Daniel Pedersen

The Courier Mail

February 4, 2006

By Daniel Pedersen

Bangkok

THAI Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is fighting for political survival after selling his family’s telecommunications company to Singaporean interests.

His decision has caused a nationalistic backlash and strengthened calls for the Government to step down or face defeat at the polls.

Protest organisers expect tens of thousands of demonstrators to choke the streets of Bangkok today to demand Mr Thaksin’s resignation.

Until recently he had ridden a wave of popularity.

But when he sold Shin Corporation last month there was outrage.

Shin Corporation controls much of the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.

It has just been sold for 73 billion baht ($2.5 billion) to an investment arm of Singapore’s Government known as Temasek.

Mr Thaksin has managed to avoid capital gains tax by keeping the matter a family affair and setting up a company in the British Virgin Isles by the name of Ample Rich.

He also recently relaxed regulations for foreign ownership of telecommunications companies, opening it to 49 per cent, matching the stake he sold in Shin Corp.

Upon becoming prime minister, and having been indicted by the Constitutional Court for not having disclosed his true wealth, Mr Thaksin bequeathed his riches to his household servants.

Unfortunately, the servants were not aware of the transaction.

It seems the people who voted Mr Thaksin to power with an overwhelming majority have had enough. Groups from all over the country were assembling in Bangkok last night for today’s rally, which will be led by publishing tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul.

Mr Sondhi was once an ardent admirer of Mr Thaksin, but times have changed and since late September he has been leading rallies across the country aimed at discrediting the Prime Minister.

Until now it seemed unlikely he would garner broad support within the greater population, but Mr Thaksin’s sale of Shin Corp has forged unlikely alliances among academics, farmers’ groups, teachers and Buddhists.

Even Mr Thaksin’s own party is preparing for the worst, with a crisis meeting convened on Thursday night.

Some within the party are advocating dissolution of parliament as the only means of maintaining credibility.

The furore rattled Mr Thaksin’s cabinet yesterday as Culture Minister Uraiwan Thienthong announced her resignation.

"Under the current circumstances I have wondered whether to quit or to stay," she said.

"And now my final decision is to quit the cabinet in order to preserve political ethics."

Ms Uraiwan is married to Sanoh Thienthong, who leads one of the major factions within Mr Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai party.

The Shin Corp row has exposed nationalistic tendencies in this constitutional monarchy.

Rosana Tositrakul, who is chairman of the Network of 30 Organisations Against Corruption group, said selling Shin Corp to Temasek was inexcusable, and went as far as to suggest a conspiracy on the Singapore Government’s behalf.

"We have to condemn Singapore’s action as a form of colonialism," he said.

Farmers’ leader Bamrung Kayotha said: "I think the time for Thaksin is over and the country has been damaged, and now it is up to him whether he leaves politely, or else."

About two-thirds of Bangkok residents in the Assumption University polls think Mr Thaksin should step down.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister said he would continue in office because Thai Rak Thai had a political mandate from the votes of 19 million people he had won less than a year ago.

"They may have to wait until the next life to see me resign," he said.

"Let the rules prevail as they are constituted."

ENDS