Mari Nicholson's Blog

Posted by Mari Nicholson

Watching the television coverage of the news from Bangkok today, one is saddened for the people of Thailand, many of whom are as bewildered as the foreigners cooped up at the airport, as to why this has happened.

The divisions in the society run deep and it would seem that they are unbridgable. The ousting of former P.M. Taksin Shinawatra was meant to heal the body politic, but the government elected after his dismissal has been accused of being his puppet.

To outsiders it appears that the fight is based on more than a corrupt P.M. (and no one would deny that corruption was involved) but it also appears strange to outsiders that this was not an issue in earlier governments when corruption was rife.

The alliance of a city elite with the military against a mainly rural support for the deposed P.M. has riven the country. Things have now developed to such an extent that people are openly saying that only the revered King Bhumipol can heal the split. The much revered monarch is not a well man and the problems besetting the country which he hasn't left for many decades, will distress him deeply. He will be loathe to interfere, but what he might do, as he did before under different circumstances, is to advise the rival factions to think of the country and its future.

They would do well to heed him. The scenes at Bangkok's airport tonight were frightening, with people unable to find out when their flights might be scheduled. Tired and weary mothers held children and frustrated fathers demanded service from people unable to deliver. Outside, an angry armed mob controlled of the streets. It was ugly.

Was this the Land of Smiles? Was this Amazing Thailand? Was it for this its many visitors spent hours in 'planes traversing oceans? What happened to democracy?

We are all saddened that this has happened. However much disliked the new government is by some sections of society, it was legally elected and should only be dismissed by the ballot box.

Posted by Mari Nicholson

The Preah Vihear Temple on the border with Thailand and Cambodia and just 543 Km. north of Phnom Penh, is still making news, most of it unsettling. Occasionally, the voice of reason can be discerned trying to be heard above the arguments on both sides.

On October 14th, the Thai government sent de-mining experts into the area to investigate whether these mines were old or ones recently deployed. Cambodia insists that these are the remains of mines left over from three decades of war. Yesterday, Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation said that this unilateral action by Thai soldiers was a deliberate contravening of the agreement made by both sides in the past.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said on Wednesday that Cambodia had been forced to bypass ASEAN to seek an impartial mediator because the chair is currently held by Thailand. As Chair of Asean (The Association of S.E. Asian Nations, Thailand is particularly sensitive to claims by Cambodia that it's exercise of this post is biased. Hor Namhong accused Thailand of provoking Wednesday's firefight and he hinted that the association chair may be taken away from them.

Now news is filtering through that both countries have agreed to joint patrols of the disputed border areas, after senior military officers from both sides held a meeting in Thailand. Uoint patrols will be set in place in order to avoid any further gunfights, as patrolling individually leads to misunderstandings.

The USA, the UN and the EU have all called for restraint but little progress has been made on the issue of withdrawal of troops or heavy weaponry from the area around the 11th-century Khmer temple, but both governments say they are seeking to calm the situation. Indonesian President, Susilo Vambang Yudhoyono, has said his country will act as mediator if required, but as both Thailand and Cambodia continue to deny that they started Wednesday's firefight which left two Cambodians dead and two injured, and seven Thai soldier's wounded, he may have to wait a long time before he is called upon to serve

Posted by Mari Nicholson

In the midst of Thailand’s problems with anti-government factions protesting outside parliament, the ugly stand-off at the Thai-Cambodian border continues to exercise the minds of the powers-that-be. This is the ongoing dispute over access to the Preah Vihear temple.

On Monday, the Cambodian Prime Minister warned Thailand that armed clashes were likely to erupt if troops from Thailand continue to trespass over the border.

Last week two Thai soldiers, said by their government to be on their own side of the border, were injured by land mines laid along the crossing which they had been accused of overstepping at a point several kilometres west of the Preah Vihear temple. Tensions have been high since July last when soldiers on both sides faced off only yards apart

The 900 year-old temple of Preah Vihear which sits on a natural escarpment dividing the two nations and in a jungle-clad area that was once home to the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot’s infamous army is still littered with landmines. At the moment, I understand that Thai troops are camped a mere 33 metres from the Cambodian troops

Only 3 days before this, a gunfight broke out between the two sides in which one Cambodian and two Thai soldiers were wounded. Both sides blamed the other for what they said were incursions on to their land. The Cambodians have called for more talks and an army commander has confirmed that troops are on high alert.

Meantime, an army spokesman for the Thais, held a press conference yesterday in which he said that Thai troops will remain at the border to protect the country’s sovereignty. They will not withdraw from what they consider to be their territory. Hun Sen has given the troops until tomorrow to withdraw from what he says is Cambodian territory.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing problems the Thai government is facing in Bangkok, this is not a time when they can afford to back down less they be called unpatriotic!

Posted by Mari Nicholson

Khun Chuwit's operations covered massage parlours, hot tub shops, and brothels in which it is said he employed some 1,300 women, not all of them in Patpong although that is the most well-known area. Although prostitution is illegal in Thailand, it is widespread and rarely prosecuted.

Now, the one time sex supremo is a mayoral candidate in the forthcoming elections. His ambition, according to the many interviews he has given, is to clean up Bangkok, despite the fact that he considers the sex trade a cleaner life than the political one. He is financing his own campaign in order to wipe out the hypocrisy and deceit which he claims is rotting Thai politics. This is something he knows at first hand, he claims, as he got rich by paying bribes to allow his sex venues to flourish.

Asked what bribes he paid, by a reporter from AP, he reeled off a list of crimes from graft to traffic.

His reputation as a bruiser does not encourage people to vote for him, and just last week after an interview with a Channel 3 reporter, he elbowed a newscaster in the face and kicked him when he fell. His reason? The reporter made him look bad by asking the wrong questions.

This is not the first time for Chuwit to crusade against corruption. In 2004, after the police failed to protect him when he ran into legal troubles, he got his own back by exposing corruption in the police. He came clean on the bribes he paid, Rolex watches, free services in his clubs, and money – lots of it. Paying bribes did not make much of a dent in his fortune as he claimed to make $30,000 per night from his massage parlours alone.

Now he has turned over a new leaf, sold the sex chain and is hoping to be a contender in the race for Mayor of Bangkok. He is said to be pouring his personal fortune into this new bid, a move that has some cynics convinced there must be more to the job than they know.

Politics is a grey, murky area in Thailand, and even if a “clean” man is elected there is no guarantee that he will be incorruptible. Perhaps Chuwit will manage to work a miracle. He says he doesn’t need to be a sleazy politician – he made enough when he was running his clubs. But the people say, show me a politician that doesn’t want to make more money, and I’ll show you a “hungry ghost”.

Khun Chuwit deserves the last word. “The sex business is not a problem”, he said. “If you don’t have sex, that’s a problem.”