If you want to drive to the heart of a political scandal that has shaken Thailand, just tell the taxi driver to head for "Soapland", a 5km stretch of neon that slices through north Bangkok. But as prostitution is illegal in the kingdom, the signs above every doorway say Ap Ob Nuat, Thai for "steamy hot shower massage".
It's hardly a sophisticated front, but until last summer this vast sex industry prospered without attracting unwelcome attention. Then in July last year, Soapland's most powerful jao phor, or godfather, broke the unwritten code of silence. Motivated by what Chuwit described as the Royal Thai Police's persistent attempts to extract ever increasing bribes from his sex empire, he then launched a series of allegations that today threaten to pull down the Thai government.
Calling newspaper reporters to the front entrance of his Copa Cabana club, the millionaire pimp revealed that he had kept a diary in which was detailed every one of his company's commercial and sexual transactions. As a taster, Chuwit alleged that days earlier on July 7 four senior police officers had used the services of his masseurs, numbers , , and But now, in downtown Bangkok, General Sant Sarutanond, Thailand's commissioner general of police, was forced to act and reluctantly ordered an investigation into Chuwit's claims.
No one publicly berated the Royal Thai Police. With its tanks and military ranks, the police is a paramilitary force that has demonstrated a hardline attitude to those it sees as enemies of the state. An inquiry is currently under way into claims by human rights groups that the Royal Thai Police was complicit in the deaths of 2, people, killed last year in a week government campaign to eradicate drugs. Officers at Huai Khwang precinct half a mile down the road were placed under investigation and its commander, Colonel Thitipong Settisombat, suspended.
Smelling blood, Chuwit described a "tall police general" with the initial "S" who had secret stakes in two massage parlours. As the Thai public anticipated further revelations, a rumour spread that the jao phor of Soapland had vanished. For two days no one could find Chuwit. There was no sign of him at Copa Cabana or at any of his five other clubs. Wild speculation filled newspaper columns. Had he been abducted by rogue police officers attempting to shut him up?
