Published in Marie Claire. Farang Magazine and SleazeNation (UK)

In conservative Thailand, where sex is always on tap, but never seen, where wives turn a blind eye to their husbands’ infidelities in exchange for financial security, where up to a million women work in the sex trade but the sex trade officially doesn’t exist, Chuwit is the odd man out. Hated by his colleagues, the police, PM Thaksin Shinawatra and women’s groups, the massage parlour owner is determined to keep talking.
“The foundation of our culture is that the man stands higher than the Thai woman. So when we are talking about the Thai male and he has two wives, we adore him. He’s very good. This has to change. But Thai society doesn’t accept that. I don’t see anything changing in the next generation.”
Amazingly, prostitution in Thailand is illegal. But in a society where most deals are made under the table and where up to 20% of the GDP is allegedly generated by crime, millions of sex workers operate openly.
“We have many kind of massages in Thailand, even a 5 star like the Sheraton has massage. And I can say 100% they have something more than massage. Maybe it is better to say whorehouse but you can’t open that here. Because the Thais don’t accept the truth. The mouth and the heart are not the same thing in this country.”
This double standard has led the tycoon into absurd situations.
“The court always asks me, ‘Oh, you do sex in your places?’ And I say, ‘I don’t know, I just charge for the massage and when they do something else beyond the massage, how could I know. I don’t sit in the room. There is no evidence. I must know what happens in the room in the same way the government knows what happens in that room. If they accept it, I will accept it. They charge me with 15 years in jail if I say what happens in that room.”
Chuwit claims that the sex industry’s roots reach well beyond machismo and discrimination against women, “Nobody wants to work in the sex industry and the girls don’t want to work in my places. Why are they coming to Bangkok, why are they coming to work for me? When people are hungry, they don’t think about anything. A girl who works here can send 60 – 80.000 a month (1500 – 2000$) back to her hometown. The government has to alleviate poverty. They can’t come here and say, ‘stop prostitution’. Prostitution exists everywhere, not just in Thailand. But the politicians don’t do anything about the sex industry. All they do is image."

There has been much talk in the Thai media on the current government’s controversial social order campaign. While closing times of midnight and 1am seem absurd in a metropolis of 11 million, many other activities are decidedly Orwellian and circumspect. Periodically, the government is banning popular songs and books commenting on Thai culture, while trying to lambast Thai women with prudish dress codes during public holidays and sending out police to stop teenagers kissing in public. A controversial war on drugs the government has been waging for a year has cost more than two thousand lives and contrary to official PR, drugs, especially amphetamines are still widely available.
Chuwit doesn’t think time can be turned back to a mythical age of pure Thai culture. “Newspapers wrote a hundred years ago that prostitution would soon disappear. Thai society must accept the truth that they HAVE a sex industry. Don’t you think it is ridiculous that the Thai government says there is no sex industry and commercial sex is illegal. How can they say so? “
The Chuwit massage parlors, which employ more than 3000 women and have allegedly made the owner more than 120 million dollars, have the faded period flair of a mid-80s Holiday Inn, their bleak corporate style spiced up with Penthouse aesthetics. Lift doors are covered in centerfolds, wall to wall tapestry features boob-jobbed beauties with perms and high heels, tacky bronzes of vaudeville dancers lurk in alcoves, even the safes in the room have their instructions illustrated by a couple of half-clad females.
The rooms are soulless kitsch – a big round leather party couch in front of a wide screen TV with Karaoke accessories fronts a big bathroom, dominated by a Jacuzzi.
Men don’t come here for the furniture and Chuwit doesn’t enter his places into interior design competitions.
Thai men from all walks of life come to massage parlors because it is an integral part of Thai culture and social life. Chuwit doesn’t have much hope for change.

“Our society teaches everyone when you have no power, when you are kid, you have to be quiet. Even if what you say is true, you should not say it. Our society doesn’t teach us to stand up when we see something wrong. On top of that, the police and beaurocracy are shaped like a pyramid. So from the base you have to send the money up to the top.  The government has said that the police will no longer take money. The government will give them money legally through the lottery. This is not going to be enough. It will never be enough. If the Thais don’t solve the fundamental structure problem, they will not solve the corruption problem.”

For his 43rd birthday bash, he sent color-coded invitations to the Bangkok police force. Those who squeezed him most got a red invitation.
With perfect timing the police hit back. On the morning of his birthday, all Chuwit’s assets were confiscated. In the afternoon he was arrested for defamation. By midnight he was free, dancing with 500 girls into the small hours. None of the invited officers could make it.

“The average Thai man is a good man, in the evenings he goes home and kisses his wife. But he has no voice in this country. Because I am a crazy guy and I have nowhere to go and because I have the experience of big business and corruption here, I would like to try and change this, give people in Bangkok a voice. That’s what my party Ton Tra Khun Thai stands for. If I make governor, there are ten million people who will tell me what to do to make things better in Bangkok. Right now the governor tells 10 million people how to behave and when to go to sleep at night. I am here to speak up and make a change for Thailand.”