San Kamphaeng, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Nationality~Thai
Political party~Thai Rak Thai (formerly)
Spouse~ Potjaman Shinawatra (1980–2008)
Profession~Businessman Entrepreneur
Religion~ Buddhism
Signature
23rd Prime Minister of Thailand
In office~9 February 2001 – 19 September 2006
Monarch~Rama IX
Special Economic Adviser to Cambodia
In office~4 November 2009 – 23 August 2010
Monarch ~Norodom Sihamoni
Prime Minister~Hun Sen
Early life
Thaksin was born in San Kamphaeng, Chiang Mai province. He lived in the village of San Kamphaeng until he was 15, then moved to Chiang Mai city to study at Montfort College. At 16, he helped run one of his father's cinemas
Thaksin's great-great-grandfather Seng Sae Khu was a Hakka Chinese immigrant from Meizhou, Guangdong who arrived in Siam in the 1860s and settled in Chiang Mai in 1908. His eldest son, Chiang Sae Khu, was born in 1890 and married a Thai woman, Saeng Somna. Chiang's eldest son, Sak, adopted the Thai surname Shinawatra ("does good routinely") in 1938, and the rest of the family followed suit.
Thaksin's father, Lert, was born in Chiang Mai in 1919 and married Yindi Ramingwong (a daughter of Princess Jantip Na Chiang Mai). In 1968, Lert Shinawatra entered politics and became an MP for Chiang Mai.
Seng Sae Khu made his fortune through tax farming. The Khu/Shinawatra family later founded Shinawatra Silks and then moved into finance, construction and property development. Lert Shinawatra opened a coffee shop and several businesses, and grew oranges and flowers in Chiang Mai's San Kamphaeng district. By the time Thaksin was born, the extended Shinawatra family was one of the richest and most influential in Chiang Mai.
Thaksin married Potjaman Damapong in 1980. They have one son, Panthongtae and two daughters, Pintongtha and Peathongtarn. They divorced in 2008.
Police career
Thaksin Shinawatra was a member of the 10th class of the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School, and was then admitted to the Thai Police Cadet Academy. Upon graduation in 1973, he joined the Royal Thai Police Department. He received a master's degree in Criminal Justice from Eastern Kentucky University in the United States in 1975, and three years later was awarded a doctorate in Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University in Texas. Returning to Thailand, he reached the position of Deputy Superintendent of the Policy and Planning Sub-division, General Staff Division, Metropolitan Police Bureau, before resigning in 1987 as a lieutenant colonel. His wife, Potjaman Damapong, is the daughter of a police general.
Business career
Early ventures
Thaksin and his wife began several businesses while he was still in the police, including a silk shop, a movie theater, and an apartment building. All were failures and left him over 50 million baht in debt. In 1982 he established ICSI; using his police contacts, he leased computers to government agencies with modest success. However, later ventures in security systems (SOS) and public bus radio services (Bus Sound) all failed. In April 1986, he founded Advanced Info Service (AIS), which started off as a computer rental business.
In 1987 Thaksin resigned from the police. He then marketed a romance drama called "Baan Sai Thong", which became a popular success in theaters. In 1988 he joined Pacific Telesis to operate and market the PacLink pager service, a modest success, though Thaksin later sold his shares to establish his own paging company. In 1989 he launched IBC, a cable television company, which lost money and eventually merged with the CP Group's UTV. In 1989, Thaksin established a data networking service, Shinawatra DataCom,] today known as Advanced Data Network and owned by AIS and the TOT. Many of Thaksin's businesses were later consolidated as Shin Corp.
Advance Info Service and later ventures
Founded in April 1986, Advanced Info Service (AIS) started off as a computer rental business. In October 1990, it launched analog 900 MHz mobile phone services with a 20 year monopoly concession from the Telephone Organization of Thailand, and later became the first company allowed to operate on the GSM 900 frequency. The mobile phone boom in Thailand was just beginning, with Total Access Communications receiving a concession a month later for the GSM 1800 frequency. AIS grew rapidly and was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in November 1991. It established a GSM network in 1994 and eventually became the largest mobile phone operator in Thailand.
The Shinawatra Computer and Communications Group was founded in 1987 and listed in 1990.
In 1990, Thaksin founded Shinawatra Satellite, which has developed and operated four Thaicom communications satellites.
In 1999, the Shinawatra family spent some 1 billion baht establishing Shinawatra University in Pathum Thani. It offered international programs in engineering, architecture, and business management.
In 2000, Thaksin acquired the ailing iTV television station from the Crown Property Bureau, Nation Multimedia Group, and Siam Commercial Bank.
Entry into politics
Political debut
Thaksin entered politics in late 1994 through Chamlong Srimuang, who had just reclaimed the position of Palang Dharma Party (PDP) leader from Boonchu Rojanastien. In a subsequent purge of Boonchu-affiliated PDP Cabinet ministers, Thaksin was appointed Foreign Minister in December 1994, replacing Prasong Soonsiri. Twelve years later, after Thaksin was removed from power, Chamlong Srimuang expressed regret at getting "such a corrupt person" into politics. The PDP soon withdrew from the government over the Sor Por Kor 4-01 land reform corruption scandal, causing the government of Chuan Leekpai to collapse.
PDP leader and Deputy Prime Minister under Banharn
Chamlong, strongly criticized for mishandling internal PDP politics in the last days of the Chuan-government, retired from politics and hand-picked Thaksin as new PDP leader. Thaksin ran for election for the first time for the constitutional tribunal and lost.
Thaksin joined the government of Banharn Silpa-Archa and was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Bangkok traffic. In May 1996, he and four other PDP ministers quit the Banharn Cabinet (while retaining their MP seats), prompting a Cabinet reshuffle. Many have claimed that Thaksin's move was designed to help give Chamlong Srimuang a boost in the June 1996 Bangkok Governor elections, which Chamlong returned from retirement to contest.But Chamlong lost to Bhichit Rattakul, an independent.
Chamlong's failure to buttress the PDP's failing power base in Bangkok amplified divisions in the PDP, particularly between Chamlong's "temple" faction and Thaksin's. Soon afterwards, Chamlong announced he was retiring again from politics.
Thaksin and the PDP pulled out of the Banharn-government in August 1996. In a subsequent no-confidence debate, the PDP gave evidence against the Banharn government, and in September 1996 Banharn dissolved Parliament.
Thaksin announced he would not run in the subsequent November 1996 elections but would remain as leader of the PDP. It suffered a fatal defeat in the elections, winning only one seat, and soon imploded, with most members resigning.
Deputy Prime Minister under Chavalit
On 15 August 1997, Thaksin became Deputy Prime Minister in Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's government, after the Thai baht was floated and devalued on 2 July 1997, sparking the Asian Financial Crisis. He held the position for only three months, leaving on 14 November when Chavalit resigned.
During a censure debate on 27 September 1997, Democrat Suthep Thaugsuban accused Thaksin of profiting from insider information about the government's decision to float the baht, but the next Democrat party-led government did not investigate the accusations.
During this period, Thaksin also served on the Asia Advisory Board of the Washington D.C. based Carlyle Group until he resigned upon becoming Prime Minister in 2001.
The Thai Rak Thai Party and the 2001 elections
Thaksin founded the Thai Rak Thai ("Thais Love Thais" – TRT) party in 1998 along with Somkid Jatusripitak, PDP ally Sudarat Keyuraphan, Purachai Piumsombun, and 19 others.
With a populist platform often attributed to Somkid, TRT promised universal access to healthcare, a 3-year debt moratorium for farmers, and 1 million THB locally managed development funds for all Thai villages.
After Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai dissolved parliament in November 2000, TRT won a sweeping victory in the January 2001 elections, the first held under the Constitution of 1997. At the time, some academics called it the most open, corruption-free election in Thai history. Thai Rak Thai won 248 parliamentary seats (more than any other party previously) and needed only 3 more seats to form a government. Nonetheless, Thaksin opted for a broad coalition to gain total control and avoid a vote of no confidence, with the Chart Thai Party (41 seats) and the New Aspiration Party (36 seats), while absorbing the smaller Seritham Party (14 seats).
Prime Minister of Thailand
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai on 19 September 2005
Thaksin Shinawatra was the first prime minister of Thailand to complete a full term in office, and his rule is generally agreed to have been one of the most distinctive in the country's modern history He initiated many eye-catching policies that distinguished him from his predecessors. They affected the economy, public health, education, energy, social order, drug suppression and international relations. He gained two re-election victories.
Thaksin's most effective policies were reducing rural poverty and the introduction of universal healthcare, allowing him to galvanise the vast and largely untapped support base of the rural poor, especially in the populous northeast.
His Cabinet consisted of a broad coalition of academics, former student leaders, and former leaders of the Phalang Dharma party, including Prommin Lertsuridej, Chaturon Chaisang, Prapat Panyachatraksa, Surapong Suebwonglee, Somkid Jatusripitak, Surakiart Sathirathai, and Sudarat Keyuraphan. Traditional regional power brokers also flocked to his government.
However, his government was increasingly accused of dictatorship, demagogy, corruption, conflicts of interest, human rights offences, acting undiplomatically, using legal loopholes and displaying hostility towards a free press. A highly controversial leader, he has also been the target of numerous allegations of lèse-majesté, treason, usurping religious and royal authority, selling assets to international investors, and religious desecration
Others
In 2008, Thaksin was found guilty in a Thai court of corruption and sentenced in absentia to two years imprisonment. As of today, he has not served the sentence and remains a fugitive. Thaksin briefly owned Manchester City Football Club from 2007 to 2008. Following a prolonged series of violent political protests in Bangkok from March to May 2010, in which 88 people died, Thai court issued a warrant for the arrest of Thaksin on terrorism charges.
Thaksin entered politics in 1994 under Phalang Dharma Party, left the party with many of its MPs in 1996, in effect eviscerating it, and founded the populist Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party in 1998. After a historic election victory in 2001, he became prime minister, the country's first to serve a full term. Thaksin introduced a range of partly effective policies to alleviate rural poverty; highly popular, they helped reduce poverty by half in four years. He launched the country's first universal healthcare program, the 30-baht scheme, as well as a severely human-rights violating but also highly popular drug suppression campaign. After his purchases of MPs from other political parties, most notably the New Aspiration Party founded by Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, his Thai Rak Thai party won an unprecedented landslide in the 2005 general election, which had the highest voter turnout in Thai history.
However, the Shinawatra government also faced allegations of electoral fraud, corruption, authoritarianism, treason, conflicts of interest, acting non-diplomatically, and muzzling of the press. Thaksin was accused of tax evasion, lèse majesté (insulting the dignity of a reigning sovereign) and selling national assets to international investors. Independent bodies, including Amnesty International, criticized Thaksin's human rights record.
Protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy occurred in 2006, and on 19 September 2006 a military junta which later called itself the Council for National Security overthrew Thaksin's government in a coup while he was abroad. A CNS-appointed constitutional tribunal dissolved the Thai Rak Thai party for electoral fraud ex post facto, banning him and TRT's executives from politics for five years.The CNS-appointed Assets Examination Committee froze Thaksin and his family's assets in Thailand, totaling 76 billion baht ($2.2 billion), claiming he had become unusually wealthy while in office. Thaksin and his wife had declared assets totaling 15.1 billion baht when he took office in 2001, although he had transferred many of his assets to his children and associates before taking office.
Thaksin returned to Thailand on 28 February 2008, after the People's Power Party, which he supported, won the post-coup elections. But after visiting Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, he did not return to hear the final supreme court sentence and applied for asylum in the United Kingdom. This was not accepted so he had to move about from one country to another. In October, the Supreme Court found him guilty of a conflict of interest and sentenced him in absentia to two years in jail.
The People's Power Party was later banned by the Supreme Court, but party members regrouped to form the Pheu Thai Party, which Thaksin also supported. Thaksin has also been a supporter, and alleged bankroller, of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (the "Red Shirts"). The Government revoked Thaksin's passport for his role in the UDD's protests during Songkran 2009. In 26 February 2010, the Supreme Court seized 46 billion baht of his frozen assets, after finding him guilty of abnormal wealth. In 2009 it was announced that Thaksin had obtained Montenegrin citizenship
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