REPORTER: Ginny Stein
This man is lucky to be alive. He's exposed Thailand's rawest nerve - widespread corruption. Chuwit Kamolvisit has done what nobody before him was brave enough to do - to expose bribery at the highest levels of the police and politics.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): Everybody has a limit. Everybody has patience. It depends who has more or less. I've been paying for ten years. Now I've decided to stop and to speak the truth.
REPORTER: Has it ever been done before in Thai society, that someone at his level has said, "I'm paying police - I'm paying police off, that's how I do business."?
DR PASUK PONGPAICHIT, ECONOMIST, CHULALONGHORN UNIVERSITY: No, there have not really been someone in his position who actually paid and came out to speak.
KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN, ASSOC. EDITOR, THE NATION NEWSPAPER: He challenged the authority, in this case the police, and I think he was bold enough to expose the police corruption. Certainly he portrayed himself as victim but of course he is a crook who is turning into a crusader because he realised that he has done a lot of, what do you call, exploitation of young women.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: I will change the Bangkok. I will change the Bangkok because I am normal people and not a politician.
Chuwit's running for governor of Krungthep, Asia's City of Angels, or as it's more commonly known to the outside world, Bangkok.
WOMAN: I'm your fan. I heard about you last year, my friend told me about you. You were in the newspaper and everything and I came in again for the second time.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: Thank you, thank you, I appreciate that.
WOMAN: I hope you win.
He's the godfather of Thailand's sex industry. This massage parlour king claims, over a 10-year period, to have employed more than 20,000 women. The amount he claims to have paid out in bribes is staggering. And all to ensure he could sell sex in a country where prostitution is technically illegal.
DR PASUK PONGPAICHIT: I made a study of the illegal economy in Thailand and from my calculation, the revenue involved in the sex business in Thailand is even larger than the drug business.
His fortune may have been built on sleaze, but what he knows about corruption could bring down the government. Chuwit defends his empire of pleasure and those who work in it. He says the legal loophole that allows his business to thrive is that all he provides is the venue and the women. What happens behind closed doors is none of his business.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): I offer massage and bathing services. I don't do sex services, I can assure you of that. What has made me rich is massage parlours. In Thailand, this business must hold a licence. And I pay tax. My parlour is in the middle of the city. So I believe my business is operated legally as a massage parlour. Not a sex service.
This is known as 'Soapland'. Up and down this strip are scores of massage parlours, only rubs and suds are promised. To do more would be illegal. This is one of the half a dozen clubs that Chuwit owns and is now trying to sell. More than 100 women work here in shifts throughout the day and night. Komson Saetang is the front of house manager.
KOMSON SAETANG, MANAGER (Translation): Of course they have sex.
Da, Tom and Liew have been working here in what's considered an upmarket massage parlour for the past few years. They are pragmatic about their jobs and, not surprisingly, staunch defenders of their employer.
TOM, SEX WORKER (Translation): He has both a good and a bad side. He provides work for people like us. The bad side is he's judged by the public for what he's doing.
REPORTER (Translation): Why would he be a good governor?
DA (Translation): Why? Mr Chuwit... I think... he started from zero and he gradually made his business progress. He can do the same with Bangkok.
Tonight the campaign trail takes Chuwit through the more internationally known tourist sex district of Patpong Road.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: I walk around, I walk through the community, I walk all this area, this neighbourhood. I explain them this time you've got to give the reign to the normal people because we give the chance to the politician many time.
He's amongst friends both local and farang, as foreigners in Thailand are called.
FEMALE SUPPORTER: I think that he's great and he has a good idea, a lot of good idea, maybe a little bit too much on the massage but if he want the governor he probably knows about the problem of Bangkok, OK.
WESTERN MALE SUPPORTER: I like Chuwit a lot and a lot of farangs like Chuwit a lot too because he's a real people's people, you know, let's see how far he can go, and I wish him the best.
But it's those eligible to vote amongst Bangkok's large sex industry that he's come to court.
GIRL (Translation): We're all in the entertainment business. We need his support, to revitalise Patpong.
You'll get our votes. Absolutely. Sign here, please...
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): This is a tourist zone. We must close at 2am and 3am on Friday and Saturday. Closing at 1am will kill us - you, me, cab drivers...
KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN: He want to be, he portray himself as a Hugh Hefner, you know, except that, you know, instead of bunny he has all these china dolls along with him, you see. And in fact some of the girls really like him and he spread the word. So instead of shying away, he turn things around for his benefit. Now he want to use that large population in the sexual industry to support him. I don't think he going to change anything.
When Chuwit first began his campaign to expose corruption, he embarrassed police. This is footage of him being taken to hospital after he was found dazed and wandering alongside a highway on the outskirts of Bangkok. Chuwit's detractors accused him of staging his own kidnapping by the police to appear persecuted. Chuwit rejects that claim but willingly admits that in Thailand it is safer to operate in the limelight than in the shadows.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: That's the way we fight with the system in Thailand. If you keep your mouth shut, you know if you keep yourself quiet and that time you keep yourself low-profile maybe you have been killed. Somebody said, "Oh, nobody can fight with the police." I said, "I can do." Fight with the big guy? You know, yes, I can do.
Chuwit has worked the media and the media has responded. He's been named man of the year by the country's respected independent English newspaper 'The Nation'. In giving the award, the paper spoke of the payment of suay, or bribes, as being as common in Thailand as cockroaches and praised Chuwit for his stand against police.
KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN: Of course everybody know but nobody talk.
Kavi Chongkittavorn is the paper's associate editor and commentator.
KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN: So he should be credited, in that narrow sense, that he is the one that blow the whistle, you see? But in Thailand, in Thai culture, we don't have a tradition of whistleblower, you know, so it's rather exceptional in that sense Chuwit caught the public imagination and he, as usual, he exploited it.
At the start of the campaign, four of the leading candidates were invited to address students at this prestigious private university. Police captain Chalerm Yubamrung is a maverick politician with 20 years experience and a somewhat dubious reputation. Like Thailand's Prime Minister and many senior members of the current cabinet, he started out as a policeman. He claims never to have taken or offered a bribe.
CHALERM YUBAMRUNG, POLICE CAPTAIN (Translation): I have no illegal business, so I don't need to pay bribes. People in this country will be happy if they work legally.
Despite never rising above the rank of a lowly-paid police captain, he has become a very wealthy man. He stands by Thailand's police force and questions Chuwit's honesty.
CHALERM YUBAMRUNG (Translation): He probably paid bribes to the police. But on the other hand, if his business was legal, why would he need to pay bribes? Those police he mentioned, none of them has been punished. When the investigations started, he changed his stories. He didn't confirm what he said in those interviews.
Chuwit has come under attack like this ever since he spoke out. So why did this man lift the veil of secrecy to risk it all? It was a battle over this city block that spurred his decision to speak. A city square of unremarkable tourist beer bars and small eateries. Overnight a team of hired thugs and policemen razed this block of land. Police blamed Chuwit, who had just bought the land and had plans to develop it. And Chuwit blamed police, admitting he had paid them to clear the land of illegal squatters. But it didn't stop there. The men in uniform kept coming back for more. The heat was on, something had to give.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: So they come to see me every day, asking for the money, asking for everything and then the last guy coming and asking for $2 million. I said, "I cannot give you $2 million," you know. And then next day I been caught, I brought to the prison.
REPORTER: So it was from that point that you decided enough is enough.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: Yes, a little by little, yes.
After one month in prison, Chuwit came back fighting. He declared war against the police and the then police chief. Thailand's massage king stopped paying them, and turned to the media for protection.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): It's been 10 years and now I'm saying I've had enough. If I'm going to die, I will die. So I decided to speak out. And I know how the truth is going to affect me, my business... I know I'm going to be hunted. I know that very well. It's the nature of a developing country like Thailand. Government officer, especially police, think they have power. They can do anything. They fear nobody.
DR PASUK PONGPAICHIT: Well, I think he has - he was involved in so many different things and he was in danger and he was sued for very serious charges of having - of allowing under-age girls in his massage parlour business. So some people think that he is raising the issue in order to protect himself against the case at court which would involve the police as well.
Chuwit denied employing under-age girls and the case against him was eventually dropped. For all the charges, it remains surprising that the most obvious one, selling sex, has not been laid.
There may well be a reason for that. Chuwit claims to have another source of protection. Trained in accountancy, he has always kept a book and, in it, the names of the corrupt police and government officials who he says he's paid off over the past decade.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): Of course, and I must keep it. But what is this list for? I've got all the names from those 10 years. I'm an accountant, so I've got all the names. In most areas, police are moved from one station to another. Some stayed for a year or two, then moved. My list consists of over 1,000 names. I once tried to give this list to the Prime Minister, Mr Thaksin. But he refused to come for it. He wanted to send his driver or his secretary. So I'd rather keep it, and guard it with me life. While he's unwilling to see it, I don't have to do anything. But I can't reveal this list to anyone. I need it for my own safety.
It's that list that he believes keeps him alive.
REPORTER: Would it be an effective bargaining chip? Do you think that will keep him safe?
DR PASUK PONGPAICHIT: So far it has. So far it has kept him safe. So now he's running for the mayor of Bangkok. He seems to be absolved of many things.
Chuwit is now moving out of the massage business. He's going upmarket, into the 5-star hotel trade. He says he no longer has any police on his payroll. The past is the past, it's time to move on - that's business.
This man is lucky to be alive. He's exposed Thailand's rawest nerve - widespread corruption. Chuwit Kamolvisit has done what nobody before him was brave enough to do - to expose bribery at the highest levels of the police and politics.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): Everybody has a limit. Everybody has patience. It depends who has more or less. I've been paying for ten years. Now I've decided to stop and to speak the truth.
REPORTER: Has it ever been done before in Thai society, that someone at his level has said, "I'm paying police - I'm paying police off, that's how I do business."?
DR PASUK PONGPAICHIT, ECONOMIST, CHULALONGHORN UNIVERSITY: No, there have not really been someone in his position who actually paid and came out to speak.
KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN, ASSOC. EDITOR, THE NATION NEWSPAPER: He challenged the authority, in this case the police, and I think he was bold enough to expose the police corruption. Certainly he portrayed himself as victim but of course he is a crook who is turning into a crusader because he realised that he has done a lot of, what do you call, exploitation of young women.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: I will change the Bangkok. I will change the Bangkok because I am normal people and not a politician.
Chuwit's running for governor of Krungthep, Asia's City of Angels, or as it's more commonly known to the outside world, Bangkok.
WOMAN: I'm your fan. I heard about you last year, my friend told me about you. You were in the newspaper and everything and I came in again for the second time.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: Thank you, thank you, I appreciate that.
WOMAN: I hope you win.
He's the godfather of Thailand's sex industry. This massage parlour king claims, over a 10-year period, to have employed more than 20,000 women. The amount he claims to have paid out in bribes is staggering. And all to ensure he could sell sex in a country where prostitution is technically illegal.
DR PASUK PONGPAICHIT: I made a study of the illegal economy in Thailand and from my calculation, the revenue involved in the sex business in Thailand is even larger than the drug business.
His fortune may have been built on sleaze, but what he knows about corruption could bring down the government. Chuwit defends his empire of pleasure and those who work in it. He says the legal loophole that allows his business to thrive is that all he provides is the venue and the women. What happens behind closed doors is none of his business.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): I offer massage and bathing services. I don't do sex services, I can assure you of that. What has made me rich is massage parlours. In Thailand, this business must hold a licence. And I pay tax. My parlour is in the middle of the city. So I believe my business is operated legally as a massage parlour. Not a sex service.
This is known as 'Soapland'. Up and down this strip are scores of massage parlours, only rubs and suds are promised. To do more would be illegal. This is one of the half a dozen clubs that Chuwit owns and is now trying to sell. More than 100 women work here in shifts throughout the day and night. Komson Saetang is the front of house manager.
KOMSON SAETANG, MANAGER (Translation): Of course they have sex.
Da, Tom and Liew have been working here in what's considered an upmarket massage parlour for the past few years. They are pragmatic about their jobs and, not surprisingly, staunch defenders of their employer.
TOM, SEX WORKER (Translation): He has both a good and a bad side. He provides work for people like us. The bad side is he's judged by the public for what he's doing.
REPORTER (Translation): Why would he be a good governor?
DA (Translation): Why? Mr Chuwit... I think... he started from zero and he gradually made his business progress. He can do the same with Bangkok.
Tonight the campaign trail takes Chuwit through the more internationally known tourist sex district of Patpong Road.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: I walk around, I walk through the community, I walk all this area, this neighbourhood. I explain them this time you've got to give the reign to the normal people because we give the chance to the politician many time.
He's amongst friends both local and farang, as foreigners in Thailand are called.
FEMALE SUPPORTER: I think that he's great and he has a good idea, a lot of good idea, maybe a little bit too much on the massage but if he want the governor he probably knows about the problem of Bangkok, OK.
WESTERN MALE SUPPORTER: I like Chuwit a lot and a lot of farangs like Chuwit a lot too because he's a real people's people, you know, let's see how far he can go, and I wish him the best.
But it's those eligible to vote amongst Bangkok's large sex industry that he's come to court.
GIRL (Translation): We're all in the entertainment business. We need his support, to revitalise Patpong.
You'll get our votes. Absolutely. Sign here, please...
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): This is a tourist zone. We must close at 2am and 3am on Friday and Saturday. Closing at 1am will kill us - you, me, cab drivers...
KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN: He want to be, he portray himself as a Hugh Hefner, you know, except that, you know, instead of bunny he has all these china dolls along with him, you see. And in fact some of the girls really like him and he spread the word. So instead of shying away, he turn things around for his benefit. Now he want to use that large population in the sexual industry to support him. I don't think he going to change anything.
When Chuwit first began his campaign to expose corruption, he embarrassed police. This is footage of him being taken to hospital after he was found dazed and wandering alongside a highway on the outskirts of Bangkok. Chuwit's detractors accused him of staging his own kidnapping by the police to appear persecuted. Chuwit rejects that claim but willingly admits that in Thailand it is safer to operate in the limelight than in the shadows.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: That's the way we fight with the system in Thailand. If you keep your mouth shut, you know if you keep yourself quiet and that time you keep yourself low-profile maybe you have been killed. Somebody said, "Oh, nobody can fight with the police." I said, "I can do." Fight with the big guy? You know, yes, I can do.
Chuwit has worked the media and the media has responded. He's been named man of the year by the country's respected independent English newspaper 'The Nation'. In giving the award, the paper spoke of the payment of suay, or bribes, as being as common in Thailand as cockroaches and praised Chuwit for his stand against police.
KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN: Of course everybody know but nobody talk.
Kavi Chongkittavorn is the paper's associate editor and commentator.
KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN: So he should be credited, in that narrow sense, that he is the one that blow the whistle, you see? But in Thailand, in Thai culture, we don't have a tradition of whistleblower, you know, so it's rather exceptional in that sense Chuwit caught the public imagination and he, as usual, he exploited it.
At the start of the campaign, four of the leading candidates were invited to address students at this prestigious private university. Police captain Chalerm Yubamrung is a maverick politician with 20 years experience and a somewhat dubious reputation. Like Thailand's Prime Minister and many senior members of the current cabinet, he started out as a policeman. He claims never to have taken or offered a bribe.
CHALERM YUBAMRUNG, POLICE CAPTAIN (Translation): I have no illegal business, so I don't need to pay bribes. People in this country will be happy if they work legally.
Despite never rising above the rank of a lowly-paid police captain, he has become a very wealthy man. He stands by Thailand's police force and questions Chuwit's honesty.
CHALERM YUBAMRUNG (Translation): He probably paid bribes to the police. But on the other hand, if his business was legal, why would he need to pay bribes? Those police he mentioned, none of them has been punished. When the investigations started, he changed his stories. He didn't confirm what he said in those interviews.
Chuwit has come under attack like this ever since he spoke out. So why did this man lift the veil of secrecy to risk it all? It was a battle over this city block that spurred his decision to speak. A city square of unremarkable tourist beer bars and small eateries. Overnight a team of hired thugs and policemen razed this block of land. Police blamed Chuwit, who had just bought the land and had plans to develop it. And Chuwit blamed police, admitting he had paid them to clear the land of illegal squatters. But it didn't stop there. The men in uniform kept coming back for more. The heat was on, something had to give.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: So they come to see me every day, asking for the money, asking for everything and then the last guy coming and asking for $2 million. I said, "I cannot give you $2 million," you know. And then next day I been caught, I brought to the prison.
REPORTER: So it was from that point that you decided enough is enough.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT: Yes, a little by little, yes.
After one month in prison, Chuwit came back fighting. He declared war against the police and the then police chief. Thailand's massage king stopped paying them, and turned to the media for protection.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): It's been 10 years and now I'm saying I've had enough. If I'm going to die, I will die. So I decided to speak out. And I know how the truth is going to affect me, my business... I know I'm going to be hunted. I know that very well. It's the nature of a developing country like Thailand. Government officer, especially police, think they have power. They can do anything. They fear nobody.
DR PASUK PONGPAICHIT: Well, I think he has - he was involved in so many different things and he was in danger and he was sued for very serious charges of having - of allowing under-age girls in his massage parlour business. So some people think that he is raising the issue in order to protect himself against the case at court which would involve the police as well.
Chuwit denied employing under-age girls and the case against him was eventually dropped. For all the charges, it remains surprising that the most obvious one, selling sex, has not been laid.
There may well be a reason for that. Chuwit claims to have another source of protection. Trained in accountancy, he has always kept a book and, in it, the names of the corrupt police and government officials who he says he's paid off over the past decade.
CHUWIT KAMOLVISIT (Translation): Of course, and I must keep it. But what is this list for? I've got all the names from those 10 years. I'm an accountant, so I've got all the names. In most areas, police are moved from one station to another. Some stayed for a year or two, then moved. My list consists of over 1,000 names. I once tried to give this list to the Prime Minister, Mr Thaksin. But he refused to come for it. He wanted to send his driver or his secretary. So I'd rather keep it, and guard it with me life. While he's unwilling to see it, I don't have to do anything. But I can't reveal this list to anyone. I need it for my own safety.
It's that list that he believes keeps him alive.
REPORTER: Would it be an effective bargaining chip? Do you think that will keep him safe?
DR PASUK PONGPAICHIT: So far it has. So far it has kept him safe. So now he's running for the mayor of Bangkok. He seems to be absolved of many things.
Chuwit is now moving out of the massage business. He's going upmarket, into the 5-star hotel trade. He says he no longer has any police on his payroll. The past is the past, it's time to move on - that's business.