RULES OF THE ROAD CASH CONUNDRUM

I read with interest the article in last week’s Spectrum about the plight of motorbike taxi drivers.

It seems that every street corner here in Pattaya has a congregation of drivers, all waiting for their next customer, in all types of weather. Most drivers I know have little education, and I often wonder where they would be if they ever got rid of the taxi stands.

But my sympathy wanes when friends tell me how much they have been charged to get around Pattaya. Thai customers often pay only 10% of what a foreigner is expected to pay.

My sympathy is almost non-existent when I hear stories of the same motorbike taxi drivers acting like the local mafia, refusing to let anyone park outside a convenience store or anywhere where they have decided to take up residence.

Most are hard-working but many are ruthless in their attitude to their customers and have the thought in their heads that they own the road.

Don’t get me started on the bus drivers and the taxis of Pattaya! EBRIL Re: “Cops hand over Supoj assets” ( BP, July 22).

Huge amounts of cash and gold accessories belonging to a former transport permanent secretary were handed over to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) by the police. These assets relate to a robbery at his house nearly six years ago.

The robbers, I recall, got hefty jail sentences, but what of Mr Supoj himself? Not a word has been stated about any effort to prosecute him despite a probe by the NACC which found he was unable to clarify how he had amassed such wealth. The simple question is: why was he not tried? Martin R