Bangkok Guru

Today’s biggest news in Bangkok is the story of the full blown assault on a prominent Channel 3 political correspondent by the Bangkok mayoral election candidate Chuwit Kamolvisit. I know most of you couldn’t care less about Thai politics but you just have to check this one out.

For those of you Thai politics dummies, here’s some background info: Chuwit is an outspoken, angry voyeur, part time politician who is also no stranger to controversy and political stunts. He’s also one of the biggest whistle-blowers of a lot of topical issues rife in Thai society. Wisal Dilokwanit, meanwhile, is a ruthless, sarcastic yet honest journalist who passionately believes in complete freedom of the media and is well known to enjoy asking politically awkward, inconvenient questions to absolutely anyone and everyone.

Anyway the story goes like this: the pair were preparing themselves behind the scene for the interview on Chuwit’s campaign for this weekend’s mayoral election and Chuwit somehow told Wisal about his secret ‘tactics’ he believed could help kick the arse of his arch rival Apirak and land himself Bangkok’s most sought-after post. Wisal was seemingly ambivalent about this but they agreed it wasn’t something to be taken too seriously and should be kept to themselves.

That wasn’t to be the case because later towards the end of the boiling interview Wisal started mentioning in front of camera what he and Chuwit were discussing earlier which sure enough made Chuwit’s blood boil. The aggro between the pair then became more and more intense with a torrent of abuse hurled at each other. To make matters worse, there was no clear sign of either ever backing down.

A passionate and ruthless journalist, Wisal clearly believed he had every right to expose Chuwit by asking him anything he wanted to and, after all, the earlier conversation they had together was well relevant to the upcoming election but Chuwit thought otherwise. To him, Wisal was provocative, failed to honour his words and therefore deserved a bit of kicking - he had a special treat installed for the confident journalist.

As soon as the interview was brought to an abrupt close, Chuwit wasted no time in delivering a sharp blow to Wisal’s mug effectively knocking him to the ground. He then pressed on with a couple of good kicks before finally being stopped by the film crew. Wisal was rushed to hospital where he was treated before later filing a complaint against his attacker to the Thai coppers.

Obviously this was a high profile incident and what sort of effect it will have on Chuwit’s chances we shall all find out in a few days’ time.

But my question to you is: who’s in the wrong here? Did Wisal overstep the mark and so deserve the beating? Or was Chuwit’s reaction simply out of line? You may say anything here - I can promise nobody’s going to get hurt!