Thaksin Shinawatra

Thaksin married Potjaman Na Pombejra in 1976. He has three children by her; a son named Panthongtae and two daughters named Pinthongtha and Praethongthan. The couple divorced in 2008.

Thaksin Shinawatra was born on July 26, 1949, in San Kamphaeng village, in Chiang Mai province of Thailand, to Loet Shinawatra and Yindi Ramingwong. Loet was an MP from Chiang Mai from 1969 to 1976. Later he quit politics and made lot of money from business and farming.

Thaksin spent the first fifteen years of his life at San Kamphaeng. At sixteen, he shifted to Chang Mai city. There he attended Montfort College, one of the most prestigious schools in Thailand. At the same time, he began to help his father in running one of his two cinema halls.

After graduation, Thaksin entered the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School and then got admission to the Thai Police Cadet Academy. He graduated from there in 1973 and joined the police force.

Soon after, he won a scholarship and joined Eastern Kentucky University (USA) to study Criminal Justice. He graduated from there with a master’s degree in 1975. He then returned to Thailand.

Thaksin now began to teach at the Police Cadet Academy. Later for a short period he was sent on a special duty under the Prime Minister’s office. After some time, he again returned to the United States. In 1978, he received his doctorate on Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University (Texas).

Shinawatra opened different business ventures while he was still working in the police department. However, all of them failed leaving him with a huge debt. Later he used his family and police connections to go into service industry; but that too did not succeed. His luck began to change from the beginning of 1986.

In April 1986, he founded a computer rental company, named Advanced Info Service. Next year in 1987, he went into entertainment industry and marketed a romance drama, which became a hit. This was the year he founded his Shinawatra Computer and Communications Group, which was listed in 1990.

In 1988, Shinawatra started marketing PacLink Pager with Pacific Telesis. Later in 1989, he established a cable television company IBC and a data networking service, Shinawatra DataCom, which was later taken over by AIS and TOT. Today, it is known as Advance Data Network.

In 1990, Shinawatra turned his Advanced Info Service into a mobile networking company. Using his influence he got a 20 year monopoly contract with the army and made a lot of money from it. Later, he incorporated his companies under a conglomerate named ‘Shin Corporation’.

Thaksin Shinawatra joined politics in 1994. He was immediately appointed as the Foreign Minister in the government of Chamlong Srimuang, the leader of Palang Dharma Party (PDP). Later as Chamlong’s popularity began to wane Thaksin was picked up as the new PDP leader.

PDP contested the 1995 Parliamentary election under the leadership of Thaksin. Although he was elected from Bangkok, the party did not do well. It later formed a coalition government with Chart Thai Party, led by Banharn Silpa-Archa. Shinawatra was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Bangkok traffic.

In August 1996, PDP pulled out of the coalition, which resulted in the fall of Banharn government. The parliament was dissolved. Later in the same year Thaksin Shinawatra left PDP with few other MPs. The following year, he served briefly as the Deputy Prime Minister under Chavalit Yongchaiyudh government.

In 1998, Thaksin co-formed Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party. Immediately he began to get ready for next election and started his campaign promising to generate economic growth, provide universal healthcare, debt moratorium for farmers, strict action against corruption etc.

When the next parliamentary election was held on January 6, 2001, TRT won handsomely by garnering 40.6% votes. Thaksin Shinawatra was appointed the Prime Minister of Thailand by King Bhumibol Adulyadej on February 9, 2001.