In the spirit of not simply passing judgement without the intent of fairness, it must be acknowledged that a serious effort seems to have been made in response to the civil service exam cheating scandal, one that allows for a level of optimism.

Just over a month ago, a bust by police and anti-corruption officials made loud the quietly known truth that there was an entire system in place to allow aspiring civil servants to cheat their way into the coveted jobs. At the time I outlined my view that the government should act with ferocity to remove those undeserving of their place in the public sector.

Not only do scandals like that of the exam cheaters occur with discouraging regularity here in Thailand, the sequence of events that follows each revelation is often maddeningly uniform.

If public outrage is strong enough, the nation can expect official promises, a committee or two being formed to “uncover the truth”, followed eventually by silence.

That tedious cycle is why this latest response deserves cautious recognition.

While the usual response is to minimise the problem and isolate responsibility to a handful of individuals, authorities this time around have shown a willingness to possibly pursue less convenient courses of action.

Unsit Sampuntharat, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Interior, said that 5,900 exam papers from the tainted round had been marked as suspect and over 3,600 of those who passed the tests face dismissal from their positions.

Eleven people, most of them civil servants, have been arrested in connection with the case, along with three said to have been the masterminds — but apparently not the biggest of the big fish — behind the operation.

These figures, while likely still far below the actual scope of the wrongdoing, are still welcome in a country where many major crimes do not result in any arrests or even tangible consequences.

Equally encouraging has been the Interior Ministry’s willingness to rethink the examinations themselves.

Just this week, a pledge was made by the office to overhaul the recruitment procedure for civil servants with the emphasis to be placed on transparency.

The goal of the revamp would be to eliminate a delay between when exams are taken and when their scores are announced publicly.

Any of these developments could still be chalked up to the usual song and dance performed by the government in the wake of a gaffe. Taken together, however, they do put up a degree of resistance to even this writer’s cynicism.

The administration of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has even announced a broader campaign against corruption — the structurally and culturally ingrained kind that facilitated the exam cheating.

If the plan to strengthen integrity across local administrations, improve transparency and make public officials more accountable is carried out with a similar gusto to this latest sweep, it would help to differentiate it from the public relations exercises of governments past.

Ultimately, as Thailand’s history contains no shortage of ambitious anti-corruption efforts that gradually lost momentum once attention faded, any applause for these most recent moves can only be measured.

To not give credit where credit is due would nonetheless feel counterproductive to the aim of seeing real change and progress in the country.