Agence France Presse

Bangkok, February 18:

Thai massage parlour king turned politician Chuwit Kamolvisit made his legislative debut today by smashing a bath tub with his trademark sledgehammer and lying in a coffin outside parliament. Chuwit, who will represent the Chart Thai party, performed the stunt outside the parliament building before filing papers to officially register as an incoming lawmaker.

“I smashed the bath tub to show that I am no longer involved in the massage parlour business, and I laid down in the casket to show that the old Chuwit has died and now voters have voted to give birth to a new Chuwit,” he told reporters.

Chuwit made a fortune peddling sleaze but reinvented himself as a champion against corruption and won a surprising third place in Bangkok’s gubernatorial election in August. He tried and failed to start his own political party, but agreed to run for parliament under Chart Thai’s banner. The party hoped his notoriety in Bangkok and his penchant for publicity would help them score a few extra seats in the election that gave Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra an unprecedented second. His campaign posters showed Chuwit with a sledgehammer in mid-swing, which he said symbolised his drive for justice against corruption. Chart Thai had joined Thaksin’s governing coalition after his first electoral victory in 2001, but Thaksin won enough seats in the February 6 polls to form a single-party government.