Chuwit, and, Bangkok, Governor's, Race

The Bangkok Post:

Rivals of the Democrats' Bangkok governor candidate, the former city chief Apirak Kosayodhin, are making criticisms of his projects a key element of their campaigns.

Chuwit Kamolvisit, independent No 8 candidate
...while Mr Chuwit has hit out at the so-called "smart" taxi stands scheme.

Mr Chuwit yesterday held a press conference in which he bombarded Mr Apirak, who is running for a second term as Bangkok governor, over the installation of the 150 "smart" taxi stands in the capital, designed to solve traffic problems.

The smart taxi stands allow passengers to call a cab by pressing a button linked to a call centre.

Mr Chuwit yesterday said Mr Apirak's smart taxi stands were a flop and should be called "stupid" taxi stands instead.

According to him, passengers used services from those stands about 180,000 times in 2006, when the project was introduced.

Last year, the number of passengers' calls for taxis dropped to 150,000, but only 54,000 calls - or 36% - were responded to by taxi drivers.

The project was impractical, said Mr Chuwit, as most of the stands had been installed in downtown areas such as Ratchayothin, Silom and Sathon, where taxis were plentiful. The stands should have been installed on the outskirts of the city, such as Min Buri and Nong Chok, he added.

Only a small number of cabs joined the project because they have to pay 45,000 baht to install the GPRS system to locate customers.

"In several areas, the taxi stands have been turned into the parking areas of food carts," said the massage parlour tycoon-turned-politician.

To back up his claims, he called a taxi passing the hotel and asked the driver's views.

Taxi driver Thawin Srikasem, 60, who has been in the job for 35 years, said that so far he has never been called to pick up waiting passengers from the stands.

BP: Chuwit has been rather quiet recently. He must have been biding his time as the above was a classic Chuwit political stunt.* It is hard to explain without seeing it on TV how effective such stunts are. Chuwit can get the TV cameras and media to follow him. Instead of holding a press conference in some hotel, he goes to one of the taxi stands and demonstrates that it doesn't work. He is his colorful self as ever although I still wonder how seriously people take him as being in government. Chuwit is better suited to being an opposition MP or Senator who acts as a government critic.

btw, Absolutely Bangkok recently interviewed Chuwit.

* One of my first posts from February 2005 was on Chuwit and his political stunts.