Troublemaker in paradise

A profile of Suthep Thaugsuban, the leader of anti-government protests in Thailand .

Suthep Thaugsuban (Illustration by Gary Wing)

Tha Sathon, in the Surat Thani Province of Thailand, is an unremarkable place with just a few thousand inhabitants. It’s poor, like much of the country, situated 550 kilometres south of Bangkok, yet it sits incredibly close to the bona fide slice of paradise that is its coastline. Picture perfect islands such as Ko Samui and Ko Pha Ngan have become synonymous with seemingly juxtaposing escapism and hedonism, where impossibly beautiful, dreamlike vistas cause visitors’ jaws to hit the floor and remain there for the duration of their stay.

This entire region might as well be on a different planet than the sweaty, steaming, heaving Thai capital, yet the two are inextricably linked by a man who has thoroughly divided Thailand. A man viewed by half the population as a hero and by the other half as a self-serving, corrupt troublemaker and murderer.

For Suthep Thaugsuban, a wealthy married man with a son and two daughters, trouble has been a way of life for many years, but many observers are now wondering if he’s on the verge of causing an outright civil war. Depending on whether, as an activist, your “shirt” is deemed to be red or yellow, you’re either a supporter of the current government regime or of Thaugsuban. Either way, it looks likely that Bangkok will shortly be brought to its knees in a “shutdown” orchestrated by the 64-year old former politician.

The initial reasons for protests in Bangkok are easy to explain. Currently living in self-imposed exile in Dubai, where he has been holed up in luxury for five years, Thailand’s controversial former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is staying away from his home country to avoid being locked up. It’s his sister, Yingluck, who is currently PM, and it’s widely believed he’s been influencing her leadership since the day she assumed office in 2011.

Ousted in a bloodless coup in 2006, Shinawatra eventually was found guilty in absentia of political corruption, was sentenced to prison and had US$2.3 billion (Dh8.44bn) of family assets frozen, although he told Forbes magazine, in October 2013, that almost half of that had been returned to him. That’s not the reason Thai people are getting worked up, however. The real reason is that Yingluck was trying to push an amnesty bill through parliament that would effectively allow her brother to re-enter the country as a free man, something Thaugsuban seized upon for his own political gains by stirring up an initially peaceful mob in the capital’s streets in November.

Thaugsuban himself has previously faced charges of corruption in 2009 after it was discovered he had a financial stake in a media company that had been receiving concessions from the government. By this stage he had risen through the political ranks to become deputy prime minister for the then ruling Democrat Party, and these charges led to him being threatened with disqualification as a member of parliament. He resigned before this could happen but that didn’t affect his position as deputy PM.

This had not been the first time he was involved in scandal. In the mid-1990s he arranged for the title deeds for nearly 600 plots of land to be passed to farmers in the Phuket province and it emerged that 11 wealthy families were also beneficiaries. The resulting outcry led to the overthrow of the Democrats from office, but somehow Thaugsuban managed to hold onto his fiercely loyal supporters. The Democrat Party bounced back and once again assumed office in 2008, a government Thaugsuban did nothing to help with his subsequent behaviour.

Thailand is a country divided by class. The poorer regions support the incumbent government (rice farmer subsidies and cheap health care went down well) while the middle and upper classes tend to favour the more elitist politics of Thaugsuban and the opposition. Bangkok is pretty much split down the middle, so it was always going to be fraught when it came to protestations.

That amnesty bill, responsible for the latest surge in political unrest, was subsequently rejected by the senate but the very public protests caused Yingluck to dissolve parliament on December 9, announcing fresh elections in February to try to settle matters once and for all. But Thaugsuban seems to be just getting into his stride now, and he won’t allow things to end on a peaceful note. He’s calling upon supporters to lock down the city, block roads and generally make normal life an impossibility.

Meanwhile, Yingluck has been addressing the nation from the north, where she has been rallying for support over the past few days. Using her Facebook page, she called on the country to put aside its differences. “On the occasion of New Year 2014,” she posted, “may I ask all Thais to be united in mind, to seek a blessing for the Thai people to love and harmonise and for those who differ in views, be it their political ideology or belief, to reconcile for a peaceful resolution for our nation.”

Thaugsuban, however, can call upon many more decades of political experience than Yingluck. As a young man he graduated from Chiangmai University and, in 1975, attained a master’s degree in political science from Middle Tennessee State University in the USA. His political career started when he was 26 years old, becoming “village headman”.

He was first elected in 1976 as MP for his home province of Surat Thani, where his family has become wealthy thanks to its heavy involvement in the lucrative industries of palm oil production and shrimp farming. Over the ensuing years, he has held a great many high profile positions (35 at the last count) in government. He finally gave up his Surat Thani seat, where he’d been re-elected in 2011, on the 11th day of last month, to devote his full-time efforts to overthrowing the government. Many believe a military coup will once again force the issue – something Thailand has become all too familiar with – and that Thaugsuban will have, against all the significant odds stacked against him, managed to worm his way back into the highest office in Thai politics.

Whatever happens, everyone agrees that a swift end to the unrest is required. At least eight people have been killed since the latest uprising began, but that’s not exactly foreign to Thaugsuban, either. Described in classified US documents upturned by WikiLeaks as a “backroom dealmaker who maintains contacts in all camps, including the military”, he was indicted on politically motivated murder charges last year on account of the more than 90 deaths caused by the military crackdown ordered by him when he was deputy prime minister to quell the “red shirt” protesters when Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in 2010. Recently he set up his own law firm, Patcharawit Advocates, “that has 20 to 30 lawyers ready to defend my case as well as the officers who have been charged with murder in connection with their operations in 2010.”

The demonstrators who have been surrounding and occupying government buildings in recent weeks have been urged by Thaugsuban to remain nonviolent, but the tensions have been boiling and he’s done little to prevent that. He says his goal is to have the government replaced with an unelected “people’s council” that would choose Thailand’s leaders.

Considering how the international community might be looking upon the current upheaval, he went on record as saying: “Foreigners may think that if the government wins in parliament, that means the majority of the people support them – but the fact is that this government bought votes with their money and corrupted the last election.

“The people will quit only when the state power is in their hands,” he told Thai reporters. “If we don’t succeed, then I am prepared to die in the battlefield.”

Going by past performance, one cannot help wonder if he was talking literally or figuratively. Most would suggest the latter but one thing is certain: Thaugsuban has made an indelible mark on the political landscape of a country where unrest, strife, violence, corruption and greed have been commonplace in the practices of its leaders for far too long. Perhaps, if he’s good to his word, hi most lasting legacy will not be scandal but instead a much-needed peace in government that reflects the very best of his country’s paradisiac topography.

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