Thailand - Thaksin Shinawatra. As the military coup changes the political face of Thailand this documentary offers a recent background report on the growing opposition to Thaksin. A series of political and financial scandals have turned many of Thaksin's former supporters against him. Opponents are determined to force him from power. "At first I thought he looked like quite a nice guy. But now he's showing us his true colours", states one protester. At the core of the growing dissent is the sale of his family's shares in ShinCorp, to the Singapore government. It's a deal which may have broken ten laws. Is Prime Minister Thaksin enriching his business empire at the country's expense? Anti-Thaksin protests are escalating, prompted by public outrage at his commercial deals. "All the companies doing well are related to the Prime Minster's family", states analyst Somkiat Tangitvanich. His family has made large profits off government concessions in aviation, media and telecommunications. There are allegations of a conflict of interest and attempts to muzzle the press.
Thaksin Shinawatra became the first prime minister in Thailand's history to lead an elected government through a full four-year term in office. Eighteen months later he was out of office after a military coup ousted him as he prepared to give a speech in New York to the United Nations. According to his opponents - who highlighted his intolerance of criticism and his failure to end separatist violence in the country's south - his fall can be traced back to his family's decision at the start of 2006 to sell its shares in one of Thailand's biggest telecom groups, Shin Corp. The sale, which netted family members and others $1.9bn, angered many urban Thais, who complained that the family avoided paying tax and passed control of an important national asset to Singaporean investors.
With calls mounting for him to resign over the issue and large-scale street protests, Mr Thaksin called a snap general election for April, effectively telling opponents to "put up or shut up". But main opposition parties boycotted the polls and many voters chose to register a "no vote". Several unopposed ruling party candidates failed to achieve the 20% of votes needed to become MPs, leaving parliament unable to convene. Faced with the threat of further protests, Mr Thaksin said he would step down. He did for a few weeks, but returned to office in May ahead of a re-run of April's elections later in the year. Following months of political uncertainty, Thai army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin led a coup in September which stripped Mr Thaksin's government of all powers.
Former policeman
Born in 1949 in the northern city of Chiang Mai, Mr Thaksin started his career as a police officer. In 1973, he received a government scholarship to study for a masters degree in criminal justice in the United States. When he returned he went into business, and during the late 1980s began building a telecommunications empire, helped by cornering state monopolies. He founded his Thai Rak Thai (Thai Loves Thai party) in 1998, and its rapid emergence transformed Thai politics. Mr Thaksin swept into office in 2001, soundly defeating the old guard from the Democrat Party. Poorer voters liked his offers of cheap medical care and debt relief, his nationalist platform and his contempt for the "Bangkok elite". But big business also liked him for his CEO style of government and his "Taksinomics" policies which created a new boom in the country where the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s began. Mr Thaksin also won support for his handling of the tsunami relief effort after the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster, which devastated parts of south-western Thailand.
Overcoming criticism
But other things were not so easy. He had to face the fallout from his government's suppression of news of an outbreak of bird flu, as well as continuing criticism over his methods of stamping out crime. The violent deaths of more than 2,500 people during a crackdown on drugs ordered by Mr Thaksin in 2003 did not affect his public support, neither did an earlier finding by Thailand's Corruption Commission that he had failed to declare all of his wealth. He even weathered criticism over the government's handling of the upsurge in violence in the largely Muslim south, where more than 1,000 people have died since an insurgency began in early 2004. Each time Mr Thaksin appeared to ride out the storm, his backing among his key supporters - Thailand's rural voters - apparently unscathed. But the sale of Shin Corp fuelled an already active opposition, creating a political storm that has proved to be a very rocky ride for Mr Thaksin.
Profile Thaksin Shinawatra. |
 Thaksin Shinawatra Thaksin then returned to Thailand to work in the Royal Thai Police Department. By 1987, when he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, he was the deputy superintendent of the policy and planning subdivision in the Bangkok metropolitan bureau. That year, Thaksin resigned from the police department to be chairman of his own company, Shinawatra Computer and Communications Group, which he had founded by a different name in 1982. Thaksin became a self-made billionaire, and one of Thailand's wealthiest individuals, by developing a business empire in the telecommunications industry that benefited from exclusive government contracts for mobile telephones, cable television, and satellite services.
In October 1994 Thaksin embarked on a political career when he was appointed minister of foreign affairs in the government of Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. He resigned from this post in February 1995 due to a constitutional amendment prohibiting members of government from holding monopolistic concessions with government or state bodies. Although Thaksin had resigned as chairman of the board of directors of his parent company to hold political office, he and his wife, Potjaman, continued to be controlling shareholders. Later in 1995 they resigned from all board positions and sold their shares to below 50 percent, enabling Thaksin to hold a government post.
In May Thaksin became the leader of the Palang Dharma (Righteous Force) Party. The general elections in July of that year brought Thaksin's party into a coalition government under Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa. Thaksin was appointed deputy prime minister in charge of traffic management in Bangkok. In August 1996, however, Thaksin led the Palang Dharma's withdrawal from the government, which had become incapacitated by dissension between its coalition parties. The coalition government was dissolved in September. Thaksin resigned as the leader of Palang Dharma after it lost all but 1 of its 23 Bangkok seats in the November general election. Later that month he was again appointed deputy prime minister, this time in the cabinet of Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. Thaksin lost this post a year later, however, when Chavalit resigned and Chuan became prime minister a second time.
In July 1998 Thaksin formed a new political party, Thai Rak Thai. He campaigned for the next general election on a populist platform, promising to relieve the economic plight of indebted farmers, rural villages, and struggling businesses. Thai Rak Thai won the January 2001 elections-the first to be held under the reformist 1997 constitution-by a landslide margin over the incumbent Democrat Party of Chuan. After Thaksin won a parliamentary mandate to become prime minister, he negotiated a political merger that made Thai Rak Thai the first governing party in the country's history to have an outright majority in the House of Representatives, with 262 out of 500 seats. Thai Rak Thai further strengthened its political base through a coalition with two other parties, thereby securing control of 339 seats.
In December 2000, meanwhile, Thaksin was indicted by the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) on charges he had violated financial disclosure laws when he served as deputy prime minister in 1997. The Constitutional Court agreed to consider the case, and as Thaksin began his term he faced the possibility of being banned from political office for five years. Thaksin claimed the disclosure violation was an unintentional mistake and maintained overwhelming public support during the court hearings. In August 2001 the court acquitted Thaksin.
In January 2006, however, opposition forces renewed the charges of corruption and abuse of power after the Thaksin family sold a controlling stake in a telecommunications firm. Opposition parties said Thaksin had used his political position to bolster his fortune. In February, Thaksin dissolved parliament and called for new elections in an attempt to win a vote of confidence. Three opposition parties boycotted the April election, and although the Thai Rak Thai Party won a majority of the votes, the boycott and a large protest vote apparently induced Thaksin to resign. The day after the election he handed over power to a deputy prime minister.
The following month, however, Thaksin returned to work as caretaker prime minister. Later, in September, while he was out of the country attending a session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, a military coup was staged and the leaders seized power in Bangkok. A Democratic Reform Council was formed, headed by General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, leader of the coup, and General Surayud Chulanont was installed as interim prime minister. Shortly after the coup, Thaksin arrived in the United Kingdom with his family, and announced his decision to step down as leader of the Thai Rak Thai.
 Map Thailand Central Thailand is dominated by a large fertile plain, formed by the country's chief river, the Chao Phraya, and its tributaries. Much of the country's rice and other crops are grown in this region. Mountains and plateaus surround the central plain on the west, north, and east. The western mountain ranges extend south onto the Malay Peninsula (Malaya). Bangkok, located on the Chao Phraya near the Gulf of Thailand, is Thailand's capital and largest city. Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, has many canals, which makes it well suited for water-based activities such as this floating market.
Thai people form the large majority of Thailand's population, and most of them practice Theravada Buddhism. Other ethnic groups within the population include Chinese, Malays, and indigenous hill peoples, such as the Hmong and Karen. Thailand is known for its highly refined classical music and dance and for a wide range of folk arts. Traditionally based on agriculture, Thailand's economy began developing rapidly in the 1980s.
Bangkok, known in Thai as Krung Thep ("City of Angels"), is Thailand's capital and largest city, and it dominates the country politically and economically. A seaport located in the southern part of the central plain on the estuary of the Chao Phraya, it became the capital of Siam in 1782, following Thon Buri, which was the capital from 1767 to 1782, and Ayutthaya (1351-1767). Bangkok is a vibrant city, in which the old blends with the new. Within the city, traditional, multicolored temples (wat) and royal palaces are dwarfed by modern skyscrapers. Bangkok suffers from notorious traffic congestion, annual flooding, and severe air pollution. Migration to Bangkok from north and northeast Thailand has swelled the city's population. Other important Thai cities include Nakhon Ratchasima, an industrial city in east Thailand; Nonthaburi, a suburb of Bangkok; Chiang Mai, the largest city in the northern mountains; and Songkhla, a coastal city in the southern peninsula. Chiang Mai and Songkhla are noted for their tourist attractions.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
