Exiled Ex-Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra - Will He Stay Exiled for Long?

Thaksin Shinawatra is Thailand's deposed Prime Minister. Kicked out in a military coup in September 2006, Thaksin now resides in London, England where he is the new owner of Manchester City Football Club. Still popular in many areas of Thailand though, it looks likely that he will eventually return from exile and again run for election as Prime Minister. Here are some reasons why.

Thaksin began his career as a policeman, and then became a successful businessman when he started AIS, the Thai mobile phone company. With the growth of his umbrella company Shin Corporation, he became one of the richest men in Thailand and, at this point, decided to go into politics. He founded the Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) in 1998 and, as head of this party, was elected to Prime Minister in 2001.

He finished his first term as Prime Minister as the only man in history to actually finish their elected term. Thailand has had successive military coups for the last 75 years that have kicked out all the elected Prime Ministers, so this was a momentous achievement for Thaksin. However, during his second term, complaints about massive corruption in his administration began to surface. Some people think some of these rumors were coming from the military and from old police friends, who Thaksin angered when he refused to follow their requests in governing.

He was also however spotlighted by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as a human rights abuser. This criticism grew to monumental heights when, in 2003 he authorized a 'Drug War'. This 'war' gave police and government officials free-reign to shoot and kill suspected drug dealers. Official numbers put the killings at more than 2,000, but unofficial numbers state the number of deaths probably topped 6,000. Innocent women and children were also caught and killed in the crossfire.