Word: thaksin
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Dates: during 2001-2001
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...During a dinner at the Suan Bua resort on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, Thaksin sits surrounded by his Cabinet ministers who are taking a break from a two-day retreat where he is formally articulating his policies. Despite his tub-thumping election campaign he has not actually said what he stands for?aside from his vague blandishments about technology and the future. In his first few months in office he sent conflicting foreign-policy signals, telegraphing an isolationist message at an April conference in Bangkok where he said Thailand would reduce dependence on exports and look inward to solve...
...That he has managed to define himself, somehow, as synonymous with Thailand's technologist tomorrow may be Thaksin's greatest trick. In these weeks before the verdict comes down, he crisscrosses the country, assuring rural voters that he and he alone can make Thailand prosperous. If this Constitutional Court rules against him, he implies, the people should not stand for it. Some members of his party publicly warn of mob violence in the event of a guilty verdict. Throwing Thaksin out of office would be like taking money out of your own sarong and burning it. This Constitutional Court, these...
...Thaksin ran against the court. And he won. When the verdict came down, there was a depressing predictability to it. In our most cynical moments we suspected it would turn out like this; that, just as it seemed Thailand was moving toward genuine democracy and true rule of law and an incorruptible judicial system, the nation would be lurched back to old-style Thai politics, and tainted justice?or even more familiar?sanctimonious injustice. Thaksin had been charged with failing to declare assets when he was Deputy Prime Minister in 1997 and parking those hundreds of millions of dollars worth...
...bubbling stream while young women in ornate sarongs parade past with plates of spicy chicken, sticky rice and boned freshwater fish. A famous oenophile, he sips an expensive Bordeaux, brought to Chiang Mai from his own cellars. His entourage, a collection of cronies and political allies for whom Thaksin has been criticized, is gathered around him at other low tables. For a putative reformist, he has surrounded himself with numerous politicians associated with corruption-tainted governments from the past. Suwit Khunkitti, Shucheep Harnsawad and Sonthaya Khunpleum are seated nearby, keeping a wary eye on Thaksin as if he might wander...
...chief policy adviser, Pansak Vinyaratn, is more blunt: "Don't f___ with Thaksin...