Violence fails to dent Thai PM's popularity

THE name of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has become synonymous with the colour red.

This week, and on this side of the world, the colour red signifies Liverpool football club, in which Mr Thaksin claims to have bought a 30% stake.

But in his homeland the red is that of bloodshed.

The telecoms billionaire came to power in a landslide victory three years ago.

However, since January he has been wrestling with violence in the mainly Muslim south which culminated on April 28 with the deaths of more than 100 suspected Islamic militants.

Born in the city of Chiang Mai in 1949, after studying for a PhD in criminal justice, Mr Thaksin was a Bangkok policeman for nine years before setting up in business.

His company now owns the country's largest cellular and TV networks. Bored with merely being Thailand's richest man, Mr Thaksin then went into politics. After spells as foreign minister and deputy prime minister he founded the Thai Rak Thai (Thais love Thais) party in 1998 and won a landslide general election victory in 2001.

Although the recent setbacks have dented his popularity, it is not clear how much damage they will do longer term.

The prime minister has relied on his continuing popularity to overcome setbacks in the past. The violent deaths of more than 2,500 people during a crackdown on drugs did not affect his public support, nor did an earlier finding by a corruption commission that he had failed to declare all of his wealth.

On the plus side, he is credited with launching an economic boom and has promoted popular policies such as offering extremely cheap health care, soft loans to villages, a debt moratorium for farmers and super-low interest rates.