Pareena Kraikupt, a former MP for the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), has finally bowed out of politics after the Supreme Court last week banned her from running for political office for life.
Even though a few may have shed tears at the news, many people hope her case will have a knock-on effect in deterring other politicians from shamelessly grabbing state land.
The public is right to be hopeful because the verdict sets an important legal precedent. As the court on April 7 clearly said, Ms Pareena "severely violated political ethics as an MP by possessing state land".
An investigation shows her family's 700-rai chicken farm in Ratchaburi was indeed public forest. She is also banned from voting in any election for the next 10 years.
Ms Pareena is not the first politician to have illegally grabbed state property; she is just the first to be banned from politics as a result.
Many Thai politicians have been accused of encroaching on state land and public forests -- even in strictly off-limits areas such as national parks.
Some wealthy politicians even occupy Sor Por Kor land and Por Tor Bor 5 plots, which the state has allocated for poor farmers to make a living.
Yet these politicians are still able to run for office because there was previously no legal pathway to ban them from doing so just for holding state land, or even granting state land to others irresponsibly.
Fortunately, the law now allows courts to ban them from holding public land.
A glaring example was the Sor Por Kor scandal in Phuket over three decades ago. Veteran politician Suthep Thaugsuban, then deputy agriculture minister overseeing land reform, was found to be granting Sor Por Kor plots to wealthy local politicians in Phuket.
The case forced then-prime minister Chuan Leekpai to dissolve the House. However, the politicians involved were still permitted to run for office.
Mr Suthep later went on to become deputy prime minister.
In the latest case, it seems Ms Pareena does not plan to go quietly. Shortly after hearing the verdict against her, she asked the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to speed up its investigation into accusations of state landholding by another 60 MPs and two senators.
"The probe is proceeding slowly as the NACC has already spent about a year on it and has still not finished," she wrote on Facebook.
"Usually, a probe takes no more than 180 days. The NACC should hurry along and take action without discrimination," she added.
The NACC has probed 13 MPs on similar land-grabbing cases since February last year. So far it has said little about the ongoing investigation.
Early this week, the NACC's secretary-general and spokesman Niwatchai Kasemmongkol admitted the agency was investigating land ownership in the declaration of assets and liabilities submitted by 50-60 MPs.
"However, this doesn't mean all these cases will be the same as Ms Pareena's. They must be considered on a case-by-case basis," he said.
Ms Pareena may often get it wrong, but she is absolutely right on this point. The authorities must apply the same standards used against her to all politicians.
