The jury still out on Thai PM
By Thanaporn Promyamyai
BANGKOK (AFP): After 100 days in office, the jury is still out on Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- literally.
Thailand's constitutional court is deliberating corruption charges leveled against Thaksin relating to a brief stint as deputy premier in 1997, which may see him forced out of office and barred from politics for five years.
That pressure, say analysts, has seen him scrambling to leave a lasting legacy by pushing through his populist political agenda while stumbling headlong into a series of embarrassing political gaffes.
And those bloopers have left ordinary Thais mulling their own verdict on their impulsive new prime minister.
Soon after being sworn into office on Feb. 9, a Thai Airways jet he was due to board blew up on the tarmac and rumors quickly spread that the no-nonsense Thaksin, with his economic reform agenda and tough policy on drugs, had enemies.
Thaksin was quick to take center stage and before the smoke cleared the billionaire businessman-turned-politician announced the blast was caused by a bomb, strongly hinting he knew the culprits.
An ensuing probe saw police and investigators vacillating between backing his claims and saying all the evidence pointed to an accident.
Then in April, following the publication of a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation report saying no explosive materials had been found, it was concluded the blast was caused by overheated fuel tanks.
That farce was followed by a potentially more embarrassing scandal over fake U.S. bonds and claims by an eccentric senator to have found enough gold left by the retreating Japanese Imperial Army after World War II to pay off Thailand's massive foreign debt and rescue the economy.
Thaksin immediately rushed to the cave and into the limelight to examine the hoard, and lent credence to the senator's claims by ordering increased security there.
As it emerged the bonds were amateur fakes and the gold was nowhere to be seen, Thaksin quickly backed off, but not without a large helping of egg on his face dished out by a scathing media which dined out on it for weeks.
But polls show that in "The Land of Smiles" most Thais are forgiving, and Thaksin still has their support.
Yet those polls also show many are still evaluating Thaksin's achievements, alternating between praise for quickly delivering on election promises and concern over his corruption indictment.
"It is too early to say he has succeeded or failed with his job," says Chaiwat Khamchu, Chulalongkorn University's political science dean.
"But I give full marks for his efforts in implementing his agenda to solve the country's problems in which like a company chief executive he tries hard to create concrete outcomes."
Those include the implementation of 30 baht (US$0.65) hospital visits for all, a debt moratorium for struggling farmers, and a village fund giving one million baht ($22,000) to each of Thailand's 70,000 villages.
He has also moved quickly to set up a central asset management company to take over the massive bad debts of banks in an effort to spur lending, a move which has won praise form the business community.
Analysts put those speedy achievements down to the constitutional court case hanging over the administration.
Thaksin is accused by the National Counter Corruption Commission of failing to disclose $100 million in assets in official declarations filed four years ago.
The prime minister says his wealth was gained through legitimate business and the commission's charges against him are a "legal technicality."
Either way, the jury is still out on Thaksin, and that "technicality" could cost him the country's top job.