Legalised prostitution plan divides Thais

By HENRY HOENIG Herald correspondent

BANGKOK - Sometimes Bangkok's sex industry is about as discreet as a parade. Sidewalk touts offer girls and live sex shows in the go-go bars.

Western men and their newly hired prostitutes are frequently seen in the city's upscale shopping malls and restaurants.

So a visitor might naturally assume that this is all legal. Thailand is, after all, a country whose sex industry is famous nearly around the world.

Wrong. Prostitution is illegal and Thais are reluctant to even acknowledge the extent and nature of its existence.

But a recent Ministry of Justice proposal to legalise prostitution and a public forum scheduled for Thursday may force many to come to terms with their country's huge sex industry.

Proponents say legalisation would rid the industry of organised crime and police corruption and generate a great deal of tax revenue.

The proposal follows the similar legalisation of the country's underground lottery.

Prostitutes say it would protect them from abuse and exploitation by their customers, police and bosses, and make them eligible for state health and welfare benefits.

Many oppose the idea. Buddhist leaders and others reject it on moral grounds. Feminists say it will further entrench the view in Thailand's strongly patriarchal society of women as commodities.

Then there are those who are determined to defend Thailand's honour in the world.

Thais are weary of the country's image as a sexual paradise and the unflattering reputation of Thai women that brings. In interviews on Bangkok streets, most opposing the legalisation cited that image as a primary factor.

Others claim legalising prostitution would be thoroughly "un-Thai".

They say it runs contrary to their culture's emphasis on family values, and blame the sex industry on "an odious foreign culture", as one newspaper columnist wrote.

This sort of comment caused the Nation daily to denounce the debate as "marred by ridiculous hypocrisy cloaked in ludicrous prudishness".

Sex tourism represents only a fraction of the industry and a mere chapter in the history of Thai prostitution.

Unlike sex tourism, the domestic sex industry is highly discreet, consisting mostly of brothels which the untrained eye would not recognise as such.

"[Thai men] know where to go, and they know when they go there that no one will know about it," said Pavin Chachavalapongpun, an expert on Thai studies and a former guest lecturer at Chulalongkorn University who supports legalisation.

These are facts many Thais have difficulty accepting.

Pavin said this is because of "the way we try to create our cultural identity. Whatever is bad, we do not consider a part of our culture."

Largely unheard in the public debate so far have been the sex workers themselves.

They tell stories of abuse and harassment that they believe would end if their trade were legal.

But they vehemently oppose any sort of official sex worker registry, saying it would stigmatise them permanently and prevent them ever moving into society's mainstream.

"That document will be in the hands of police forever," said Rose, a former sex worker who now runs her own beauty salon. "You will not be able to erase your history."

Chantiwipha Aphisuk, founder of Empower, an organisation that works to educate sex workers and the public about the work they do, said she had little hope that prostitution would be legalised.

As usual, she said, sex workers were merely pawns in a much larger game about money and control.

"We are trying to communicate to people that sex workers are human beings and deserve education, social welfare, basic human rights," she said.

They could not get these under the present system.

"They think the women are something else, not human beings. I don't believe one debate will change that."

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* Thailand has about 220,000 sex workers.

* Most serve only Thai men.

* Ten years ago, nearly 75 per cent of Thai men regularly purchased the services of prostitutes, according to a study by the Public Health Ministry, although that number has probably fallen since the onset of HIV/Aids.