Profile: Thaksin Shinawatra

Former PM Thaksin Shinawatra has returned to Thailand after a year-and-a-half in exile following a 2006 bloodless military coup. The controversial billionaire tycoon, who still has a large following in the country, will face charges of abuse of power during his time in office.

The colourful Thaksin, currently the owner of English football club Manchester City, may not be involved in top-flight politics, but his return to Thailand will make him one of the country's most influential figures once again. Loved by Thai's rural poor, he is widely regarded as championing the rights of the economically deprived and gearing his political platform to protecting farmers' livelihoods.

Thaksin began his career as a policeman, and then became a successful businessman, founding Thailand's most lucrative telecommunications company, Shin Corp. By the end of the 1990's – by then one of the country's richest men – he founded the Thai Rak Thai party (Thais Loves Thais). In 2001, he was elected to Prime Minister.

And despite implementing favourable policies that included successful agrarian reforms, Thaksin found himself exiled in the peaceful, rolling hills of Surrey, UK, pondering how and why he had lost favour with ordinary Thais.

Although he was once liked by big business for his famous “Thaksinomics'' policies, which helped the country emerge from the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s largely unscathed, Thaksin was still hated by the urban elite.
It was ultimately the sale of Shin Corp shares that netted his family US$1.9 billion, in addition to accusations of tax evasion on a massive scale that lost him favour with the business community.

But it wasn't just the business community that Thaksin angered. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accused him of widespread human rights abuses. The criticism grew to monumental heights during his 2003 so-called ‘Drug War' – more than 2,500 people are believed to have died during raids – as well as a bloody crackdown on an Islamist insurgency in the country's south.

But despite this, Thaksin had managed to hold on to power and survive particularly difficult times on a number of occasions during his tenure. It is because of this that his opponents fear he has returned to politics to influence events from behind-the-scenes.

And this fear could well be warranted. The economy has deteriorated since his removal, violence in the south has worsened, and the country's poor are once again chanting his name.