BANGKOK — His anti-corruption crusade made him a household name in Thailand, but Chuwit Kamolvisit would be the first to say that he is not an admirable person.
Chuwit, 62, a self-proclaimed “super pimp” — and known to others as “the godfather of sex” — once owned six massage parlors in Bangkok, employing 2,000 women.
And he started as an informer, about 20 years ago, based on his knowledge of bribery schemes.
Prostitution is illegal in Thailand and, to turn a blind eye to the authorities, he said he gave police officers cash in black bags, as well as Rolex watches and free services at his salons.
The arrangement suited him for years. But when he was arrested in 2003 on charges of hiring men to demolish dozens of bars and other businesses in central Bangkok, his arrest was a clear sign that he had lost his police protection. So he decided to speak. He held a press conference in which he claimed to have over a thousand names of agents he had bribed over the years.
Chuwit’s sensational descriptions of misdeeds captured the country’s attention. She has captivated the Thai public for years with the litany of evidence she has presented.
His revelations were so compelling that two television channels gave him his own talk show in 2017, including one, “Chuwit Te Abofetea,” in which he listed all the ways the police were corrupt. The other program, “Chuwit Has Stories to Tell,” aired for eight months on Thailand’s most popular news program.
But now their time to report abuse is coming to an end. Not because he believes he has rid Thailand of corruption. But because she is dying. He was diagnosed with liver cancer in July and given eight months to live.
He is spending his final days regretfully reviewing his past, much of it linked to his role in the sex trade, which made him rich. It came at the cost of disgrace, he said, with sex workers “against the wall.”
It was not guilt that led him to make the bribe public. She was furious at what she considered his own mistreatment of her.
Starting in the 1990s, he said, he paid law enforcement officials about $17 million in bribes over a decade to keep his massage parlors in business. Then, in 2003, the shop complex was demolished by hundreds of men early one morning. Chuwit came under suspicion after it emerged that he had purchased the land a few weeks earlier and had submitted an application to build a luxury hotel on it. He was arrested and learned that he had lost the immunity obtained through bribery.
In 2015, he pleaded guilty to the demolition, saying, “it is a great relief to tell the truth.” He said he destroyed the complex because the tenants wouldn’t leave.
In January 2016 he received a two-year prison sentence. He received a royal pardon that December, but the lockdown shook him. “You’re like a dog in a cage,” he said.
Chuwit discourages anyone from resuming its whistleblowing legacy.
People should choose an easier path, he said. “That will be a smart way; This is the stubborn way.”
By: SUI-LEE WEE
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6996781, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-11-22 21:40:07
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