Resentment boils at each delay in justice

Justified public outrage has greeted the latest delays in the legal prosecution of a wealthy young man from a prominent business family who ran over and killed a policeman with his luxury car in 2012.
Almost five years have passed since the tragedy and yet 31-year-old Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya – grandson of the late Red Bull founder Chaleo Yoovidhya – is still walking free. Some of the charges laid against him have since expired due to statutes of limitation. The authorities have said they’ve failed thus far to bring him to justice because he claimed to be “too busy” or at other times “too ill” to report and acknowledge the charges. As was revealed in recent days, however, he’s been travelling constantly all this time, enjoying leisure trips and a lavish lifestyle overseas.
The public prosecutors last week postponed until April 27 a decision on whether to indict Vorayuth after his lawyer insisted he was somehow “preoccupied” in England. So now we have another public furore and familiar challenging questions for the authorities. Would Vorayuth be shown such leniency if he were an ordinary citizen without a fortune in the bank and a famous name? Would defendants under common circumstances be allowed to ignore summonses again and again and never be indicted? The call has gone out, just as familiar, for the authorities to consider the plight of the slain policeman’s family, who are far from rich. Vorayuth reportedly gave them a large sum of money by way of compensation, but that doesn’t see justice done. The police and prosecutors must remember the fundamental maxim “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
The case is of course widely seen as further proof that, in Thailand, rich people can and regularly do get away with serious violations of the law. To see justice so blatantly denied over and over for five years causes enormous frustration and dissatisfaction among the public. The resulting anger over the obvious social inequality can worsen divisions among different groups of citizens.
It’s easy enough to cite cases of wealthy and well-connected people buying their way out of legal problems while ordinary citizens often become scapegoats and are jailed for wrongdoings they did not commit. Then there are the cases in which charges against rich people do reach the courtroom, only for the defendants to flee the country rather than face imprisonment, although certainly they do not mind paying huge fines for minor offences.
Several prominent wealthy politicians have fled abroad to avoid punishment stemming from charges of corruption or abuse of power. We cannot forget a particularly galling case in which a major politician in exile claimed the court verdicts against him were politically motivated, then successfully sued his critics from overseas – which magically restored his faith in the Thai justice system.
Lax law enforcement is already a serious problem in our country. And many people feel law enforcement unfairly favours people who have the wherewithal to buy their way out of trouble. As long as such a predicament is allowed to continue, public dissatisfaction will keep simmering towards  boiling point and mistrust of the authorities will fester. 
We cannot afford to witness more and more cases proving the cynics right. The authorities have to address this problem before it gets dangerously out of hand. Supporters of political groups and politicians have often cited unfair treatment when they took to the streets to protest against the government. That same unfair treatment is routinely cited as a major reason for the political conflict that has continued for a decade.
We must not allow these feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction to spread throughout society and widen the perilous division further.