Massaging the Bangkok vote

Chuwit Kamolvisit could be seen as just another businessman entering politics to protect his interests. But what makes him stand apart from the rest is that his principal source of income is the sleaze business.

RICHARD S. EHRLICH
BANGKOK, Thailand

Thailand's biggest and most notorious massage parlour tycoon claims to have employed 20,000 women over the past decade and compiled a blacklist naming police who allegedly accepted his pay-offs.

Chuwit Kamolvisit, who chatters like a comedian desperate for laughs, is now asking the residents of Bangkok to choose him as their next governor in elections scheduled for Aug. 29.

Not everyone is chuckling.

Police have accused him of staging his own kidnapping last year so he could appear persecuted.

More ominously, hundreds of small business owners claim he led a gang of thugs who early last year looted and destroyed dozens of small shops, bars and other commercial establishments on Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road.

Mr. Chuwit denies involvement in the destruction of the Sukhumvit Square complex, despite the widespread suspicion that he wanted to oust the low-rent tenants and upgrade his property to maximize profits.

He accuses army and police officers of running amok in the pre-dawn, January 2003 melee, but found himself arrested and spent a month in jail last May.

In September, hobbled by lawsuits, investigations and cancelled permits, he established the First Thai Nation party, with a logo showing a golden map of Thailand.

If elected governor of Bangkok, he promises to end corruption because it is too frustrating to do business while paying off a police force whose demands for cash have spiralled out of control.

He currently employs about 600 women, split into groups of 100 at each of his six modern, airconditioned massage parlours in Bangkok, he said.

Over the past 10 years, his parlours have employed about 20,000 female masseuses, Mr. Chuwit said, estimating the total "turnover" who have worked for a while before moving on.

Managing such a diverse workforce at 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," Mr. Chuwit said recently in an interview.

"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. You have to think of me as a businessman."

Service with a smile has brought Mr. Chuwit to the brink, however, as he has 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 the city of six million official residents who often appear torn between displaying virtue and enjoying vice.

Mr. 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 parlours.

"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'."

The man's wife also benefits from such ministrations, Mr. Chuwit said.

"He will come back [home], but not fight with his wife" because he will have "cooled down".

"Our society needs a psychologist. We don't have one in the Western style."

Mr. Chuwit boasts of the curative powers of hedonism, but this appears 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 who he has paid off during the past decade while trying to keep his massage parlours open.

His list allegedly includes names, dates, amounts of money and other incriminating information.

Many people assume Mr. Chuwit protected himself by warning police that the list would be released if he is killed.

Asked if he made those arrangements, Mr. Chuwit said: "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, Mr. Chuwit lamented.

"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. "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 Mr. Chuwit is trying to defend his part in corrupting the police and government, and trying to blackmail them into leaving him alone.

The tycoon said he is simply being honest about widespread corruption so it can be exposed and stopped.

When he first spoke out against alleged police corruption in July 2003, Thai society and the media were agog at his often theatrical willingness to embarrass the police.

After insisting he paid thousands of baht each month to keep the cops off his back, several police officers were disciplined.

He said he had paid corrupt officials "about 200 million baht in 10 years".

Mr. Chuwit said despite making huge payments, the police continued to harrass him on trumped up charges, so he decided to go public and end the charade.

Police have denied involvement in any wrongdoing.

He is also being sued for defamation, employing under-aged girls and demolishing Sukhumvit Square, he said.

Today, Mr. 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 20 million baht during the campaign and hoped to score "about 200,000" votes, though he probably would need at least one million votes to achieve victory.

Despite being dismissed by many as a buffoon, Mr. Chuwit 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.

* Richard S. Ehrlich is a former UPI correspondent who has reported from Asia for the past 25 years.