THAILAND / FILE: Deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra resigns as Thai Rak Thai party leader

Deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra resigned as head of his Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party on Tuesday (October 3, 2006) in the wake of last month's military coup which ousted him from power. Party officials made the announcement in Bangkok. "Our former leader has sent a resignation letter to our party this morning he resigned from a leader of the party," party spokesman Pongthep Thepkanjana told reporters. Pongthep then read out the letter to reporters. "He deemed that because of the situation like this it is his responsibility as executive member to resign and pave the way for the party to select a new executive member," Pongthep added. Thaksin's resignation triggered the automatic dissolution of the 119-strong executive of Thai Rak Thai, which means Thais Love Thais, although it does not mean its end as a political entity. At least 70 TRT members of parliament quit the party on Monday in an apparent attempt to avoid any bans on politics that derive from the anti-corruption probes that have been set up against Thaksin and his former cabinet colleagues. "Resignations of party members are solely their right to do so," party official Veera Musikapong told reporters on Monday (October 2). Former deputy prime minister and foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai and ex-labor minister Somsak Thepsuthin led Monday's (Oct 2) mass resignations, the first sign of the break-up of a political juggernaut that won two landslide elections on a platform of cheap public healthcare and rural loans. At the height of its power after the 2005 general election, TRT had three-quarters of the 500 seats in parliament. The billionaire telecoms tycoon remains in exile in London while an army-appointed anti-corruption panel investigates his assets and business dealings. However, with members quitting in droves ahead of army-led anti-corruption probes into Thaksin and his cabinet, there appears to be no way back for a party whose popularity was based largely on its leader's star appeal and enormous wealth. Sweeping to power in 2001 on a platform of cheap public health care and rural loans, TRT reached its zenith four years later when it won three-quarters of the 500 seats in parliament. Critics said that, immune to any form of censure, the party took Thailand's traditional money politics to new levels by twisting government policy to the benefit of Thaksin and his family and friends in big business. A mish-mash of political philosophies, TRT emerged from the ruins of the 1997 Asian financial crisis as a vehicle for popular anger against international markets and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund. However, as the economy bounced back, it evolved into a pro-business, pro-privatisation and pro-foreign investment party that pushed for free-trade deals with Japan and the United States despite vocal opposition from social groups and unions. January's tax-free sale by Thaksin's family of Shin Corp, the telecoms conglomerate that made him Thailand's fourth richest man, proved to be the last straw, triggering mass anti-cronyism protests in the capital. Nine months later, with the country divided between city and countryside, the army executed its 18th coup in 74 years of democracy to root out what it called "rampant corruption".

ITN Source | October 3, 2006

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