Thailand mulls legalizing prostitution

BANGKOK, Thailand -- One of Thailand's biggest industries has been illegal for decades and pays no taxes. It fosters police corruption and treats its workers like second-class citizens.

Clearly, the government says, it's time to open a debate on legalizing prostitution, a multi-billion-dollar industry that employs 200,000 women and provides livelihoods to millions.

On Thursday, the Justice Ministry will hold an unprecedented public discussion on a Justice Ministry proposal to legalize prostitution and register sex workers.

Representatives of the government, sex industry, non government organizations and academics will participate in the one-day conference to discuss human rights, legal, economic, cultural, social and moral aspects of the sex trade.

"We tackle this problem one way or another," Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana said in a recent interview. "Maybe we will approach the problem of prostitution differently than we do now."

Prostitution has been illegal for 75 years but is widely accepted as part of the society, operating openly in garishly lit bars in Bangkok's infamous Patpong street, massage parlors and in unassuming brothels in the countryside.

Proponents say legalization would give sex workers access to social services, health care and protection from abuse while exposing corruption among the industry's gatekeepers -- police, politicians and business owners.

"We just want to take care of ourselves," said Noi, a 26-year-old who has worked as a prostitute for the past two years and asked to be identified only by her nickname. "But we need insurance, we need everything."

She said if prostitution becomes legal "we won't have to hide from the police" and would have recourse against customers who beat them or refuse to pay.

Chantawipa Apisuk, who runs Empower, an educational organization promoting the rights of sex workers, says as long as prostitution is illegal, "the mafia will be the employer and ... the sex slaves will be employees."

Legalization would also allow the government to tax prostitutes, diverting income from Thailand's massive underground economy, something Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has touted as a possible strategy for boosting the economy.

By the same reasoning, he has already moved to massively expand legalized gambling.

The extent of police exploitation of the sex industry came to light earlier this year when Chuwit Kamolvisit, a business tycoon who owns a massage parlor chain in Bangkok, claimed he has been paying millions of dollars in protection money to police.

Chuwit made the government realize that such amounts could, and perhaps should, go into its coffers instead, said Pasuk Phongpaichit, a professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University who has co-written a book on Thailand's illegal economy.

According to Pasuk revenue derived from the sex trade is roughly about 174 billion baht ($4.3 billion) a year, or 3 percent of the gross domestic product.

But critics fear that legalizing sex trade is not a solution for ending the exploitation of women.

"If it's about the dirty police force, clean it up. Legalization will not help," said Virada Somswasdi, a professor at Chiang Mai University, who will be a panelist at the debate.

In other countries, such as Australia, where prostitution has been legalized, "a lot of underground activities still go on," she said. "It's proved that it doesn't work."

Prostitution became an integral part of Thai society in the early 1900s when brothels proliferated to serve an influx of Chinese immigrants, many of them unmarried men. The trade was legal, regulated and zoned.

Prostitution was made illegal in 1928, and the laws against it strengthened in 1960 -- just a few years before an influx of American soldiers during the Vietnam War opened up a whole new facet of the trade catering to foreigners.

--Agents/AP 2003-11-23

I thought he had, then enlisted the country as a worker and called the bill "Thailand Elite Card".

Just my opinion.