Thaksin had divisive style

Thaksin had divisive style
POSTED: 0845 GMT (1645 HKT), September 20, 2006


http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/20/thailand.thaksin.ap/index.html

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Eighteen months ago, tycoon-turned-politician Thaksin Shinawatra won a landslide election victory and became a rising star on the regional stage. Today, he is out of a job after a coup d'etat and considering life in exile.

It was a dramatic fall for the 57-year-old billionaire known as the CEO prime minister for his corporate style but also a fate that critics said was deserved.

He had no shortage of enemies in Thailand who claimed he was authoritarian, arrogant and someone who survived by pitting the rural majority against the country's urban elite.

"We warned Thaksin a long time ago about this. We repeatedly said that Thaksin and his system would be a condition for a coup," said Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the anti-Thaksin protest group People's Alliance for Democracy.

"Thaksin and the government just claimed that they won the election by a landslide, so they could use their power as they pleased," he said.

Thai Army Chief Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratklin Tuesday night led a rapid, well-orchestrated overthrow while Thaksin was away in New York. (Full story)

Thaksin is reportedly headed to London to meet his family and it remains unclear whether he will return to Thailand.

Thaksin, who hails from a family of silk merchants and was educated in the United States, rose to power in 2001 on a raft of populist policies as Thailand was recovering from Asia's devastating financial crisis. He described himself a new breed of politician, who could revitalize Thailand by running it like a company.

But even before he took office, Thaksin courted controversy.

A week before the 2001 election, Thaksin was charged with concealing assets in his telecommunications empire by transferring shares to relatives, his chauffeur, maid and others. At one point, two of his domestic servants were among the top 10 shareholders on Thailand's stock exchange.

Despite his questionable ethics, Thaksin won over voters by accusing the incumbent Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai of failing to properly manage the country's economy and of neglecting the poor.

Thaksin nurtured his core constituency in the countryside, lavishing the poor rural majority with virtually free health care, a three-year debt suspension program for farmers and low-interest loans for poor villages.

But his popularity in the countryside was matched by growing criticism in the cities, where activists and intellectuals portrayed him as an autocrat masquerading as a democrat. They accused him of disregarding human rights, muffling the press and blurring the lines between his private businesses and politics.

Thaksin came under fire for his war on drugs in 2003 that left 2,300 Thais dead over a three-month period. He was also accused of mishandling the worsening Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand, after he imposed a state of the emergency that led to rights abuses and failed to stem the violence that has left more than 1,700 dead since 2004.

Despite his problems, Thaksin was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2005 to a second term when his Thai Rak Thai party won 377 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives. His main defense against critics since then has been that he enjoys a mandate endorsed by 19 million voters.

But that didn't stop protesters mostly in Bangkok from launching a campaign to oust Thaksin in October.

What started as a quirky protest led by publisher Sondhi Limthongkul caught fire in January, after Thaksin sold the family's controlling stake of Shin to Singapore's state investment company, Temasek Holdings, for 73.3 billion baht (US$1.9 billion). No tax was paid on the sale.

Critics say the Shin deal involved insider trading and tax dodges and complained that national assets -- including communications satellites -- were sold to a foreign government.

Anger over the sale helped the movement attract middle class voters, students and business leaders, prompting street rallies that became nightly protests and at times drew over 100,000 people who demanded his resignation.

Thaksin responded by dissolving Parliament in February and called snap elections to defuse the protests. But opposition parties boycotted the polls and millions of voters marked an abstention box on their ballots as a protest against the prime minister.

Because a minimum vote rule was not met in some constituencies, the Parliament could not be convened. The vote was later ruled invalid by the courts, forcing the new polls to be held later this year.

Thaksin initially said he would step down to ease the crisis but in recent weeks has been acting and talking like a politician on the come back trail.

With elections expected for later this year, Thaksin briefly resumed his weekly radio show and predicted his Thai Rak Thai party would win the vote. At times he hinted that he would return as prime minister if the party won, at others he said he was considering bowing out of politics.

Just days ago in New York, Thaksin seemed to unaware of the events unfolding back home. He made light of the ongoing political crisis, comparing Thailand to a "child learning to walk" but refusing to say what his future held.

"I, for one, haven't seen a child learning to walk without bumping his bottom constantly," he told a crowd in New York. "As adults, we must learn to live with the pain and the pangs of democracy, lest we throw out the baby with the bathwater."

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