It has been more than five months since the luxury wristwatch scandal broke. Yet the anti-graft agency still cannot decide if Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon is unusually wealthy and concealed his assets as suspected or whether he is innocent as he has claimed.
The latest delay to the probe revealed this week will come as no surprise to the public but disgraces both Gen Prawit and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which has six of its nine commissioners appointed by the current regime. This unnecessary and unconvincing delay has deepened the public's mistrust in the agency's integrity and independence, and in Gen Prawit's claim.
If there is a no-confidence motion brought against them in parliament under a democratic regime, they are unlikely to survive the vote. None of them has shown a willingness to handle the case in a straightforward manner.
