Chen Shui-Bian, Alberto Fujimori and Thugsin Shitnawatra

The other day I read an article in the Taiwan Press that ex-President Chen Shui-Bian is facing the prospect of being convicted for abuse of power and corruption during his eight years as president of the Republic of China, which will likely carry a sentence of life-imprisonment.  His wife and children have also been implicated for their own misconducts and corrupt acts while using Chen's position in the Presidential Office to protect themselves from prosecution.  In effect, the whole Chen family will be punished and sent to jail for corruption.  Actually, some of them are already in jail serving their sentences.  Here we are talking about maybe the equivalent of $30 to $50 million dollars in personal gains and benefits from their corrupt acts.

Today I read in a news article in Yahoo! News that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday for death squad killings and kidnappings during his 1990s struggle against Shining Path insurgents.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090408/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_peru_fujimori_trial

The court convicted the 70-year-old former leader, who was widely credited for rescuing Peru from the brink of economic and political collapse, of "crimes against humanity" including two operations by the military hit squad that claimed 25 lives. None of the victims, the three-judge court found, were connected to any insurgency.  Fujimori was also known to have benefitted handsomely through widespread corruption throughout his years in power.

Human rights activists heralded the case as the first in which a democratically elected former president was extradited and tried in his home country for rights violations.

In the above two examples we see that crime does not pay, even if the crooks were big shots and powerful government or ex-government officials.  We see that justice triumphs over evil eventually.  My question is -- when will the Thai people grow up, use their intelligence, exercise their rights as good and law-abiding citizens, and bring their crooked politicians to justice for crimes that they have committed against the people and the country during their reigns of power?  When will Thugsin Shitnawatra and his family members be served with justice and sent to jail for their crimes -- tax evasion, corruption, money laundering, abuse of power and causing extra-judicial killings and murders of innocent people, etc.?