Thaksin Shinawatra
Job: Prime Minister of Thailand
Reputation: Chief Executive Officer of his own private country

Thais take family responsibilities very seriously. Reassuring, therefore, that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra leads by example. He has, for instance, appointed his cousin as supreme commander of the armed forces, and his brother-in-law as assistant-chief of the national police. And in recent years, his family’s holding company, the Shin Corporation, has seen a spectacular rise in profits – not least because of a series of government decisions that have coincidentally favoured its subsidiaries.

Par for the course, perhaps, in a poor or despotic country like neighbouring Burma or Laos. But surely Thailand has higher aspirations. Before Thaksin (Thais are formally referred to by the first of their names) started throwing his weight around it was also a regional beacon of democracy – after a middle-class revolution in 1992 that kicked out the military-backed parties. Nowadays, Thailand’s democratic credentials are looking tarnished. Reporting in July 2005, the UN’s Human Rights Committee, in a review unlikely to be quoted in the tourist brochures, noted ‘the persistence of widespread use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’.

Why is Thailand slipping back into authoritarian government? Partly at least because Thaksin, a tycoon turned politician, sees himself more as the Chief Executive Officer of his own private country and is becoming increasingly irritated at the more tiresome checks and balances of democracy.

Thaksin started his career with 14 years in the police force. When he left to go into business his first big contract was to sell computers to the ... er... police force. With corresponding chutzpah, over the next 10 years he built up a vast telecoms conglomerate, the Shin Corporation, that includes the country’s largest mobile phone operator. Since most young Thais in Bangkok seem to have mobiles surgically attached to their ears, this is a lucrative operation.

Thaksin entered public life in 1994, unelected, as Foreign Minister, vowing to clean up politics. In 1998, after various frustrations, including a spell as Deputy Prime Minister, he formed his own party with the twee name of Thai Rak Thai (‘Thais love Thais’). Faced with a chaotic alternative, and his can-do attitude (motto: ‘Better to die than to live like a loser’) the voters swept Thai Rak Thai into power in the 2001 elections. Thaksin had earlier been indicted for fraudulent accounting, but was eventually cleared by the Constitutional Court; surprisingly, or not, depending on how you look at it.

Once firmly in the driving seat, Thaksin soon made his mark with some high-profile populist policies – such as giving each village a one million baht ($25,000) fund to serve as a source of cheap loans. He also, it must be said, introduced a pretty good health scheme that guarantees treatment at any health centre or hospital for just 30 baht (75 cents) – though not enough money has been thrown at the hospitals to pay for it fully. Another of his high-profile promises was a war on drugs – that resulted in 2,500 extrajudicial killings. Thailand’s respected monarch, King Bhumibol, asked in a birthday speech what happened to all these people, but got no reply. Thaksin’s heavy-handed approach extended to dealing with the insurrection in the long-neglected Muslim provinces in the deep South: in October 2004 80 demonstrators suffocated in trucks while in army custody.

In December 2004, with troubles piling up and an election looming, nature lent a hand with a devastating tsunami. Thaksin responded in his usual hyperactive fashion, trailing TV reporters – and two months later won an even more convincing election victory.

Thailand now has a high-profile CEO, endlessly marketing new gimmicks – most of which, like his attempt to appeal to a football-crazy nation by buying a stake in Liverpool football club, fizzle out. What happened to his vow to clean up politics? He had, after all, taken care to appoint some of his former staff to the Counter Corruption Commission. Oh dear. Earlier this year the Commission, having been discovered awarding itself huge pay rises, was forced to resign en masse.

That policy fell flat. Never mind, here comes another. His latest response to the problems in the deep South in July 2005 was an emergency decree that gave him the right to do almost anything: detain without trial, tap phones, close down the media. As Human Rights Watch characterized it: ‘A broad and shocking assertion of governmental power in a free society.’ Thailand may be the ‘land of smiles’, but they are starting to wear thin as the country drifts towards a one-party state. •

After whingeing about the irritations of democratic constraints, such as rulings from the judiciary, he argues that all this is so unnecessary: if he oversteps the mark his wife will bring him back into line.

Over-critical newspapers find that advertising from the Shin Corporation mysteriously dries up. No problems on the TV front either: Shin Corporation simply bought the only independent TV channel, iTV, and fired awkward reporters.