Thailand’s key politician of the last quarter of a century, Thaksin Shinawatra, landed on Tuesday with his private jet at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport. The tycoon and former prime minister, who had been living abroad as a fugitive for fifteen years, has been arrested upon his arrival, since prison charges are pending against him. After laying a floral offering in front of a portrait of the current King Rama X, accompanied by his daughters, Thaksin has been taken to Bangkok jail, since he was sentenced in absentia for corruption, on charges that his supporters consider politically motivated.
Thaksin, extremely popular in the north and northeast of the country, as well as among the working classes of Bangkok, fled in 2008 after being overthrown in a 2006 coup, as would happen years later to his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who did come to power. to enter prison and who is currently also in exile.
Thaksin’s arrival coincides with the vote, this Tuesday, to choose the new prime minister of Thailand, with a representative of his Pheu Thai party – the real estate developer Srettha Thaivisin – as the only candidate. One of his daughters, Paethongtarn Shinawatra, heads this party, the umpteenth reincarnation of the political force inspired by Thaksin at the end of the 1990s and several times judicially or militarily dismantled and resurrected again, with the “red shirts” as an intermittent presence in the streets.
It is suspected that Thaksin’s return may be the result of a pact, which includes a pardon by the king, Rama X. When the latter was the crown prince, his good relationship with the then prime minister was no secret.
The latest reincarnation of his party actually came in second in last May’s election. The surprise winner was Avanzar, a new political force even further removed from the Bangkok establishment and openly calling for the abolition of the crime of lèse majesté, for which hundreds of people have been imprisoned in recent years. This position prevented, a few weeks ago, its young leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, from being sworn in as prime minister.
The lesser evil for the military and the bureaucratic and judicial elite now seems to be the party obedient to Thaksin Shinawatra, as long as it agrees with the establishment parties, led by generals, including the outgoing prime minister, General Prayut Chan-o-cha. , who led the coup against Yingluck Shinawatra. When he called, nine years late, new elections, he was confident of winning them. However, the electorate defeated the forces of the system without appeal and only the presence of 250 senators handpicked by the military has prevented the overturn in Thailand. The change will be supervised.
The tycoon’s return had been announced for early August, but was ostensibly postponed for “health reasons.” In reality, due to the very dance of pacts and interference in the formation of the new Thai government, with the forced exclusion of Avanzar and the break between it and Pheu Thai, a party now apparently willing to swallow the toad of agreeing with its former antagonists in the Bangkok’s military and bureaucratic elite. Finally, the announcement that Thaksin would land this Tuesday, expressed last weekend by his youngest daughter, has turned out to be true, to the delight of his former followers, no longer so young.
The figure of Thaksin Shinawatra, born in Chiang Mai 74 years ago, is not exempt from shadows. During his two terms – the second, truncated – he inflamed the extreme south of the country, of Malay language and Muslim religion. If this heavy-handed policy against the insurgency caused hundreds of victims, its repression of small drug traffickers also left a trail of deaths.
However, his problems with the traditional elite in Bangkok had little to do with this and everything to do with his strengthening of public policies where the state was least present, particularly in the north and northeast of the country (Laotian-speaking and granary of labor of the country). He also universalized healthcare for a symbolic monthly contribution, creating an alternative story to the charitable works of the Crown, widely publicized until then.
Thaksin, who has Chinese roots like much of the Thai business elite, began his career in the police force before making it big in business beyond telecommunications. He became the owner of Manchester City. During his years in exile he has divided much of his time between Dubai, London and Singapore. Now, he believes that a great agreement is within reach that will resolve his personal situation and that of his party, given the impasse in which Thai politics finds itself once again, after nine years of military rule and currents of substance that They have proven unsinkable.
