Some government leaders give villagers relief bags; Thaksin Shinawatra gave them cash. Other leaders tell them to be satisfied with what they have; Thaksin encouraged them to climb the social ladder. The former telecom tycoon once said being indebted was okay,chloe, if the money was used to make a better life for themselves. He took his own case as an example. He quit his police career, started his business life with borrowed money and went on to fill his personal coffers to over-flowing.
Other leaders visit their villages to listen to the locals' plight and then go home; Thaksin went a step further by staying overnight with them in their villages.
Other leaders come up with policies which show no benefits to them; Thaksin launched ones like the universal healthcare and One Tambon One Product projects which directly benefited them.
What Thaksin did was something his predecessors had never done before. His political strategy was to project himself as a prime minister who wanted to really help the poor and, more importantly, was part of them. And it paid off when voters gave the then Thai Rak Thai (TRT) Party an overwhelming mandate to run the country in the Feb 6, 2005 election, when TRT won the poll for the second time with a landslide victory. The Thaksin-formed party comfortably commanded 377 seats in the parliament.
It is not surprising that many voters, including the rural poor, long for him to make a comeback. The military coup on Sept 19, 2006 has not dampened his popularity,manolo blahnik, and in fact subsequent moves have embarrassed the coup makers. The charter drafted by military-picked writers barely survived a public referendum and Thaksin's party, then legally dissolved and reformed under the name of the People Power Party (PPP), even won the post-coup election on Dec 23,vibram five fingers sprint, 2007. They did not vote for late PPP leader Samak Sundaravej as prime minister. They simply cast their ballots for any party which was supported by Thaksin.
Then, swarms of demonstrators travelling by pickup, buses and boats converged on the capital in April and May for the rally by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) to oust the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva because they want Thaksin back.
Thaksin arguably has been the most popular prime minister in Thai politics ever, although he was in power for almost six years. His popularity is still deep-rooted today.
That is why it will be an uphill task for anyone else to lure the rural poor away from their loyalty to Thaksin after the rally.
What Thaksin did when he run the country was more than policies and tactics to please people living in the villages. His government used an excise tax on telecom services to protect his then telecom business. The Export-Import Bank loan to Burma to finance the use of satellite services from Thaicom also benefited his business empire. His overnight stays in the villages,christian louboutin evening, including in Roi Et province, were simply designed for public consumption to boost his image more than anything else.
These are among examples of the other side of Thaksin which led to growing opposition to him, which culminated in the coup. But those issues seem to be beyond the interest of people living in the villages when they compare them with things closer to their hearts like the village fund, cheap visits to hospital and the like.
The names of the people who took part in the two-month rally are in the hands of the authorities. The list is divided into three groups: hardcore red shirt members, UDD members (especially those who went through the UDD school of politics) and those joining the rally without no agenda at all,vibram five fingers kso, including those who did so for purely financial reasons.
Their homes will be visited by the authorities to give them the other side of the Thaksin picture. But in reality the real question for them,christian louboutin wedding, even today, is why? Why was Thaksin forced out of power by non-parliamentary means.
The question is a simple one, but the answer is not,manolo blahnik boots, even though four years have passed since the coup.
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