The distinction between a whistleblower and a cunning schemer is increasingly blurred in Thailand, which has one of the highest rates of squealers in the world—most of whom work in politics. Chuvit Kamolvisit is unquestionably from another planet, controversial though they may be.
He cannot advocate against the Bhumjaithai Party’s marijuana policy because of a court order. During his verbal altercation with renowned attorney Sittra Biabungkerd, worms started to appear everywhere. Without him, “Chinese grey businesses” would not have received the attention it did. He confronted a powerful media outlet, the Manager, alleging widespread kickbacks in government projects. His kind donations to the Siriraj and Thammasat University hospitals were returned, but their actions were clearly motivated by image concerns.
Others praise him for “having the guts” to challenge just about anyone, regardless of how influential they are in Thai culture, but others are unable to get over their deep cynicism or skepticism, especially when they consider the man’s plot of land in Sukhumvit.
The anticipated worth of the land when a significant development plan is taken into account eclipses that of the majority, if not all, of the secrets revealed by Chuvit. On the property, which is situated between BTS Nana and Sukhumvit Soi 10, some construction has already started. If approved, the Tenth Avenue mix-use development project will cost about Bt10 billion.
The issue is this: Records seemed to indicate that Chuvit shortened his jail time by promising to turn the property into a public park. After deploying bulldozers to destroy his tenants’ businesses in the dead of night in 2003, he allegedly wanted to curry favor with the courts by allowing the area to turn into a “Bangkok lung.” At the time, it was a significant case, and it still leaves a significant scar on his colorful and controversial past.
Until reaching a resolution in the middle of 2016, the “beer bar demolition” lawsuit dragged on for years. Chuvit was found guilty thanks to his collaboration, but the Supreme Court reduced his sentence from five years to two years due to his ostensible goodwill gesture. Hence, it was understandable that many people were miffed when the “Chuvit Garden” was made inaccessible to those looking for pure air roughly ten years after it had first opened. “I have allowed the land to be used for public services for twelve years when I could have obtained billions of baht from it,” he claimed at this point as the scrutiny of his motives increased.
But, that statement was very different from what he had previously claimed. Allowing the land to be used as a park was a noble and charitable act that wealthy businesspeople should emulate about 20 years ago. He continued to teach that when you pass away, there is nothing you can take with you, and some undertakers may even remove the ceremonially placed coins from the coffin.
Just what he said in 2005 was as follows: The name of this garden is Chuvit, but I prefer SuanSajai (which can be loosely translated as What the heck am I going to do this way garden). I’m a man of my word, not a press conference troll who only speaks crap. I would want to request that all wealthy landlords in Bangkok put their otherwise vacant properties to honourable use.
And in 2005: “I used to pledge to give Bangkok a lung and I want it to serve as a reminder to people with hundreds of billions of baht that money cannot follow them into the hereafter. The undertaker has the authority to grab even the coins placed in the coffin, known as ngern paak phi. On this property, I had planned to build a four-star hotel and had already paid Bt30 million for the blueprint, but I have now scrapped the idea.
Legal issues aside, spoken interpretation will be a difficult task. Did he claim to be permanently renunciating the land? No, he now corrected himself. Only his prior statements about death and material possessions are certain; however, it is unclear if he intended to permanently transfer the land to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
Making a decision about the now-defunct “Chuvit Garden” may be popular Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt’s first significant task. The official’s team has been tasked with investigating prior judgments, witness testimony, and the legality of general statements. There must be a lot of other people doing the same thing right now.
(After discussing the governor of Bangkok, consider the commotion that would have ensued if Chuvit had succeeded in realizing his desire to lead his city and had to handle the park problem at the same time.)
It was attorney Sittra who asserted that verbal agreements are just as binding as written ones, particularly when legal proceedings are involved. This has fueled the two men’s argument over whose money-making methods were “dirtier.” Re-investigation into how donations made to Chaiyaphol Wipa, the main suspect in the disappearance and death of a three-year-old girl in 2020, were handled has resulted as a result of this.
To make a very long story short, Chaiyaphol asserted during the Chuvit-Sittra controversy that, despite Sittra’s claims to the public that he did not charge him a single baht for his defense legal services, his (Chaiyaphol’s) fanclub was making significant donations to the foundation connected to Sittra’s law firm. Sittra has refuted the allegations and is apparently preparing to file a lawsuit. He abruptly ended his work for Chaiyaphol shortly after the suspect was taken into custody.
This was an illustration of how powerful storms Chuvit can produce. In the past, his actual involvement in the flesh trade received less attention than his assertions that he had to bribe the police heavily.
One must know one, as the saying goes. Even though Chuvit and his opponents still have more unclean laundry that needs to be cleared out in public, it is undoubtedly a major factor in why so many people, whether rightly or not, adore the guy.
