The Person
If there is a face that represents the future of Patong, it is the face of Preechavude ''Dr Prab'' Keesin. The son of Mayor Pian Keesin, Dr Prab is MD of the family's Pisona Group. Hotels, restaurants, entertainment, tours, accommodation, Pisona has a broad spread of tourism-related businesses. Dr Prab, born in 1976 on Phuket, finished his masters studies at California State University doing finance, worked in banking, then after the 2004 tsunami, returned to Patong. He is also President of the Patong Taxi Federation and president of the committee overseeing the quality of police work in Patong.
The Family Biz
I have to run around 20 companies. My staff number about 1000 people. I will soon have more because I am going to open a new hotel, it will be 744 rooms in Patong. In 2012 I will have about 1000 rooms in Patong for hotels. Now I run places for some of my friends in the Patong Bay group. We do activities with the local people and with taxi people.
Tuk-tuk Tic-tac
Three years ago the CEO of Jungceylon called me to talk about taxis. For 30 years we have been doing contracts through Pisona Tours and we are only allowed 23 cars for support. Taxis when they park have many groups, with no system. So I talked to them and we set up a group at Jungceylon. We set up a system with uniforms, english studies, and radios. Every time the city has an activity, we have a campaign. Every meeting we talk about how to make Patong stronger. How to set a fair price, how to provide better service. People must have pride in being a taxi driver.
Why so many
Drivers have to wait hours for business. There are too many tuk-tuks. You have to keep your car where it is registered. It's better than doing other things, not having a job. Many people don't have an education and don't speak english. When I was growing up there may have been 50 tuk-tuks. Now there are 600, maybe. We try to make them understand. We give them knowledge, how to be good, fair, honest. Before, we didn't talk together. It's like a social sanction - the pressure is on to improve. We have a plan. We do it step by step.
The system
The area system prevents groups from picking up passengers in another area, so passengers have to pay double. They have to come back empty. So passengers pay for both ways.
Patong's Future
Patong needs to be about fun and lifestyle but we have to keep the green areas, the beach. We have a lot of entertainment. We should have some cities to make money, to spread out through the national economy. A good beach, green area . . . in the future, Patong should be a special zone. It can also be a centre of world finance as well as tours and entertainment, like Hong Kong or Singapore. That's what I think. If you want quiet, you go to some other place.
Room Prices
I think there are not too much rooms. We perhaps have to set up an association to set standards for prices. A, five star, 6000 baht up, etc, B, C . . . so that no-one can sell lower than 500 baht a night for a simple room. The city has to check about this. We need to add quality. We need to set up an association and work with the city.
Nature
We still have laws limiting buildings above 80 metres, that's good. We should stop making roads to the hills, though. I want the government to buy back land. Stop constructing, stop making roads to the hills. We should do something now. We should keep the green areas.
Beach chairs
I want the government to buy out the beach chairs. Keep the beaches clean. I have many things in my ideas. The vendors can rent out towels instead. The government has to buy back the lounges. We have to have real control. Otherwise there are triple lines of lounges, and no control. We tried to talk with the vendor association many times. The people who have the right to work on the beach should work more together. It should be a city law: no more beach chairs.
New Generations
The old Patong people are becoming less and less. It should become easier to change. Bangla, a littler more up Sansabai, we should have laws governing opening to 6am ir we should have a law saying 24 hours, but for me 6am is enough. For discotheques, karaokes, the sound should be covered. The problem is the owners, the entertainment people. They go to police and try to push them. What are police, what are they going to do?
Closing hours
We have to spread out the money for the good future of Patong. We open late, but no drugs. No people under 18. Don't do something bad. We don't have too many drugs. We work together. Police come to close a little bit late. Maybe they start closing early. They do their job. Let people have fun. People come here to be happy.
Construction
If I had authority, I'd stop it. I see in Europe they have unique designs. We don't want ugly things, we want something good for tourists. I would say, ok we have 20 designs for you. I would have to stop my new resort, too, if the law said we stop. I have 60 rai, we will build on only 20. Forty is clean, I keep it natural and don't cut the trees too much.
Family
The mayor is my Dad. He has been a very good Dad. Biut when we work, we are totally different. I am financial, he is political. I do not think like a politician. I always do business for social reasons. When Patong people have good knowledge, good minds, Patong is going to be happy. Everything here starts with people. I think, It is not all about money.
The Future
I want Patong to be famous, to be ready to be a world-class city. I think about Singapore and Hong Kong, green and civilised. When people come we want them to come to see the sea first. We need to improve Loma Park. Let them see Patong. Now it's going the wrong way, the one-way.
Mafia
They [tuk-tuks] just protect their area. It is not like Italy 50years ago. OK, some bad people we have. But we don't call them mafia, they just protect their workplace areas. They just protect their areas only. 'If you park here, we won't allow it.' We need the new system along beach road.
Soi Bangla
It's so expensive to rent because it is like a landmark. Everyone comes to Patong because of Bangla. They want to see ladyboys, or bar girls. They want to go shopping. The landmark of Patong is not Patong beach. The landmark of Patong is Soi Bangla. In one hour Bangla makes 50 million baht. We worked out from 10pm to 2am, in four hours, every bar makes 2000, 3000 baht an hour, a discotheque maybe 50,000-100,000 baht every hour. There are almost 800 bars.
Corruption
When we talk about corruption in Patong, we have to talk about the whole world. Every country has it the same. Between business and the law, they work together. There is give and take. Patong is Patong. Police do not accept drugs. The thing is 50-50 between business and government. They do not allow bad things. I think it is bad, but sometimes we have to understand. The city is changing, but the law is very old. We need to have income for education, good health, and generally, corruption is not too bad. But we do not want more. We should change the law to avoid corruption. It's like a secret. Nobody knows who takes the money. Nobody knows the exact number. It has happened for 200 years already. The corruption in Patong is like a ghost: never seen, but we know it's there.
This article first appeared in the new, regular 'The Heat' column in the Phuket Post Issue 145.
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Interesting, positive guy --- let's take him at his word, address that welter of responsibility/authority of politics, bureaucracy and police that's been highlighted lately, set tangible priorities with Phuketwan to keep us aware of it all.
Posted by ssresident on December 1, 2010 11:33