Word: thai
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...regional and religious lines. The man who most successfully exploited these divisions was Thaksin, the patron of the PPP now living in self-imposed exile in England. Using his leverage as one of Thailand's richest men, he successfully wooed lawmakers from several other political parties to join his Thai Rak Thai party in the late 1990s. Thai Rak Thai (TRT) dominated Thailand's political landscape for five years by appealing to the nation's rural poor who form the majority of voters, particularly in the northeast, with populist policies including cheap credit and debt moratoriums...
...general, who traditionally vote for the Democrats and felt ignored by Thaksin's government; and his longtime foes, the urban, Bangkok-centered middle class. Some who led the anti-Thaksin demonstrations in 2006 have threatened to do so again if he returns. Rosana Tositrakul, Secretary General of the Thai Holistic Health Foundation and a former protest leader, says she will wait and see what a PPP government does. But if Thaksin was pardoned and his corruption cases swept under the carpet, "it could spark political unrest," she says. Other analysts warn it could even spark another military takeover...
...pragmatic and flexible. He may have to listen to Thaksin, but he also has to listen to civil society," Panitan says. As he sets about negotiating with other parties to form a government he hopes will last, Samak would do well to bear in mind a common Thai saying: The provinces send governments to Bangkok, and Bangkok sends them back...
...Thai voter who longs for the return of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, then Samak Sundaravej is your man. An acid-tongued, fire-breathing ultra-conservative who brands his opponents communists and "street gangsters," the 72-year-old former Bangkok governor is running in the Dec. 23 national election on a platform the rural masses find irresistible: as he unabashedly declares, "I'm Thaksin's nominee." Samak, the nominal leader of the People Power Party (PPP), has promised that if elected he'll bring back Thaksin and his populist policies, like cheap credit and debt moratoriums. Samak has vowed...
...While Samak now rails against the military and its ouster of Thaksin, he hasn't always been aligned against them. Thai society was deeply polarized between left and right when Indochina fell under communist rule in 1975. On the morning of Oct. 6, 1976, police and right-wing paramilitary mobs invaded Thammasat University, raping, lynching and burning alive scores of students who were demonstrating for greater civil liberties. A few hours later, the military staged a coup. Samak was then appointed interior minister in one of Thailand's most repressive governments. Leftists and students were hunted down and jailed...