Profile: Thaksin Shinawatra: Thailand's New PremierThailand's House of Representatives elected Thaksin Shinawatra, a telecom tycoon-turned-politician, as the country's 23rd prime minister Friday, February 9, after his party won a runaway victory in last month's general election.Thaksin, 51, leader and founder of the two-year-old Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party, received 340 votes in the 500- member parliament while 127 lawmakers voted against him with 30 abstained, including himself. As a formality, House Speaker Uthai Pimchaichon will submit Thaksin's nomination to the Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej for royal endorsement. The King is expected to sign the appointment of Thaksin as the new prime minister later Friday. The Thai Rak Thai, which it grabbed 248 seats in the 500-member parliament and became the first in Thai history to almost have an outright majority. has formed a coalition with the Chart Thai Party and the New Aspiration Party, which commands a comfortable majority of 325 seats in the parliament. Though the scion of a wealthy merchant family in the northern province Chiang Mai, Thaksin is basically a self-made man. Born on July 26, 1949 in a two-story wooden house in front of a market in Chiang Mai, Thaksin started his career as a policeman in 1973 before receiving a government scholarship to study for a master degree in criminal justice in Eastern Kentucky University. He earned a doctorate in the same subject from Sam Houston State University in 1978 and then taught at the Thai Police Cadet Academy before resigning in 1987 to embark on a business career. In 1982, he and his wife founded a company that was to grow into Shinawatra Computer, a system integrator and reseller of IBM computers. In 1990, the Telephone Authority of Thailand granted him an exclusive 20-year concession to operate a mobile-phone service. Today, as one of the wealthiest man in Thailand, Thaksin oversees a business empire with interests from mobile-phone services to satellite communication. Thaksin was appointed foreign minister in 1994 and resigned from every position in the Shinawatra group before taking the position to show he had "clean hands." He became head of the Palang Dharma party in 1995 and was appointed deputy prime minister by then prime minister Banharn Silpa-archa. Thaksin was appointed to the same position in Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's government in 1997, but the government collapsed the same year and was replaced by the coalition led by Chuan. He founded the Thai Rak Thai party in July 14, 1998, pledging to inject new blood into Thai politics. Now the party boasts of having 10 million members around the country. Despite being elected the country's prime minister and the comfortable majority in hand, Thaksin's political future is in jeopardy because of corruption charges. The country's anti-graft agency indicted him last December for his failure to disclose his assets fully in 1997 when he served in the previous government. If the Constitutional Court upholds the ruling, he will be banned from politics for five years. The trial will start soon, but it is not clear how long it will last. |
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