Catch me if you can

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Shinawatra mixed with the great and the good, including Bahraini prime minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa and Tony Blair. The bloodless coup in 2006 saw an end to that.

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Shinawatra says he gained “a great friend” when he sold premier league club Manchester City to HH Sheikh Mansour.

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"If the King feels I can be beneficial I will go back and he may grant me a royal pardon," he continues. "If they don't need me and the King feels I can make no difference then I will stay here and do business. I will live my life with friends."

Today Shinawatra is in the Gulf rekindling close friendships with business and political leaders in the region. He said he has been made to feel very welcome, unlike in the UK, where many were surprised by the British government's decision to revoke his visa. Now, he chooses his words carefully, but remains singularly unimpressed at the circumstances of his departure.

"I think the UK is a mature democratic country, and they should understand that I am the victim of the coup d'etat," he maintains. "I am the victim of dictatorship, even though there was a court verdict.

"But that is like the fruit on the poisoned tree - the whole tree has been poisoned and I am the fruit. The tree was planted by the military coup," he says, adding: "England must understand better but unfortunately they are now busy with their own problems so they forgot about democratic values.

"I don't care, though - I thank them because I went there, I bought a football club then sold it and made some money in the process," he says. "They gave me a place to stay, even though it was short-term. My children went to school there.

One day, they will understand better, and they will feel sorrow for what they have done because they have not respected their own democratic values."

So what next for Shinawatra? Putting his political problems aside, Shinawatra is focused on tackling poverty in Asia. He speaks passionately about the plight of the poor, and details the measures he took during his reign in Thailand - and how they worked. Top of his agenda is healthcare. During his premiership, Shinawatra wasted no time in introducing a new system of blanket healthcare insurance for the equivalent of just 3 dirhams a month.

"At least 18 million poor people can now enjoy full healthcare," he says proudly. "If they are having a baby they pay just 3 dirhams. For heart surgery, 3 dirhams. I re-managed the whole public health budget and allocated set amounts to every hospital.

"We added more equipment and built centres of excellence. Now they can get the same service as anyone else, regardless of how poor they are," he adds.

Does he plan to do the same here? "I think if I can re-manage for the UAE government, I will do exactly the same. I will bring in the same experts who used to work with me. I will not just give treatment but also preventive measures - for example, there is a lot that can be done with nutrition and other advice on healthy living."

Shinawatra insists that he would increase the number of family doctors available, and also establish clinics nearer to housing districts, in order to free up hospital resources and make life easier for the 80 percent of patients who do not actually require hospital treatment.

As well as improving healthcare services in the emirates, Shinawatra is also putting together his own detailed proposals for tackling poverty on a wider scale.

In particular, he wants governments to use their surpluses to create micro-loans for the poor, in the same way that they were pioneered by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, in Bangladesh.

Thailand's People Bank, giving the poor small loans at just 2.5 percent, has been a huge success and Shinawatra wants to extend the principle across Asia.

In order to achieve this dream, he has launched a new foundation, named ‘Building a Better Future'.

"What does the capitalist economy mean? It means you need capital to create wealth," he explains. "The poor have no choice but to live in a capitalist economy, but they have no capital. They have no access to it. If you give them that access, it changes everything."

Shinawatra insists that the poverty issue is one that has been "misunderstood" in the past. "Most countries are run by veteran politicians who only have experience of politics," he points out. "What is missing is management. Politics is about power and law - politicians don't understand how to run an organisation.

"As an experienced businessman I think I bring some modern management to the government," he continues. "It proved to work well in Thailand but they didn't let me stay that long. If I had stayed the full eight years I think I could have made a big difference."

With so much on his agenda, it is hard to say what the future holds for Thaksin Shinawatra. He expresses deep gratitude to Abu Dhabi's HH Sheikh Mansour for engineering the takeover of Manchester City, saying he sold a club but gained "a great friend". Above all, though, he is looking to go home. He makes no apologies, and has no regrets, about the past.

"I cannot live in my own country. There were many assassination attempts, and my family has been broken up because we all have to live in different countries. I regret the result, but not what I have done. You see, I love the Thai people."

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READERS' COMMENTS

Thaksin is a liar
Posted by Jom on Saturday 18 April 2009 at 13:24 UAE time


Thaksin is a liar. I don't understand why the international medias and reporters have listened to all his lies. He doesn't want to come back to Thailand as he knows his corruptions are true and can be proven. When he was the prime minister, he changed the law so that he could sell his company to foreigner (it is a concession company which is not allowed to 100% owned by foreigner). He also changed the tax structure for his company so that his company would not pay taxes while his competitors had to. When he sold his company, he didn't pay tax at all. He used tactics to avoid taxes. Is he deserved to be our prime minister?

For Ratchada land which was sold to his wife while he was the prime minister. His wife won the bid at the price much below the market price. As a prime minister, he should not allow his wife to bid for the land.

When he was prime minister, he abused power by interfering many independent organizations and paying money to many officials so that he can do whatever to benefit himself. When opposition party and senators asked to open the house to examine him on corruption cases, he dissolved parliament to escape the examination.

Many more corruption charges are awaiting for him. If he is sure he is innocent, he needs to come back to prove it. However, he knows all of those evidences are true so he dares not to back to Thailand. The only thing he can do is to lie to the world that Thailand's court is injustice.

One more point I would like to inform you is that he is no longer popular among the rural poors. He may be popular for a certain group but not the majority anymore. His true democracy means only getting majority votes (even buying them). He doesn't care about using power in an ethical and democratic way. He even doesn't want anyone to examine him. How can Thai people accept this kind of person?

Taksin
Posted by chai63, Songkhla, Thailand on Wednesday 21 January 2009 at 09:59 UAE time

I don't know how is Mr.Taksin in your country/outside his country but in my country(Thailand) he is the felon who was passed judgementa and others serious offences (more than 10) in the process and all of his serious offences are countried corruption.
I and we believe and firmly believe our law.

Thanksin, are you a man?
Posted by a regular Thai, Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday 31 December 2008 at 08:43 UAE time


How can you claim that all the good things that ever happened in this country here are all your initiative and your effort? You took the office after most of the crisis ruins (except yours, as you made a big fortune from the damage of the country by taking advantage of inside information as the minister of the by-then government to hedge currencies before floating currencyin 1998 took place) been solved and just spent the country reserve to lay down your popular policis for power.
Most of your policies are a hollow framework (dreamworks) and do not have a propered management structure; and even worse, some policies were just a gateway or means of corruptions for your nominee or family memebers and ciphone the money back to your businesses. It is a big lie and it is a conflict of interest!
You never donated a cent of your own money to the public health or any charity foundations. What you claimed were yours are from the goverment budget.
You never think of the well being, happiness and peace of others, the society and the country that has given you the chance to earn so such extreme fortune, even at the moment of happy festive season by hosting your gangsters to build up mob at the parliament house on the New Year Eve, as a measure to overthrow the new government, dreaming that you could come back into power.
Do not under-estimate the rural people, they are poor, and may have less opportunity to receive information but they are not stupid to be fooled around.
You should stop now, take a self assessment and start to live in peace. Do not think that the Thai people are all dumb and less wisdom than yours, you are not a wise man; otherwise you will not be in this position. Do Not blame others but to yourself.
All the above warning are not for yourself or your own good (as you certainly cannot realise), but for your children, because they certainly need a peaceful place to live and longer bright society future than yours.

Thaksin Shinnawatra...You're needed any more!
Posted by Kon Thai, Bangkok, thailand on Tuesday 30 December 2008 at 22:26 UAE time


Do not come back to Thailand. We do not want you back. We are poor but we are not fool.

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