Agence France-Presse
Thaksin Shinawatra was a flamboyant but divisive prime minister of Thailand, backed by vast riches that paved his path to power and then contributed to his downfall.
The fugitive 60-year-old tycoon was ousted in a military coup in 2006 after months of protests sparked by his family's sale of around two billion dollars' worth of shares in his telecommunications firm.
Thailand's top court is set to rule on Friday whether the government can seize his assets on the grounds that he boosted his wealth through abuse of power, in a move that could spark protests by his supporters.
But with or without his fortune, Thaksin is likely to remain a fixture on the kingdom's turbulent political scene.
"One could try to reduce Thaksin to his... baht, but no," Jacques Ivanoff, an anthropologist at the Research Institute on Contemporary South-East Asia, told AFP, referring to the Thai currency.
"Even if he disappears (for a time) because he doesn't have enough money to support his movements, it is Thailand, he could very well wait 10 years and in 10 years they will call him back."
Thaksin's fans, mainly from the poor rural north where he hails from, still love him for finally giving them a political voice and for introducing populist policies such as cheap healthcare and microcredit schemes.
But he is hated by Bangkok's powerful elites in the palace, military and bureaucracy who saw him as corrupt, authoritarian, a destabilising influence on the social order, and a threat to Thailand's revered monarchy.
Thaksin was born on July 26, 1949, into one of the most prominent ethnic Chinese families in northern Chiang Mai province.
He joined the police in 1973 and he and his then wife, Pojaman, soon dabbled in several businesses, with varying success, but when he left the police in the early 1980s his business career took off leasing computers.
Thaksin later founded a series of data networking and mobile telephone firms that would eventually be grouped together as telecoms giant Shin Corp.
In 1998 he moved into politics when he formed his own political party, Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) and was elected as prime minister in 2001, becoming the country's first premier to serve a full term.
He was re-elected in 2005 to create Thailand's first single party government in seven decades.
But his habit of installing relatives in key posts angered opponents, while a "war on drugs" outraged rights activists who said more than 2,200 people died in extrajudicial killings.
By 2006 the embers of discontent erupted into flame after the sale by his family of 49.6 percent of shares in his Shin Corp telecoms giant to Singapore's Temasek group, for 73.3 billion baht (2.2 billion dollars), tax-free.
Months of mass protests by the royalist "Yellow Shirt" movement culminated in the nullifying of snap elections, and in September 2006 the army finally stepped in, toppling Thaksin while he was at the United Nations in New York.
All of Thaksin's assets in Thailand were frozen in 2007.
But Thaksin continued to roam the globe in style, showing off his remaining riches by purchasing Manchester City football club, while his allies stormed in victory in the first post-coup elections in December 2007.
In 2008 he returned briefly from exile but in August he failed to return from the Olympic Games in Beijing ahead of a court ruling that gave him a two-year jail term over the illegal purchase of land by his wife.
His allies were toppled by another court ruling in that December and pro-Thaksin "Red Shirts" have since held repeated protests against the current government.
From abroad, Thaksin has continued to rile his foes in Bangkok, triggering a diplomatic spat with Cambodia in December when Phnom Penh appointed him as a government economic adviser and refused to extradite him.
And both Thaksin and his supporters have vowed to continue their campaign until he is allowed to return home.
"He has reserved a place in the collective political imagination of Thailand which he could retain with or without his money," said Ivanoff.
The fugitive 60-year-old tycoon was ousted in a military coup in 2006 after months of protests sparked by his family's sale of around two billion dollars' worth of shares in his telecommunications firm.
Thailand's top court is set to rule on Friday whether the government can seize his assets on the grounds that he boosted his wealth through abuse of power, in a move that could spark protests by his supporters.
But with or without his fortune, Thaksin is likely to remain a fixture on the kingdom's turbulent political scene.
"One could try to reduce Thaksin to his... baht, but no," Jacques Ivanoff, an anthropologist at the Research Institute on Contemporary South-East Asia, told AFP, referring to the Thai currency.
"Even if he disappears (for a time) because he doesn't have enough money to support his movements, it is Thailand, he could very well wait 10 years and in 10 years they will call him back."
Thaksin's fans, mainly from the poor rural north where he hails from, still love him for finally giving them a political voice and for introducing populist policies such as cheap healthcare and microcredit schemes.
But he is hated by Bangkok's powerful elites in the palace, military and bureaucracy who saw him as corrupt, authoritarian, a destabilising influence on the social order, and a threat to Thailand's revered monarchy.
Thaksin was born on July 26, 1949, into one of the most prominent ethnic Chinese families in northern Chiang Mai province.
He joined the police in 1973 and he and his then wife, Pojaman, soon dabbled in several businesses, with varying success, but when he left the police in the early 1980s his business career took off leasing computers.
Thaksin later founded a series of data networking and mobile telephone firms that would eventually be grouped together as telecoms giant Shin Corp.
In 1998 he moved into politics when he formed his own political party, Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) and was elected as prime minister in 2001, becoming the country's first premier to serve a full term.
He was re-elected in 2005 to create Thailand's first single party government in seven decades.
But his habit of installing relatives in key posts angered opponents, while a "war on drugs" outraged rights activists who said more than 2,200 people died in extrajudicial killings.
By 2006 the embers of discontent erupted into flame after the sale by his family of 49.6 percent of shares in his Shin Corp telecoms giant to Singapore's Temasek group, for 73.3 billion baht (2.2 billion dollars), tax-free.
Months of mass protests by the royalist "Yellow Shirt" movement culminated in the nullifying of snap elections, and in September 2006 the army finally stepped in, toppling Thaksin while he was at the United Nations in New York.
All of Thaksin's assets in Thailand were frozen in 2007.
But Thaksin continued to roam the globe in style, showing off his remaining riches by purchasing Manchester City football club, while his allies stormed in victory in the first post-coup elections in December 2007.
In 2008 he returned briefly from exile but in August he failed to return from the Olympic Games in Beijing ahead of a court ruling that gave him a two-year jail term over the illegal purchase of land by his wife.
His allies were toppled by another court ruling in that December and pro-Thaksin "Red Shirts" have since held repeated protests against the current government.
From abroad, Thaksin has continued to rile his foes in Bangkok, triggering a diplomatic spat with Cambodia in December when Phnom Penh appointed him as a government economic adviser and refused to extradite him.
And both Thaksin and his supporters have vowed to continue their campaign until he is allowed to return home.
"He has reserved a place in the collective political imagination of Thailand which he could retain with or without his money," said Ivanoff.
2 comments:
Chai Yo Thaksin. You are the man. The true elected leader. Unlike the sissy Abhisit. Abhisit is a coward and a thief.
you see CPP policy is clear, blind educated people with money and power. Look at Radio France International, this radio has already sell their head to CPP.
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