Thaksin Shinawatra

Thaksin Shinawatra (Thai: ทักษิณ ชินวัตร, IPA: [tʰáksǐn tɕʰinnawát]; Chinese: 丘達新, Qiū Dáxīn, nicknamed Maew แม้ว by the media ), born July 26, 1949 in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, is a Thai businessman, politician, former Prime Minister of Thailand, and former leader of the populist Thai Rak Thai Party. Deposed in a military coup and convicted in absentia of abusing power, he is currently outside of Thailand.
Born in July 26, 1949, in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, Thaksin started his career in the police, and later became a successful telecom entrepreneur and one of the richest people in Thailand. He entered politics in 1994 and founded the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party in 1998. After a landslide election victory in 2001, he became prime minister, the country’s first to serve a full term.

Thaksin introduced a range of -- partly effective and highly popular -- policies to alleviate rural poverty. He launched the country's first universal healthcare program, the 30-baht scheme, as well as drastic social order and drug suppression campaigns.
His re-election in 2005 had the highest voter turnout in Thai history, with his main support base in the rural north and northeast.
But the Shinawatra government also faced allegations of corruption, authoritarianism, treason, conflicts of interest, acting non-diplomatically, and muzzling of the press. Thaksin was accused of tax evasion, lèse majesté and selling national assets to international investors.
Independent bodies, including Amnesty International, also slammed Thaksin's human rights record.

Eventually this led to massive protests in 2006, and on 19 September a military junta overthrew Thaksin's government in a bloodless coup while he was abroad. A junta-appointed court dissolved the Thai Rak Thai party and banned him and the TRT's executive team from politics for five years. The junta-appointed Assets Examination Committee froze his bank accounts, claiming he had become unusually wealthy in government.
Thaksin returned to Thailand on 28 February 2008, after the TRT's successor party won the post-coup elections. But after visiting Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, he did not return to hear charges and applied for asylum in the United Kingdom. In October, the Supreme Court found him guilty of a conflict of interest and sentenced him in absentia to 2 years in jail.
Thaksin married Potjaman Damapong in 1980. They have one son, Panthongtae and two daughters, Pintongtha and Peathongtarn. They divorced in 2008.
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