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Monday, 19 March 2001 The lawless elements ``There`s nothing under the sun that the Thai police cannot do.`` That was the standard line people were made to learn in the heyday of police strongman Pao Siyanond over three decades ago. Today`s policemen are not cut from the same sheet of iron, but they are not the darling of the public either, thanks to the corruption scandals that have rocked the police force in recent years. So it came as no surprise when the mass-circulation Thai Rath launched a campaign against corrupt policemen in its Sunday column early this month. Written by a senior reporter under the pseudonym of Plerng Morakot, the column draws on complaints from people in Bangkok and the provinces who suffer at the hands of corrupt policemen. In the March 11 column, a group of motorcycle taxi drivers in Bang Phli district of Samut Prakan, on the eastern outskirts of Bangkok, complained that they had to pay 50-100 baht (about $1.2-2.4) to patrol policemen each day. The alleged extortion took place even though the taxi drivers already paid 200 baht a month in protection fees, said the columnist. A similar tale was told by tricycle and taxi drivers in Nonthaburi, on the northern suburbs of Bangkok, who claimed they had to pay 100 baht to policemen whenever they stopped to pick up passengers in front of the municipal market. ``These policemen are acting like robbers,`` a taxi driver wrote in his letter of complaint. These experiences are hardly the stuff you want to read while enjoying your morning coffee, but they are a fact of life here in Thailand. And corruption will not go away as long as drugs and money are involved, as Plerng Morakot pointed out in his column yesterday. Expressing his concern about the proliferation of methamphetamine, the columnist urged Prime Minister Thaksin to weed out corrupt policemen who colluded with drug dealers. He claimed that a drug pusher was recently arrested in a crowded community in Bangkok but was set free after he agreed to part with his drug money. In a housing estate behind the district office in Nakhon Pathom, near the southwestern suburbs of Bangkok, speed pills were on sale openly, the columnist noted. ``Rumour has it that some policemen are distributing the drug,`` he added. While Thaksin has hit out at drug producers stationed across our northwestern border, it would be wise for him to look at problems closer at home as well, the columnist suggested. Ridding the police force of its bad apples would be a good start. As Plerng Morakot said in the last paragraph of his March 11 article, ``It`s ironic that these (corrupt) policemen, who are on a fixed salary and overtime pay, choose to take from poor people like taxi drivers who are living from hand to mouth.`` * Songpol Kaopatumtip is the Editor of Sunday Perspective Section of the Bangkok Post. Email: songpolk@bangkokpost.co.th |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Waste or make money in Thailand |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | BodyG (19.03.01 09:24:58) |
| Beitrag: | 561 von 611 (ID:3126967) |
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