Word: thaksin
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Dates: during 2001-2001
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...much by buying off and bullying the press. He's not shy about throwing his clout around, and that's caused critics and a sometimes-hostile press to label him an authoritarian. But in Thailand, being rich is considered a virtue, and being very rich is practically godly. Thaksin benefits from being one of the country's richest men, with a fortune estimated at more than $1.2 billion and interests in sectors ranging from cell phones to satellites. His confidence is that of a man who has had vast, bankable successes. His election campaign inculcated in Thais the idea that...
...weeks before last friday's Constitutional Court 8-7 acquittal of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of corruption charges, you could see the toll the impending verdict was taking on him. The eyes sagged. The usually smooth skin seemed more wrinkled. The smug smile would occasionally straighten, the corners of his thin-lipped mouth almost turning to a resigned frown. If he was bitter, however, he would never admit it, not to a reporter, nor to his Cabinet, and probably not to his friends. Yet the possibility his tenure would be abbreviated by a guilty ruling had become the defining...
...Thaksin is an effortless campaigner, his languorous walk, the gradual coming together of his palms in a Buddhist greeting, the soft grip of his handshake, all his movements coalesce to communicate equilibrium, an almost soothing presence. On any street, in any temple, at any doorway, he is the calm center of the media storm that follows him everywhere. He is the first Thai politician to exploit the mass media of TV and the Internet, to understand that a good sound bite on the tube is worth much more than making his point in a sit-down meeting with...
...Outside of Japan, Thailand has had perhaps the most disappointing succession of Prime Ministers of any major Asian nation. Since 1991 there have been eight other Prime Ministers, all of whom, at their best, conveyed an image of dull impropriety. (Quick, who was Prime Minister before Thaksin's predecessor Chuan Leekpai? Didn't think you remembered.) Thaksin, on the other hand, has managed to associate himself with wealth, with economic growth, with mobile phones and the Internet. And by now, even remote Thai villages that don't yet have Internet access know it is something they should want...
...that last, pre-verdict campaign-style swing through Northern Thailand, as he works the crowd at Sankampaeng village, where the locals, adhering to Thaksin's One Village, One Product program, are proudly displaying the reams of mulberry paper they have been making, he continuously reminds his constituents of his connection with all things futuristic, shiny and new. He vows to distribute more money without government interference, without a single baht unfairly withheld, without unnecessary delay. He says in his Northern Thai accent that he is one of them, that he knows they can't wait for the money, that they...