Thailand: Massage parlor
politics By
Richard S Ehrlich
Photo: Steve
Sandford
BANGKOK - Thailand's biggest and most notorious
massage-parlor tycoon - now turned politician and
running for office - says he employed 20,000 women
during the past decade and warns that he compiled a
blacklist, naming police who allegedly accepted his
payoffs in exchange for looking the other way. He
promises to end corruption, by crooked cops.
Chuwit Kamolvisit, who chatters like a comedian
desperate for laughs, is now squeezing Bangkok's people
so he can become their next provincial governor in
elections scheduled for August. Not everyone is
chuckling. Police accused him of staging his own fake
kidnapping last year so he could appear persecuted, an
underdog and more appealing to voters.
More
ominously, hundreds of small business owners claim he
led a gang of thugs who looted and destroyed dozens of
small shops, bars and other commercial establishments on
Bangkok's trendy Sukhumvit Road. Chuwit denied
involvement in the destruction last year of the
Sukhumvit Square complex, despite widespread suspicion
that he wanted to oust the low-rent tenants and upgrade
his property in order to maximize profits. He accused
army and police officers of running amok in the
pre-dawn, January 2003, melee that blighted Sukhumvit
Road, but Chuwit found himself arrested and he spent a
month in jail last May.
In September, hobbled by
lawsuits, investigations and canceled permits, Chuwit
established the First Thai Nation party, with a logo
showing a golden map of Thailand. If elected governor,
he promises to end corruption because it is too
frustrating to do business while paying off a police
force whose demands for cash have spiraled out of
control.
He currently employs about 600 women,
split into groups of 100 each at his six modern,
air-conditioned massage parlors in Bangkok, he said.
During the past 10 years, his six parlors have employed
about 20,000 female masseuses, Chuwit said, estimating
the total "turnover" who worked for a while before
moving on.
Managing such a diverse workforce at
his venues - which include the Copacabana, Victoria's
Secret, Honolulu, Hi Class, Emmanuel and Julianna - is
complicated. "It is difficult. That is why I handle the
women very good, because they are not machines," Chuwit
said in a recorded interview on March 17. "The girls are
always thinking every minute, and they always change
their minds. They are doing this, they are doing that,
so how can I control them?"
The secret to
success in seedy, sweaty, sexy situations is to be a
sweet boss, he said.
"We share the same house.
We are like husband and wife. I accept that I make a
profit," he added, smiling. "You have to think of me as
a businessman."
Service with a smile brought
Chuwit to the brink, however, because he made so many
enemies that he now wants political protection.
His quest to become Bangkok's next governor is
widely seen as an uphill battle in this city of 6
million people who often appear torn between displaying
virtue and enjoying vice. Chuwit hopes to offer
something no other candidate can - the secret to peace,
love and understanding - which he learned from the women
who toil in his parlors.
"My girls will talk to
you and ask, 'What is the problem? Why are you so
serious? Come on, I will relax you.' And the guy will
say, 'Oh, I fight with my wife.' And my masseuse will
say, 'No, no, no, don't worry. Relax',"he explained.
The man's wife also benefits from such
ministrations, Chuwit said. "He will come back [home],
but not fight with his wife" because he will have
"cooled down", Chuwit said. "Our society needs a
psychologist. We don't have one in the Western style."
His huckster boasts about the curative powers of
hedonism, however, appear to be a bluff against the real
threat to his future - his dangerous confrontation with
authorities. He claims to possess a list of corrupt
police whom he has paid off during the past decade while
trying to keep his massage parlors open. His list
allegedly includes names, dates, amounts of money and
other incriminating information.
Many people
assume Chuwit protected himself by warning police that
the list will be released if he is killed. Asked if he
made those arrangements, Chuwit replied: "The police are
like my old friends. I know them, they know me. I know
they are never going to kill me. Because why? Because I
know they don't have any guts to do that."
And
the existence of incriminating documents to be released
in the case of his death? "This is my insurance. I
talked with them [the police] already. I told them. Last
year, I brought the list to Thaksin," he said, referring
to an unamused Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The
prime minister rejected the list, Chuwit said.
"The people on the list are the people [police
and other officials] who are on my salary, on my
payroll, for 10 years," he said, referring to his
alleged, unpublished blacklist.
Police and
government officials to whom he gave bribes? "I am not
saying it is 'bribes'. I always say it is a
'convenience', to make my business convenient, to make
my business smooth." Critics contend he is merely
whining about his own role in corrupting the police and
government, and allegedly trying to blackmail them into
leaving him alone.
Chuwit retorts he is simply
being honest about widespread corruption so it can be
exposed and stopped.When he first spoke out against
alleged police corruption last July, Thai society and
its feisty media were agog at his often theatrical
willingness to embarrass the police. After insisting he
paid up to US$300,000 each month to keep the cops off
his back, several police officers were disciplined.
He said he paid corrupt officials "about 200
million baht [$5 million] in 10 years". Chuwit said that
despite these huge payments, police continued to harass
him on trumped-up charges, so he decided to go public
and end the charade.
Police, meanwhile, have
denied involvement in any wrongdoing. Chuwit is also
being sued for defamation, employing under-aged girls
and demolishing Sukhumvit Square, he said.
Today, Chuwit portrays himself as someone who
knows where the skeletons are hidden, and thus the best
candidate to be Bangkok's governor.
He said he
planned to spend about US$500,000 during the campaign
and hoped to score "about 200,000" votes, though he
probably would need at least a million votes to achieve
victory. Despite being dismissed by many as a buffoon,
he may be starting a political career and run in future
elections until he gains a seat somewhere.
"I
will make Bangkok to be the city of joy ... the city of
happiness," he said.
