Enough of ruinous road rage, foolish excuses

Acharanat “Nott” Ariyaritwikol appeared to have a bright future ahead of him in show business – until he let road rage bring out the worst in him.
GMM Grammy this week sacked the 28-year-old winner of a “role model” award after a video was posted online showing him repeatedly punching motorcyclist Kittisak Singtho for allegedly causing damage to his Mini Cooper and attempting to flee. An association of news hosts and journalists withdrew its “Exemplary Thai of the Year” award over the incident. Police have charged the actor with assault on the basis of the video and other eyewitness accounts. 
Kittisak told police he bumped into Acharanat’s car with his motorcycle when a taxi nudged him from behind. He denies he was attempting to flee. He claims to have set off in pursuit of the taxi, but immediately stopped when he heard Acharanat shouting. 
Confronted with the evidence and uproar in the social media, Acharanat made matters worse by publicly insisting he’d acted in self-defence. He said he felt menaced by the motorcyclist when he confronted him and feared he might be armed. The video suggests no such peril, and quite the opposite, in fact. “I was just protecting my dream,” Acharanat said, referring to the Bt1.8-million automobile he’d long yearned to own. “Please don’t judge me from just a 180-second clip.”
At the scene, both men agreed not to pursue the matter in court. Kittisak was perhaps being gracious in deciding he wouldn’t press charges, since Acharanat was a popular celebrity, and the actor agreed to pay Kittisak’s expenses for fixing a broken nose. Then Acharanat disappeared from public view, and Kittisak’s family got the police back on the case.
There is, to be sure, more compensation owed in this case than the cost of mending a facial fracture. What has also infuriated the public is Acharanat’s bullying insistence that the motorcyclist prostrate himself (“graab”) before the damaged car in a humiliating act of obeisance. The affair was thus dubbed “graabmycar” on the social networks, evoking the “airgraab” furore that resulted earlier this year after an airline crewmember felt obliged to kowtow to an irate passenger.
Just as worrying, Acharanat directed violence against a stranger in “defence” of a material possession. In his mind that Mini Cooper had become worth sacrificing his career, his 
integrity and his compassion for. 
The anger levelled in turn at Acharanat online suggests that Thais are unwilling to tolerate violent or criminal behaviour, particularly when the victim is an ordinary citizen such as Kittisak, a 25-year-old government clerk. 
Last January Pattarasak “DJ Keng” Tiemprasert lost his job and was sentenced to jail after being caught on video repeatedly backing his pickup truck into the occupied car behind him. What the celebrity called an “accident” looked more like attempted murder to some legal experts. Just as in the case of Acharanat, his refusal to admit the truth at the outset riled the public as much as his vengeful behaviour on the road. 
We live in a time where there are always cameras close by ready to capture our every move. There is always someone watching. But our behaviour in public or in private shouldn’t be dictated by a fear of what others might think. No one sets out to lose self-control, but if there is a tendency to do so, it has to be reined in, with professional assistance if necessary. And if the tendency seems to be more widespread in our society these days, it’s time that we as a society did some collective soul-searching.