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Thaksin Shinawatra Wikipedia

Thaksin Shinawatra (Thai alphabet|Thai: ทักษิณ ชินวัตร; born July 26, 1949), Thailand|Thai politician, is the current List of Prime Ministers of Thailand|prime minister of Thailand and the leader of the populist Thai Rak Thai party. As head of the Shin Corporation which controls (among others) Thailand's largest mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service (AIS), he was the richest man in Thailand before transferring ownership of the company to his family, maids & drivers. His wife Potjaman Shinawatra has long been supported him both in the political front stage and in the business back stage.

Thaksin was born in Sankamphaeng in Chiang Mai province. He is a Hakka Thai Chinese with ancestry in Meizhou, Guangdong, China. He graduated from the Thai Police Cadet Academy and joined the Royal Thai Police Department in 1973, but went on to obtain a Master's Degree in criminal justice from the Eastern Kentucky University in the United States, in 1975. In 1978 he received a doctorate in criminal justice at Sam Houston State University in Texas. After reaching the position of Deputy Superintendent of the Policy and Planning Sub-division, General Staff Division, Metropolitan Police Bureau, Thaksin quit the police to form the Shinawatra Computer and Communications Group in 1987. One of the group's members, Shinawatra Paging, is now Thailand's largest mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service|AIS. In 1990, Thaksin made a daring but successful bid for a 20-billion baht, 20-year concession to operate the Thaicom Satellite.

Thaksin entered politics in 1994 as foreign minister in the Palang Dharma Party, promising to clean up politics. This was followed by a brief stint as Deputy Prime Minister and head of the PDP, ending in 1997 when the party imploded. In 1998, Thaksin formed his own Thai Rak Thai ("Thais Love Thais") party and started campaigning against the alleged corruption of other Thai politicians. At the Thailand legislative election, 2001|January 2001 Thai elections he won a sweeping victory and became Prime Minister of Thailand.

Like Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Thaksin has been dogged by the conflict of interest between his post as Prime Minister and his massive business interests, and in 2001 he only narrowly escaped conviction (and a 5-year ban on holding political office) for concealing financial assets. It has been alleged that the judges were bought in his trial and investigations are underway.

Thaksin's government has been unabashedly populism|populist, spending money on popular causes like cheap loans to farmers and subsidized health care. His supporters claim that these economic policies, dubbed Thaksinomics, are responsible for bringing about Thailand's economic recovery from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Critics, however, charge that Thaksinomics is little more than old-fashioned fiscal pump-priming disguised as something new and revolutionary.

Thaksin's 2003 campaign against drug dealers was alleged to amount to the extrajudicial execution of several hundred suspects, and was heavily criticized by civil rights watchdogs. There have also been complaints that Thaksin has been stacking the civil service with his relatives and business associates, for example by elevating his cousin, General Chaiyasit Shinawatra, from a remote district to Army commander-in-chief.

He was re-elected in the Thailand legislative election, 2005| February 2005 elections. In spite of reports of widespread corruption in his administration, Thaksin won a landslide victory, with his Thai Rak Thai party sweeping 374 out of 500 seats in Parliament, while the main opposition Democrat Party (Thailand)|Democrat Party lost more than a quarter of its representation, retaining only 94 seats. Thaksin's party gained the seats mostly from the north and north-eastern area with his pro-poor campaign. The Thai Rak Thai garnered very few votes in Bangkok and the central provinces, and even fewer from the south, where the main terrorist problem exists.

He and the Shin Corporation, the flagship business of his family, are suing journalists with large monetary damage claims in order to silence their allegations of rampant corruption in his administration.

Last Modified:   2005-11-07