What's next for the 'bad boy' of Thai politics?

We know why girls often fall for bad boys, but Chuwit has been taking rebellious tactics to new heights, applying them in politics to good effect. He has been brazenly bad and unafraid of the consequences. Well, on certain issues at least. While he has openly admitted to paying bribes to police, he has remained quiet over allegations he’s a wife-beater.

On the one hand, Chuwit is a typical Thai politician. He’s rich and flashy (after early-life struggles, of course). His business background is morally murky, and he likely entered politics in a bid to give that murk a lighter shade, if not make it disappear entirely. Once in politics, he’s found that old habits die hard. And he’s learning that political enemies can make facing up to the law a scarier experience.

Chuwit has flaunted that typicality with wild abandon, which makes him unorthodox. Voters didn’t see just a bad politician, but a bad politician who’s relatively honest about what he has done. The “I’m bad but at least I don’t lie about it” strategy has worked wonders for his popularity. A lot of voters loved his “honesty”, momentarily forgetting that integrity should also count where electing a representative is concerned.

Chuwit’s tactics didn’t trigger a trend, and perhaps we should be grateful for that. Imagine what might happen if other politicians resorted to the same approach of self-advertisement. Election campaigns would be full of “confessions”: 

“I hit my parents when they tried to block me from going to a rock concert.” 

“I stole from my business partners.” 

“I cheated while running for school president.” 

“I did drugs”.

Not everything he’s done is so easily mimicked, though. Chuwit may be the only politician in the world who has given a TV interview wearing nothing but shorts. And this wasn’t poolside or in a gym (the interviewer was a woman, too). The thrust of the interview – What have you been doing do since the coup made you jobless? – may have prompted the muscle-flexing at the end, however, although he had said nothing about bodybuilding earlier.

The female interviewer showed remarkable composure and respect for Chuwit. The only problem was that she kept calling him “Jom Chae” (Whistle-blower). You can’t blow the whistle on a crime when you are a willing accomplice, can you? But, criticise Chuwit all you like: when it comes to making the most of politics, he’s second only to maybe one or two Thai politicians.

Who else could own one of the country’s biggest massage parlours, pay a small army to demolish bars of people who claim to be legitimate leaseholders, announce he had bribed police, and still manage to “work for the country” as an MP? 

You could of course argue that our Parliament is crawling with even worse guys. But the point is that they are all “closet sinners”, not proud confessors like Chuwit.

Flaws characterise humanity, so maybe having Chuwits, closet Chuwits and worse men than Chuwit roam the Thai assembly hall may not be too bad, politically and democratically speaking. We don’t have too many good choices, either, and we’re getting the politics we deserve. Politics elsewhere may turn decent people bad, but over here people enter politics to find redemption.

But even in the redemptive and normally forgiving Thai politics, old karma can easily come back to bite you. The razing of the bars now threatens to land Chuwit in jail for five years, depending on how the Supreme Court treats his appeal. With the verdict not due until late January, rumours have swirled that Chuwit wouldn’t return from his trip to America. The gossip prompted him to post a Facebook clip, in which he swears he will definitely come back. He even gives the date: November 17.

He had earlier withdrawn his plea of not guilty and sought mercy from the Supreme Court after a lower court handed him five years in jail without probation. “I’ve never run away from anything,” he declared in the video clip. 

The “bad boy” has vowed to face the consequences of his past acts. Whether that makes his past acts “less bad” is up to you to judge.