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the legal conditions. It also promotes information and
education activities that will be in a long run contribute
to build public consensus over the needed reform.
JAPANESE CIVIL SOCIETY IN COMBATTING
CORRUPTION
Pornthip Apisitwasana
Thailand, like other developing countries, is faced with
the problem of corruption, especially policy corruption.
Japan’s CPI score has been among the top five countries
and the Japanese people have changed from their
value of total trust to gradual doubt of bureaucrats
and corporations. Japan, therefore, is the best model
for studying anti-corruption activities by citizens. The
objective of this research was to gather methods utilized
by Japanese civil society to combat corruption. These
methods can be applied in Thailand, with adjustment
if necessary.
This research mainly gathered information from civil
society groups’ websites. These were then validated with
information from electronic newspapers, articles and
books. In case of differences, the outside information
prevailed.
The study found that Japanese citizens have attacked all
parties of the iron triangle and utilized the judiciary to
review and punish all parties concerned in corruption
schemes. The concept of qui tam, which means “Who
sues on behalf of the King, as well as for Himself”, was
explored.
DEVELOPMENT AND PROBLEMS OF THE
LOCAL MEDIA IN THE PHILIPPINES AND
INDONESIA
Kokaew Wongphan
This research began with the question—why does the
news that is concerned with the problems of local people
and society have so little place in the current media?
As a local reporter, I wanted to study the local media
in Indonesia and the Philippines in order to learn how
they are, how they influence the locality, and do they
participate in the development of the local communities?
The studies were done from 22 September 2004 to 10
September 2005, with five months in the Philippines
from 22 September 2004 to 10 March 2005 and six
months in Indonesia from 10 March to 10 September
2005.
The studies in both the Philippines and Indonesia
used the research tools of interviews with editors,
local reporters, alternative news producers, and nongovernmental
organization workers, as well as attending
various workshops and seminars of the local media as
an observer. aThe research fields in the Philippines were
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
Dagupan, Baguio, Davao, Tagaytay and Cebu and in
Indonesia, the research fields were Surabaya, Malang,
Yogyakarta, Bandung, and Medan.
Both the Philippines and Indonesia are archipelagos.
Indonesia is the biggest archipelago in the world,
consisting of 17,000 islands with a population of 230
million, most of whom are Moslem. The Philippines
consists of more than 7,000 islands with 3 major
groupings—the Visayas, Luzon, and Mindanao. The
population of the Philippines is 85 million, most of
whom are Catholic.