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General news >> Friday August 18, 2008LET IT BE
For Thaksin, it is the end of the roadSURANAND VEJJAJIVAhttp://www.bangkokpost.com/150808_News/15Aug2008_news27.phpBy not coming back to face the legal proceedings in Bangkok and by releasing a bitter statement from London critical of the courts and the injustice he faced, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has taken another turn in his illustrious but controversial life.
Mr Thaksin, a policeman by training, became a billionaire by building his mobile phone empire from scratch and through securing vital concessions from the government. He was hailed by the public as a visionary businessman. As his Shin Corp dominated the communications business in Thailand, Mr Thaksin turned to politics.
His first political position was minister of foreign affairs in 1994. He had to leave after only 101 days in office due to questions about his shareholdings. No one realised that this was an early warning of the full-blown political tsunami that was to come.
In 1995, Mr Thaksin became leader of the Bangkok-based Palang Dharma party (PDP). He redefined "political marketing" with a slick, modern and right-to-the-point campaign. He was perceived as the new hope of Thai politics. The PDP won 23 seats, including 16 in Bangkok, and he served in the cabinet as a deputy prime minister.
In 1998, he launched a new political party, Thai Rak Thai (TRT). New alliances were built as TRT broke the mould of old-style politics. "Rethinking Thailand" was the theme.
The public saw TRT as an alternative as they were bored with the slow "business as usual" politics of the ruling Democrats. TRT proposed a progressive economic stimulus agenda to solve the lingering woes. That, coupled with a list of credible new faces joining the party, was how TRT gained the trust of the nation.
The TRT won the 2001 election handily, with 248 seats out of 500 in parliament, and Mr Thaksin became the first elected prime minister to last a full four-year term. The TRT won again in the 2005 election, gaining 377 seats, the first time in Thai history that a political party had an absolute majority and formed a single-party government.
Throughout, the public was willing to overlook the small "honest mistake" Mr Thaksin made in his assets declaration and the unusual share transfers, which was taken up by the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) and the Constitution Court.
He survived the ordeal in 2001 by a hair margin, but the storm continued to gather.
Meanwhile, Mr Thaksin's rule was characterised as fast, sharp and decisive. He provided a "hands on" leadership style and managed the government using modern management techniques. The "populist" programmes were popular especially with the poor and the people in the Northeast because they felt that previous governments had ignored them completely.
As his power grew, he became over-confident. Already collecting a fair share of enemies as he introduced radical changes in the bureaucracy, he further upset the status quo by antagonising many other interest groups, including the old establishment and the intellectuals, which were actually his early supporters.
It is an undeniable human reality that to be rich is one thing, to be powerful is another. But to be both extremely rich and powerful embedded in one popular politician was deemed too dangerous and distrustful.
The 2006 coup ended it all. The powers of the ruling junta then turned to hunt down Mr Thaksin, opening up old wounds, and discovering new ones, leading to various pending cases in the courts and the NCCC.
In hindsight, it also was Mr Thaksin's own ethical dilemma that became his undoing. Although he started his political path with creative ideas and supposedly good intentions, he could never entirely separate his public life from that of his business.
His shareholdings and financial dealings tangled with him throughout his political career.
To be fair, one cannot fully deny that, though not adhering to good governance, what Mr Thaksin did with his shares and how his companies utilised "innovative" tax planning, were normal practices for many businesses here in Thailand.
However, he was not a normal businessman. He chose to be a public figure, and was elected to hold the highest office in government. Thais trusted him because they were led to believe that a billionaire who possessed all his worldly needs would not be corrupt, as he promised so in his campaigns.
But as the financing of his businesses was perceived as being indistinct from the financing of political ambitions, and as the power of government seemed to benefit selected businesses, that trust was lost.I sincerely hope that history will be kinder to Mr Thaksin and give due credit to his accomplishments while, of course, apprehending his failure to recognise the complex moral issues that led him to the end of the political road.
Suranand Vejjajiva served in the Thaksin Shinawatra cabinet and is now a political analyst.
