Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand, the man who called himself the "CEO prime minister," has given up and resigned. The move comes two days after the early general elections on which he bet everything. He won those elections, but anger and resistance from the Thai public was growing.
He was until recently a very "successful" politician. Elected prime minister in 2001, he became the first in Thai history to finish his first four-year term. The economy did reasonably well during his time in office. He liked to brag about how he turned Thailand into a loaning nation from what was previously a debtor nation. His personal resume was impressive. He had a Ph.D. in law from an American university, and upon his return became a professor at the police academy. Then, in his late thirties, he started a computer sales store and in a short amount of time built the business into the country's largest IT conglomerate. He entered politics as foreign minister and was prime minister seven years later. Thaksin who created the current ruling party.
His failure originated in that success, because with it grew arrogance and corruption. The "war on drugs" started three years ago cost close to 2,500 casualties, and his hard-line response to disturbances by Islamic elements made it look like there was a "civilian dictatorship" not unlike a military one, also seen in his increasingly hostile attitude towards the press. In January he sold half his IT conglomerate's holding company to a firm in Singapore for W1.9 trillion and paid absolutely nothing in taxes. The goals and decision-making process in business are entirely different from those of the state, so you could see the signs of his eventual fall even in his use of the term "CEO."
The pace of development in Asian democracy is moving faster than any other region on the planet. There is, however, no short cut to democracy. We hope to see this latest series of events work to elevate Thai democracy to a higher level.
The Hankyoreh, 6 April 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
