The Mayor of Pattaya (Thailand) has had enough of its bad reputation of “Sin City” and has embarked on (another) cleaning campaign to “eradicate the prolific gangs of teenagers who sell sexual services, amongst whom there is a high illegal drug usage” according to the Pattaya Daily News.

But Mayor Itthipol Khun-plue and Pol. Col. Nopadol Wongnom, Pattaya Superintendent failed to round-up any law-breakers in the 50 and more gay beer bars they raided. Indeed they failed to find any under 20 years-old that would happen to be an illegal sex worker in these venue where young boys only spend the night dancing for a few baht and nothing more (!). But they found plenty, about a hundred, in a famous nearby shopping mall, Sunee Plazza, where they were “soliciting”.

Mr. Itthipol Khun-pluem and Pattaya Police decided that it was about time that illicit activities were eradicated and a good reputation be created for a city that attracts millions of Thai and foreign visitors annually, but also “has been a favourite venue of criminals, sex tourists and paedophiles.”

If the Mayor and the Police really wanted “to eradicate crime and give Pattaya a good name”, why didn’t they start by closing down the 50 and more venues they raided in the first place? And the hundreds more where young girls are only spending the night dancing in skimpy garments?

The answer is plain and simple: money. Sex-workers, let’s call a cat a cat even if (s)he is over 20, do bring a lot of money into Thailand. A study by Chulalongkorn University estimates the annual income from prostitution at about 500 billion Bath (£1= 65 Baht, $1= 32 Baht), or about 10-14 per cent of the country’s GDP.

What would happen if all these “criminals, sex tourists and paedophiles” had suddenly nowhere to go? First they would probably go to Cambodia. Second the real story is not that simple. Not everybody using the services of a sex workers is a criminal, a sex tourist or a paedophile. Amalgam and simplification – it is rather surprising that the word foreigner was not used in the same sentence, don’t really help understanding or addressing a phenomenon deeply rooted in Thai Culture and that had and still has a major role in the HIV epidemic.

In a report to the Harward International Review, Corey Rennel “Child prostitution developed as a term in Thailand in 1908, when it first became illegal for children under 10 years old to enter brothels. However, “the oldest profession in the world” has thrived as an industry since the Ayudhaya period, dating back to 1350. In fact, the prostitution of children over 14 years remained legal until 1930. By 1949, Bangkok had gained such a reputation that a guidebook was published specifically for tourists traveling to Thailand to indulge their sexual pleasures.”

The legalization of prostitution in Thailand has been an ongoing debate constricted by social values rarely in phase with reality and marred by attitudes dictated by outdated social conventions from bygone days. But when times are difficult, and they are for a government perceived by many as a sock puppet of the previously Prime Minister evicted during a coup in 2006, sensationalism and demagogy always help.

A few teenagers have been arrested as well as a few illegal Burmese emigrants and all is already better in the Land of Smile. And in Pattaya, the air even started to smell jasmine I am told.

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