BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who went into self-imposed exile in 2008 following corruption charges after a military coup, has returned to Bangkok. Thaksin has been the country’s most prominent politician for decades, maintaining significant influence throughout his absence.
Thaksin, a telecoms billionaire, co-founded a populist party that was set to make a bid for power in an alliance with parties associated with the generals who ousted the last pro-Thaksin government in 2014. His return marks the closure of an important chapter in Thai politics, according to Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist.
Thaksin is revered by rural communities as the first leader who paid attention to their needs. However, the urban middle class and royalist elite view him as a crony capitalist who exploited the economy during his time in power, which ended in a 2006 military coup. He also led a protest movement in 2010 that caused widespread destruction in Bangkok.
His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, led a government that came to power in a 2011 election but was overthrown in a 2014 coup following extensive street protests led by his conservative opponents. Thaksin’s rivals accused him of winning elections through handouts to rural voters, and critics claim he abused his power to eliminate checks and balances and restrict press freedom.
Born into a family of ethnic Chinese silk merchants in 1949, Thaksin became a policeman before pursuing graduate degrees in the United States. He later founded a computer dealership that grew into Thailand’s largest mobile network, Shin Corporation, propelling him to become one of the country’s wealthiest individuals.
Thaksin entered politics in the mid-1990s, serving as foreign minister and deputy prime minister before founding the Thai Rak Thai party, which led him to the premiership in 2001. Throughout his tenure, he focused on increasing spending in healthcare, rural development, and farming subsidies.
Thaksin faced accusations of undermining the monarchy, a revered institution in Thailand, but he denied these allegations. Tensions escalated in 2006 when he sold his shares in Shin Corporation for a substantial sum to Singapore’s Temasek. Critics claimed it was a conflict of interest, accusing his family of evading taxes on the capital gains.
Despite winning subsequent general elections, Thaksin was overthrown in a bloodless coup in 2006 while he was abroad. Rather than facing corruption charges, which he alleged were politically motivated, Thaksin fled to Britain and later went into self-exile.
Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2008 to confront the legal charges against him but opted for self-exile again a few months later. He currently faces convictions for graft and abuse of power and potentially years in jail.
(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal, Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng and Panu Wongcha-um; editing by Robert Birsel)
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