Word: thaksin
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...Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire telecom tycoon who served as Thailand's Prime Minister before being ousted in a military coup, may be a billionaire no longer. On Friday, Thailand's Supreme Court ruled that the government could seize $1.5 billion of the fugitive politician's $2.3 billion in frozen assets after concluding he had enriched himself at the expense of the state through abuse of power and conflicts of interest when he led the country from 2001-2006. The court ruled that the remaining $800 million will stay frozen pending calculation of interest and the settling of other cases...
...case ever to come before a Thai court and one of the most controversial. The ruling risked further fracturing Thailand's already deep political divide between those who back the ousted Prime Minister and his opponents. Police and military officers were on full alert across the country, fearing that Thaksin's supporters might riot if the verdict went against him. But while the streets of Bangkok were calm immediately after the verdict was read, Thaksin's allies vowed to hold a massive protest in Bangkok on March 14 to bring down the current government. (See photos of protests in Thailand...
...During the most recent bout of political warfare, however, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his followers accused the king's chief adviser, Privy Council Chairman Prem Tinsulanonda, of masterminding the military putsch that toppled him in September 2006. They have demanded that the powers of Prem, who has denied the charge. and other "palace elites" be reduced. Anti-Thaksin forces have in turn accused Thaksin of disloyalty to the monarchy. Thaksin has denied the accusations, and to show respect for the king on his birthday, called on his supporters to cancel massive anti-government street demonstrations they had planned...
...25th Prime Minister of Thailand, Samak was elected in December 2008 in the first national polls following a military coup that deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September 2006. Samak freely admitted he had been chosen to lead the victorious People Power Party by Thaksin, who was living in exile but retained enormous popularity with Thailand's poor and rural electorate. Samak, whose base was in Bangkok, appealed to the rural majority by proudly proclaiming he was Thaksin's "proxy...
...Although Samak had become one of Thaksin's strongest supporters in recent years, they were once bitter rivals as Deputy Prime Ministers in 1996. Both had been tasked with solving Bangkok's intractable traffic problems, but their constant squabbling led constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej to summon them to the palace for a dressing down. Afterwards, the two made an effort at working together, but still failed to solve the capital's traffic jams...