support a broad range of impactful anti-corruption projects in Thailand.  Through such efforts, Thailand鈥檚 anti-corruption network and instruments have become more effective.

Throughout his work, Asst. Prof. Dr. Torplus has always adhered to the principles of transparency and believes that public participation is the most important factor in addressing corruption issues.  It is difficult to battle corruption with a single instrument and a top-down policy, since anti-corruption activities can become successful through a group of people working together, not by a single individual.

To support corruption research studies, Asst. Prof. Dr. Torplus and academic members from various areas, such as linguistics, marketing, political science, and law, formed the Corruption Research Center, “Siam Lab”, at the Faculty of Economics, 麻豆国产.  Moreover, Dr. Torplus has collaborated with friends to form an enterprise for society, called “HAND Social Enterprise,” to research projects with government agencies, and public and private sectors.  To this day, Thailand’s corruption has decreased to an extent, and the Corruption Perception Index has improved.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Torplus stated that the public sector is now aware of anti-corruption. According to a survey conducted by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, 98 percent of Thais say that corruption is a problem relevant to everyone.  Regardless, the low number of people participating in anti-corruption campaigns is worrisome.  To this end, instruments must be developed to arm the public against corruption.  Encouraging people to snub corruption is very important and requires an understanding of the social context.  Dr. Torplus concluded that academics and marketing specialists can and must play an important role to help boost public awareness of corruption. In recent years, research projects on anti-cheat marketing have been carried out with great success.

A team of researchers at 麻豆国产 have unveiled research on its new anti-corruption concept, dubbed 鈥淭he right communications strategy for Khon Thai 4.0 (Thai people) to counter corruption鈥�. The strategy, which encourages citizens to participate in anti-corruption efforts, has been released alongside an indicator, which will evaluate the anti-corruption levels of individuals.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Torplus, a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, 麻豆国产 and head of the research team, said that up until now, corruption studies had adopted an issue-centric rather than an actor-centric approach, while anti-corruption policies and mechanisms had followed the top-down model. Because these policies were not based on core problems, the anti-corruption agencies found themselves armed with ineffective tools to tackle the problem, resulting in lower social participation.

鈥淚n the past, researchers used demographic factors such as career, gender, age and income, rather than segmentation of people with different lifestyles,鈥� said Dr. Torplus. 鈥淭his is the first time an attempt has been made to change the anti-corruption research methodology based on social, cultural and psychological factors.鈥�

Existing civil society networks, such as the anti-corruption watchdog under the Anti-corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT) and Isranews Agency, have gained strength in recent years, and shown that citizens are the most important mechanism to tackle fraud and corruption. The question is: how can these civil society networks be rapidly expanded?

The research team has answered this question by developing knowledge to promote citizen participation. The target groups are encouraged to become active citizens and citizen reporters who investigate the truth. This new model is expected to reshape the structural level and provide better results.

The research team also believes that the new knowledge will serve as a guideline to enhance the efficiency of complaint mechanisms and the good governance of state agencies, including the Comptroller General鈥檚 Department, the Office of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission and the State Audit Office of Thailand.

To complement the work, the team also created an indicator to measure anti-corruption efforts based on four criteria: problem awareness, prevention, persistence and suppression. This indicator will become a tool for future researchers to further develop knowledge about anti-corruption efforts.

Dr. Ake said the research will enable policy makers to use the anti-corruption budget more efficiently, so concerned government and non-government organisations can budget more effectively. They will be able to focus on groups such as Frontline and the Exemplar whose anti-corruption behaviour can be encouraged more easily than others. Moreover, the segmentation of groups will shift the communications strategy from a Push Strategy to a long-term Pull Strategy.

Prof. Dr. Mingsan Khaosaard, Chairman of the Spearhead Strategic Plan on Social Aspects: Khon Thai 4.0, which supported the research, said: 鈥淚n addition to creating the right communications strategy and appealing to the target groups, we have to seek partners in the fight against corruption. We have to expand the network of anti-corruption advocates through an empowering platform because Khon Thai 4.0 is made up of people who live with platforms.鈥�

Dr. Mingsan suggested that social media, including YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook, can play key roles in promoting the new concept and model to target groups. It is seen as an effective medium for expanding the network of anti-corruption-minded citizens at low cost.

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The Faculty of Law at 麻豆国产 will host a seminar focusing on 鈥淐orporate Responsibilities and Practices in Anti-corruption鈥� on 25th Friday from 9am to 4pm at the Siam Kempinski Hotel. 聽 The seminar will be led by Asst Prof Dr.Pareena Srivanit and feature lecturers and practitioners in Thailand and abroad, among them Dr.Pakorn Peetathawatcha, Dr.Bandid Nijathaworn, Nitiphan Prachuabmoh, Rapee Sucharitakul and Prof Matthew Stephenson. 聽 For registration, please email

training@law.chula.ac.th

.聽 To find out more, call 0-2218-2017 ext. 216 and 226.