Making war on corruption

He’s spent his entire career battling corruption in high places but now, 36 years after joining Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Klanarong Chanthick is stepping down from his job though he admits old habits die hard and he’ll be back investigating very soon.

A symbol of the NACC for more than a decade, Klanarong shot to fame in 2001 when he successfully prosecuted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the Constitutional Court for concealing his assets.

He doesn’t however like the anti-Thaksin label that has stuck to him ever since.

“I had and have no bias towards or against the ex-premier,” he says, pointing out that he also did not have the authority to decide whether Thaksin was guilty or not.

“I was not a commissioner at that time but was representing the plaintiff, which happened to be the NACC. My role was to present the evidence that Thaksin had deliberately concealed part of his assets.

“I was both lawyer and witness, which is why the public perceived me as Thaksin’s enemy. But I have never hated him and I always work without prejudice,” Klanarong says.

A lawyer by training, Klanarong started his career at the anti-graft body as a legal officer. He made his way up the ranks, becoming director and eventually secretary general before retiring in 2003 at the age of 60. The idle life didn’t last: After the 2006 coup, he returned to work as a commissioner in the NACC and was appointed spokesman, a position he holds today. 

“But this time I am retiring, on September 18, which is my 70th birthday,” he says with a smile.

In the meantime, he’s focusing on closing the cases under his responsibility, among them the rice pledging scandal.

“I don’t care how influential the people I am investigating are. I just play my role. I’m proud of all cases that I work on,” Klanarong says, adding that no matter how hard the NACC works, the Commission can never satisfy all sides.

“I used to ask red shirts supporters why they always picked on me to berate. They said I was the only commissioner they knew. That’s when I understood I had become a symbol of NACC,” he says.

A symbol perhaps but Klanarong claims that he can walk without fearing for his life around such red shirt-dominated hot spots as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Udon Thani.

“When I meet them, they just greet me; they don’t threaten me. I still enjoy travelling and shopping in those areas,” he says.

While Klanarong has no regrets about winning or losing his cases, he says he was sad when the NACC was asked to investigate Maj Sanan Kachornprasart, the late former Democrat secretary general, for a false declaration of assets. Sanan was found guilty and the Constitutional Court later banned him from politics for five years.

“I’d had a good relationship with Sanan for many years and respected him like a brother. So yes, there was conflict but I’ve always been able to separate my personal feelings from my work.

His proudest win  came with his first case: encroachment of land at San Suk Beach in Phuket.

“In 1978, I was a junior officer and had to work really hard to dig up the truth. We had little evidence: just old pictures of the beach and some documents. I had to find witnesses. The case took 10 years and went through three courts. But we finally won,” he says.

Though he has never been directly threatened, Klanarong remembers feeling nervous when his kids, then of kindergarten age, were followed by a mystery car as they returned home from school. “Luckily, nothing happened,” he says.

“That took place 30 years ago and I don’t believe I’ve been intimated since. Today, both the government and the opposition expect the independent agencies to help them when they submit a petition to them. I think the best way to carry out that task is to assume your responsibilities.

Asked if where media could find him after retirement, he laughs. “In heaven, maybe, though I could be  a legal consultant, a law teacher or a lawyer.”

He may also remain as the symbol of the anti-graft body by continuing as a commissioner for an NACC sub committee.

“But as I have hardly even taken a proper break throughout my career and while I am counting down the days to the end of my tenure, I won’t stop working as an investigator,” he says.