(May 11): Former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra walked out of a Bangkok prison to the cheers of hundreds of loyal supporters on Monday, returning to a political landscape transformed by the decisive victory of the rival conservative Bhumjaithai Party in February elections.
The 76-year-old patriarch of the Shinawatra clan hugged his son and daughter, a former premier, and waved at supporters before departing in a black Mercedes after serving eight months in prison for corruption. Red Shirt supporters from various provinces had camped outside his prison in tents, hanging up posters of Thaksin on the outside of the compound.
“We’d very much like him to return to politics because the economy is so bad,” said Thanyaporn Intawong, 41, who arrived in Bangkok Sunday with her parents and slept in front of the prison overnight. Grassroots people in the provinces are struggling with electricity and other living costs, she said. “We’d like him to advise Prime Minister Anutin so we could get richer.”
The Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai party is in Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s ruling coalition but its third-place electoral finish was a disappointment for a family whose various parties finished first in every vote from 2001 to 2019. Thaksin is expected to attempt to revive his family’s political fortunes after their dominance for a quarter century.
“The good old days of Pheu Thai are completely over. Thaksin likely won’t be able to change that much,” said Purawich Watanasukh, a lecturer of political science at Thammasat University. “But Thaksin is not done with Thai politics. He’s a fighter and the Shinawatras still have unfinished business.”
Anutin told reporters on Saturday he was happy for the Shinawatra family over Thaksin’s release, which came the same day that several hundred other people were also released on parole. Asked about any potential political drama, he said he hasn’t thought that far ahead, adding Thaksin remained a person he respected.
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Thaksin is widely credited with having helped revive Thailand’s economy after the Asian financial crisis, though he has been widely criticised for a “war on drugs” that saw thousands killed, many allegedly in extrajudicial killings.
The Shinawatra political machine has provided six Thai premiers this century, including Thaksin; his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who remains in exile after fleeing a criminal negligence case in 2017; and his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was ousted in August in an ethics violation case involving her handling of border tensions with Cambodia.
The former businessman returned from exile in 2023, just as a Pheu Thai candidate won a parliamentary vote to become prime minister. Thaksin then received a royal pardon that commuted his sentence from eight years to 12 months. He spent six months in a police hospital but the Supreme Court ruled that did not count as time served and sent him back to prison.
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That verdict capped a bout of political turmoil that saw two Thaksin-linked administrations ousted in little more than a year. The reversal in the Shinawatras’ fortunes was seen as a breakdown of a deal between Thaksin and the conservative establishment, which had allowed his return.
He still faces a royal defamation case, which was revived after the attorney general appealed a court ruling that acquitted him of charges stemming from a 2015 interview with South Korean media.
On the day he was whisked away to prison in September, Thaksin said he would devote the rest of his life to serving the monarchy and the Thai people.
Thanyaporn said she remembers a time of economic prosperity under Thaksin’s regime and said his universal health care scheme helped her family pay for her mother’s stage four cancer treatment.
“We love him because he is a good man,” said Somsri, Thanyaporn’s 63-year-old mother.
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