DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Thaksin Shinawatra: Ousted Thai PM's Life in Politics
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Feb. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +4 min

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's controversial billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released on parole on Sunday after serving six months in detention. 1998Thaksin founds the Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party. In September, the military launches a coup against Thaksin while he is overseas, citing the need to end the protests. 2011New elections are won in a landslide by another new pro-Thaksin party, Pheu Thai. Thaksin applies for a royal pardon and his eight-year jail term is commuted to a year by the king.

Persons: Thaksin Shinawatra, Thaksin, Love Thais, Thais, Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's, Srettha Thavisin, Nick Macfie, Martin Petty Organizations: Thai Rak Thai, Thaksin, People's Alliance for Democracy, Shin Corporation, Temasek, English Premier League, Manchester City, Power Party, United Front for Democracy, Democrat Party Locations: BANGKOK, Thai, Singapore, Thai Rak Thai, Britain, Bangkok, Thailand

☆ Factbox-Thailand's Polarising Ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Feb. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +4 min

(Reuters) - Thailand's billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released from detention on Sunday, enjoying freedom in his country for the first time since fleeing into exile nearly 16 years ago to avoid jail. - Thaksin ran several failed businesses with his wife before getting his break in the 1980s leasing computers to the police. In 2010, a court seized $1.4 billion worth of Shinawatra assets, concluding Thaksin had concealed his Shin Corp shareholdings and tailored policy to benefit his business. - Thaksin's sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was also prime minister and suffered an almost identical fate as him. - Thaksin's youngest daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, is Pheu Thai party leader and eligible to become prime minister.

Persons: Thaksin Shinawatra, Chiang Mai, Thaksin, Yingluck Shinawatra, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Srettha Thavisin, Martin Petty, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: Reuters, Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky Fried, Thailand's, Shin Corporation, Shin Corp, English Premier League football, Fulham, Manchester City, Forbes, Thai Rak, Thai Rak Thai, People Power Party, Srettha Locations: Thai, Chiang, Kentucky, Singapore, Thailand, Liverpool, Dubai, Britain, Montenegro, Thai Rak Thai, Thai Rak, Bangkok

☆ A new PM and a fugitive's return: here's what Thailand's political future holds
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is expected to be arrested upon his return as he ends almost two decades of self-imposed exile, waves at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok, Thailand August 22, 2023. RThe return of Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after years of self-exile could mark the end of a chapter in the country's politics, even as some analysts believe he will still be pulling some political strings — albeit from behind. The founder of Pheu Thai party and widely seen as its de facto leader, Thaksin returned to Thailand on Tuesday after 15 years in exile, and was sentenced to eight years in prison upon his return. But he will be the key person driving Pheu Thai Party behind the scenes," said Kasem Prunratanamala, head of Thailand research at CGS-CIMB. Pheu Thai is the latest iteration of his old party Thai Rak Thai after several before were disbanded by the courts.

Persons: Thaksin Shinawatra, Thaksin, Srettha Thavisin, Kasem Prunratanamala Organizations: Thai, Chulalongkorn University's Institute of Security, International Studies, CNBC, Thai Party, CGS, Thai Rak Thai Locations: Don Mueang, Bangkok, Thailand, Thai, Pheu, Thai Rak

BANGKOK, Aug 22 (Reuters) - When Thailand's deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra went into self-imposed exile in 2008 facing a raft of corruption charges following his ouster in a military coup, he issued a hand-written note. Thaksin has been Thailand's most prominent politician for decades, retaining outsized influence despite the years away. "It closes a crucial chapter in Thailand's politics," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, said of Thaksin's return. A shrewd operator who rarely minces his words, an increasingly wealthy Thaksin entered politics in the mid-1990s, initially serving as foreign minister and then deputy prime minister. But the brash Thaksin, who called himself Thailand's first "CEO prime minister", faced royalist accusations that he was undermining the revered monarchy, which he denied.

Persons: Thailand's, Thaksin Shinawatra, Thaksin, Thaksin's, Yingluck Shinawatra, Critics, watchdogs, Chalinee, Chiang Mai, Love Thais, Devjyot Ghoshal, Chayut Setboonsarng, Panu, Robert Birsel Organizations: Thaksin, Chulalongkorn University, Thai, REUTERS, Rights, Shin Corporation, Thai Rak Thai, Singapore's Temasek, Premier League, Manchester City, Thomson Locations: BANGKOK, Bangkok, Thailand, Chiang, United States, Thai, Britain

☆ Thailand's Parliament is about to pick a new prime minister — and a generation's hopes are at stake
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Clement Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Move Forward Party leader and prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat addresses supporters ahead of the July 13 parliamentary vote to elect Thailand's next prime minister, in front of Central World in Bangkok on July 9, 2023. The installation of Wan Noor as a compromise candidate after second-placed party Pheu Thai had objected to Move Forward's choice, was just the beginning. "It puts the Pheu Thai Party in an advantageous position if Mr Pita fails to get sufficient votes from the senators to back him as prime minister." Limjaroenrat needs 376 votes to become prime minister. Pictured in this May 18 photograph are (from left) Sudarat Keyuraphan, leader of the Thai Sang Thai Party; Pita Limjaroenrat, prime minister candidate and leader of the Move Forward Party; and Cholnan Srikaew, leader of Pheu Thai Party.

Persons: Pita Limjaroenrat, Thailand's, Tananchai, Wan, —, Party —, Limjaroenrat —, Prayut Chan, Wan Noor, Thai, Mr Wan, Syetarn Hansakul, Mr Pita, it's, Sudarat Keyuraphan, Cholnan Srikaew, Forward's, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, Prapanth Koonmee, Nomura, EIU's, Limjaroenrat, Napon Jatusripitak, ISEAS, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Thaksin Shinawatra, — he's, Pheu, Thaksin, He's, he's, Pavin Chachavalpongpun Organizations: Forward Party, Afp, Getty, Thailand's, Representatives, Party, Harvard, Thai Party, Economist Intelligence Unit, National Assembly, Thai Sang, Pheu Thai Party, Limjaroenrat's, ISEAS Yusof, Institute, Chulalongkorn University, CNBC, Prachachat Party, Kyoto University's Center, Southeast Asian Studies, Thai Lawyers for Human Locations: Bangkok, Thai, Thai Sang Thai, Thailand, Singapore, Thai Rak Thai

Search resuls for: "Thai Rak Thai"

5 mentions found