Thai leader's clout overwhelms critics

By Rafael D. Frankel

BANGKOK -- Since he ascended to the premiership in 2001, controversy and criticism have swirled about Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's every move.

Opposition politicians call him a bully who uses his political power to enhance his family fortunes. Human-rights groups say he has directed security forces to use violence on a gross scale. Reporters, lawyers and scholars argue that he has undermined the free press, the rule of law and the fledgling Thai Constitution.

There is only one problem for his naysayers. Four years after the most lopsided election in Thai history swept Thaksin to power, the 55-year-old former telecommunications tycoon never has been more popular in this Southeast Asian nation of nearly 65 million people.

The re-election of his Thai Rak Thai, or Thais Love Thais, party Sunday is so assured that the once-powerful Democratic Party says it hopes only to win enough seats to form an effective opposition.

`A strong leader'

"He's a strong leader, he's successful, he knows how to manage people and he gets things done," said Sunisa Preuksariya, 25, who works in marketing for a foreign packaging company.

After years of previous governments known for their equivocation and unwillingness to rock the boat, Thaksin's self-proclaimed CEO-style leadership has played well.

Populist policies and a friendly business climate have cemented support for Thaksin among the rich and poor, and the flourishing economy has put a bounce back in the step of Thais who still were feeling the hangover from the 1997 Asian financial crisis last time around.

Even his critics do not deny that Thaksin has made good on all of his campaign promises.

But in the process, the critics charge, Thaksin has steered Thailand toward a course increasingly akin to its more authoritarian neighbors to the south, Malaysia and Singapore.

"That's the dilemma of Thai democracy--[leaders] are moving toward authoritarian rule, but people elect them," said political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University. "How do they do it? He's been dishing out the goods to the people. He knows how Thai people tick. He knows what Thai people have longed for."

Indeed, Thaksin and his cohorts' dominance in most arms of the government and the demise of meaningful opposition parties have led many to speculate that Thaksin is aiming to become the next Mahathir Mohamad, who was prime minister of Malaysia for 22 years--a leader for life who also can reasonably claim to have a majority consent.

Such claims are roundly rejected by the government.

Jakrapob Penkair, a government spokesman, said that Thaksin's plan is to serve only one more term.

But human-rights workers fear that given one more term, the Thaksin administration may do irreparable damage.

Crackdown on drug dealers

A violent campaign against drug dealing in 2003 saw about 2,300 people killed. While the government said the killings were a result of drug dealers killing other drug dealers, human-rights workers said the police and army were summarily executing suspects on orders from the highest levels.

On Oct. 25, 2004, 87 Thai Muslims died of asphyxiation when they were bound, gagged and transported in the cargo holds of trucks after being arrested at a demonstration in the southern city of Tak Bai. In the aftermath, Thaksin struck an unapologetic tone, saying the protesters died because they were "weak" from fasting during Ramadan.

Both episodes set a dangerous precedent, said Somchai Homlaor, chairman of the Law Society of Thailand's Human Rights Committee.

Despite strong objections to the tactics the government used in those cases, foreign diplomats here say for the most part that human rights and democracy in Thailand continue to make strides.

"I think it's giving maybe Thaksin too much credit to assume that one man can somehow reverse what I think is an irreversible trend toward more openness, more democracy, more rule of law and more accountability," said one Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"There's a vibrant civil society here [and] most of the articles I read about Thaksin crushing the press, I read in the Thai press."

©2005 The Chicago Tribune