THAKSIN: THE MAN WHO DIVIDED A NATION
The past 11 years are a testament to bitter polarisation, with no true reconciliation in sight, writes Anucha Charoenpo
Thailand has been engulfed in political crises over the past 11 years that have led to two military coups that leaders claimed were designed to break the deadlock. The army seized power from two governments run by Thaksin Shinawatra and his younger sister Yingluck, claiming it wanted to end conflicts between the anti-Thaksin yellow shirts and the pro-Thaksin red shirts that exploded on the streets, crippling the economy and costing many lives.
The putsches in 2006 and 2014 have largely failed in their goals to restore reconciliation but at least have kept a lid on simmering tensions.
One of the fiercest critics to emerge of the Thaksin regime was media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul.
Back in September 2005, initial political tensions were ignited by a decision by MCOT Plc, Modern Nine TV’s operator, to cease broadcasting its Muang Thai Weekly programme hosted by Mr Sondhi.
MCOT’s executive board said the late Friday night programme provided biased information to the public and did not provide room for debate, but Mr Sondhi believed his programme was taken off the air because of his heavy criticism of the Thaksin government.
This drove Mr Sondhi to start his own talk show online via a satellite TV channel, hosting the
Muang Thai Rai Wan daily programme at Lumpini Park. His show became a platform for opposition to the Thaksin government.
Mr Sondhi used his own media outlet to criticise Thaksin and his cronies. This was ironic, as Mr Sondhi once praised Thaksin as “the best prime minister ever” but eventually turned into his bitter foe.
Observers believe parts of the conflict stemmed from Thaksin’s dismissal in 2005 of Viroj Nualkhair, then managing director of Krungthai Bank, from his post after the bank incurred more than 40 billion baht in problematic loans.
Mr Viroj is a close friend of Mr Sondhi who, according to a source, once helped Mr Sondhi clear his financial debts.
Mr Sondhi also criticised Thaksin over the 2006 sale of the Shinawatra family’s shares in Shin Corporation to Temasek Holdings, arguing the sale was a conflict of interest for someone who was prime minister. Moreover, Thaksin was said to be exempt from paying any capital gains tax from the sale in which the Shinawatra family netted about 73 billion baht.
Political tensions increased when several practices by Thaksin and his family were brought to light. In one case, he illegally helped his then wife, Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra, buy state land in the Ratchadaphisek area.
Thaksin was later found guilty of corruption and sentenced to two years in prison by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office-Holders. He fled the country before the court’s verdict.
In 2005 and 2006, Thaksin’s allegedly corrupt practices continued to be exposed to the public.
The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), an anti-Thaksin group using the yellow colour, was formed to overthrow the Thaksin government.
At the same time, Thaksin’s supporters in several provincial strongholds such as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Udon Thani and Khon Kaen began their own political movements. They planned to travel in bus caravans to Bangkok to provide moral support to the government.
However, their plans fell through when army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin staged a coup on Sept 19, 2006, seizing power from Thaksin, who was attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York. A Post reporter accompanying Thaksin’s delegation reported that no Thai or foreign media were allowed to interview him. He disappeared from the meeting immediately after being informed of the coup.
The next morning, the Post’s headline read: “COUP D’ETAT: Armed forces and national police take over government”.
Post reporters filed stories on the putsch covering most of the national pages.
Shortly after the coup, the PAD aborted its activities and claimed success in participating in the overthrow of the Thaksin regime.
The PAD was to take to the streets again after the Dec 23, 2007, elections when the Thaksinaffiliated party, the People Power Party (PPP), won with 233 seats, compared with the Democrat Party’s 165 seats.
Samak Sundaravej, the party leader and Thaksin’s proxy, was appointed prime minister on Jan 29, 2008, and vowed to amend the charter so that Thaksin would be granted an amnesty. The PPP said it wanted to revise the new charter to make it more democratic.
On May 25, 2008, the PAD renewed its protests, rallying to seize government offices including the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand, the Public Relations Department, the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They subsequently occupied Government House and were encamped there for several months.
Meanwhile, the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) gathered at Sanam Luang. At the height of the protests, one demonstrator was killed and prime minister Samak declared a state of emergency on Sept 2, 2008, later revoked on Sept 14.
On Sept 9, the Constitutional Court disqualified Mr Samak from the premiership in line with complaints lodged by the Senate and the Election Commission because he hosted a television cookery programme. Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin’s brother-in-law, was subsequently elected by the PPP and its coalition parties to replace Mr Samak.
However, on Oct 6, the PAD blocked the entrance to parliament, preventing Mr Somchai from delivering a statement of his government’s policies. The group wanted Mr Somchai and the PPP to leave office as both were Thaksin’s nominees.
On the morning of Oct 7, while PAD demonstrators surrounded the parliament building, the government ordered police to use force and tear gas to disperse the crowd, leaving one protester dead and more than 300 injured.
Between early November and Dec 3 that year, the PAD seized both Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports, stranding thousands of travellers and undermining the country’s investor confidence.
On Dec 2, 2008, the Constitutional Court dissolved the PPP and banned its 39 executives from politics for five years, while the PAD ended its seizure of the city airports.
The court found Yongyuth Tiyapairat, parliamentary speaker and deputy leader of the PPP, guilty of electoral rigging on Dec 23, 2007, forcing Mr Somchai to step down as prime minister. The PAD immediately disbanded itself while the majority of former PPP MPs defected to the Pheu Thai Party.
In December 2008, the political situation began to heat up again. Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Democrat Party leader, was endorsed as new prime minister by MPs of five PPP coalition parties who later formed a Democrat-led coalition, leaving Pheu Thai MPs as the opposition. The UDD was dissatisfied and staged protests to remove Mr Abhisit from office.
From January 2009 to May 2010, Mr Abhisit faced massive anti-government protests that forced the cancellation of the Fourth East Asia Summit. On May 19, 2010, the government used force to disperse UDD demonstrators at the Ratchaprasong intersection. Eighty-five demonstrators were among the 92 people killed, while 1,378 people were injured.
On July 3, 2011, Pheu Thai won the general election and Ms Yingluck became premier. The party attempted to draft a bill granting an amnesty to all sides, particularly Thaksin. Pheu Thai MPs voted in favour of the bill, which lawyers and academics believed contained a hidden political agenda to help Thaksin get away with his crimes.
In October 2013, Suthep Thaugsuban and some Democrat MPs quit the party to form the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) to block the bill.
Rallies against the Yingluck government, led by Mr Suthep, quickly spread, drawing huge numbers of protesters to the streets.
On Jan 13, 2014, Mr Suthep took the demonstrations a step further by calling on supporters to join his “Bangkok Shutdown” campaign, with at least seven locations closed down for months.
Ms Yingluck eventually dissolved the House as the rallies became i ntense and widespread.
However, the decision drove UDD supporters onto the streets of Bangkok. The rallies on both sides gathered steam and the army feared a confrontation could take place.
On May 22, 2014, army chief Prayut Chan-ocha formed the National Council for Peace and Order and staged a coup to seize power from the Yingluck government. The headline on May 23, 2014, read: “Charter suspended”.
Soon after, Gen Prayut was endorsed as prime minister. In his first two years in office, he has been criticised for violating human rights and freedom of expression.
The junta’s image has taken a beating with its arbitrary detention and arrest of critics, summoning outspoken politicians and red-shirt supporters for “attitude adjustment”.
However, his popularity among supporters has remained strong as many believe he is leading the country in the right direction.
Gen Prayut and the government have laid down a roadmap that is due to lead the country to elections in July next year.
The premier says his government is working hard to mend divisions and narrow social disparities in the hope of “returning happiness to the country”.