Thai Kids Today

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday lashed out at Time magazine for suggesting that Thailand is the sex capital of the world, saying prostitution also exists in the city where the weekly is based.

Thaksin did not single out Hong Kong, where Time's Asia edition is published, or New York City, where the US edition is edited. He urged the public not to read magazines whose articles were not "constructive" to Thailand.

The PM - who is often referred to by foreign and local journalists as being "thin-skinned" for his sensitivity to criticism against himself and his administration - was responding to a question from a Thai reporter about this week's article in Time's Internet edition.

The article, "Walkabout: You Want Massage? A new anti-vice drive gets under way in Bangkok", was posted in the "Asia Buzz" column at the magazine's website: (http://www.time.com/time/asia).

"There are prostitutes where Time is headquartered," Thaksin said. "Go see it for yourself."

The Internet-based publication, which is edited out of Hong Kong, criticised the government's new anti-vice drive, saying their attempt to enforce a long-forgotten law was "less than serious".

Referring to Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun's recent assertion that foreign visitors come to Thailand because they want to see "natural beauty" and not for exotic dancers or to take drugs, Time said: "This has to go down as one of the more ludicrous statements ever made by a government minister."

The article went on: "And while we may laugh, his comments also suggest the crackdown is less than serious."

Time said that while Purachai was playing to the three-quarters of the people in Bangkok who want to see action taken against the sex industry, and related problems, such as Aids and drugs, the interior minister's "decision to ignore other dens of iniquity - Pattaya, the Burmese border, to say nothing of Bangkok's 'closed' brothels in which prostitutes are confined night and day - shows quite how all-conquering Purachai's 'social order crusade' is likely to be. Not!"

The article predicted the city would resume being a sex tourist's paradise after Purachai rakes in enough "law-and-order" headlines.

"Let's hope the countless victims of the Thai sex trade don't believe all they read," the article said.

A recent poll by Suan Dusit claimed that 54 per cent of the 4,126 people surveyed said they supported the anti-vice drive, while 32 per cent agreed with the need to clean up the city but did not necessarily support the government's approach.