OPINION

Impartiality needed

Nobody can be trusted to impartially investigate their own possible wrongdoing

James Madison noted, "No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause because his interest would certainly bias his judgement and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity." Thus, an impartial organisation -- not the Royal Thai Police -- should investigate the RTP's handling of teacher Jomsap Saenmuangkhot's case: Was the RTP's investigation faulty, leading to her being wrongly jailed for 18 months in a hit-and-run case?

It appears, for example, that witnesses told police that the guilty driver was male, but the teacher is female; witnesses reported the hit-and-run car's licence plate number, but couldn't see the issuing province -- and both the teacher's car and that of a male from another province carry the same number; and the male driver, tracked down by the teacher's friends, insists that he, not the teacher, was guilty.

While the case is being impartially investigated, the RTP should cease threatening teacher Jomsap by saying that if the RTP has correctly identified the guilty party, it would take the teacher to court for claiming otherwise.

Let justice not only be done, but be seen to be done.

Has Lobzig ("Time to cut off TrueVisions", PostBag, Jan 15) tried to cancel his True subscription? At the beginning of January I went to our local office to do just that. I was put on the phone with someone who spoke very poor English. After half an hour it transpired that nothing could be done until my subscription comes up for renewal in many months' time. Then the monies owed to me will be subtracted from my fee next year. I find this unacceptable. Hence, True saying only 1% of people are cancelling.

Then I received two letters from True. I thought they were from the customers relations department explaining their new policy. No! It was a black credit-like card for money off. Are they keeping my money to pay for this new scheme?

Is this customer relations?

How do I get in contact with the protest group as I do not have Facebook?

The King's Guard 2nd Army base in Prachin Buri has been allocated a substantial budget to remove the old barbed wire perimeter fence which is being replaced with a cement block wall.

All is fine. But the very same army that is in the vanguard to protect public lands and public national parks from private encroachment, is letting the contractors chop down many beautiful, very old trees that have been around for ages. There is absolutely no reason why this concrete wall cannot be moved either a metre forward, or a metre backward to accommodate the trees.

It is pure laziness on the part of the builder, and gross negligence and total disinterest on the part of the army base commander to permit this disgusting, hypocritical action to take place.

Shame, shame, shame.

Perhaps he should be replaced instead of the perimeter fence.

In the interests of road safety, real estate agents and the like should desist from promoting their Pattaya and Hua Hin developments as two hours, and one and half hours' driving distance, respectively, from Bangkok. In my experience, it takes at least 30 minutes to leave the Pattaya metropolitan area and join the highway to Bangkok.

Another hour to Bangkok is only possible at sustained high-speed driving that exceeds the speed limit, regardless of prevailing road conditions.

Kyrgyzstan was observing a day of mourning for the 37 victims killed by a cargo plane crash into a village outside the capital on Monday (BP, Jan 18).

Perhaps Thailand should consider a day of mourning each time the number of road deaths reaches 37. Sadly, this would mean every day would become a day of mourning.