“I Have a 3,000 Baht Gift for You” The Official Guide to Legal Bribery

Abstract

In the cultural landscape of Thailand, where token of appreciation is an integral part of amicable relations, gift-giving has transformed into a complex and veiled mechanism of corruption. This practice, serving as a symbol of respect and relationship-building, now fuels a patronage system that silently but severely erodes good governance and public trust. Amidst attempts to draw an ethical line with a law capping the value of gifts at 3,000 Baht, in practice, this regulation appears not as a deterrent but as a “manual” that legitimizes a new form of corruption.

            Aspiring to curb bribery in the form of gift-giving in Thai society, this research was born from a critical inquiry into this perplexing situation, aiming to diagnose the structural failure of the legal architecture and seek answers on how to dismantle the ecosystem of “legalized bribery” and truly establish a culture of transparency. This study is a qualitative research employing a mixed-method approach, comprising theoretical documentary analysis, in-depth interviews with targeted subjects, and a comparative legal analysis with five leading countries. The findings reveal a stark reality: a severe normative dissonance exists between the law and societal conscience.

            The critical conclusion of this research, therefore, firmly asserts that the ineffectiveness of the current law is a result of a “Paradigm Failure,” which attempts to manage a qualitative problem (intent and culture) with a quantitative measure (value).