Thaksin: The Business of Politics in Thailand (review)

564Book Reviews Regardless of these questions, this is an important work that will benefit social scientists working on Southeast Asia. N. Ganesan Hiroshima Peace Institute Hiroshima City University, Japan Thaksin: The Business ofPolitics in Thailand. By Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Chiangmai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2004. Softcover: 301pp. Having had the misfortune of more than several dozen governments since the abolition ofits absolute monarchy in December 1932, Thailand was for a long time seen as politically bumbling though economically stellar middle-income Southeast Asian nations, thus obscuring the significance of its current prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, to much of the rest of the world. It is fair to say that today Thaksin and his policies loom large over much of Southeast Asia's political and economic landscape largely as a result of his iron-fisted determination to mould Thai society with his mixture of populist policies and soft authoritarianism, while methodically fighting off any mild and harsh criticism from internal and as well as external critics. That his government has delivered rapid growth as well as political stability at home since he came to power seems to have blunted much of that criticism even though many of his critics are unwavering. Has Thaksin's leadership played a significant role in catalysing intentional historical transformation in Thai institutions and social groups? Is his leadership a distinctive form of social influence insofar as he, Thaksin, affects the intrinsic and not just the extrinsic motivation of his followers? Are there other criteria, other than effectiveness, according to which Thaksin's leadership can be evaluated? These are the sort of issues around which more rigorous and more academic treatments of leadership are most often built. However, such an academically more in-depth biography is not what the authors have provided in what is without doubt a book intentionally targeted for a much wider mass-market audience. Instead, in their newest book, Pasuk and Baker offer a very userfriendly and brilliant exegesis of the Thaksin phenomenon. Pasuk, who teaches economics at Chulalongkorn University, and Baker, who is an independent writer based in Bangkok, are also the co-authors of Thailand: Economy and Politics, Thailand's Boom and Bust, and Book Beviews565 Thailand's Crisis. Here they do readers a service in pointing out that the Thaksin phenomenon is not only unprecedented but may also be a threat to Thailand's democratic consolidation. Apart from the preamble devoted to the indictment of Thaksin by the country's counter-corruption commission for filing false financial statements in December 2000 and his subsequent acquittal by the courts in January 2001, Thaksin: The Business of Politics in Thailand proceeds chronologically from Thaksin's early years till his rise to the premiership of Thailand — which, barring any major catastrophe or scandal, is set to continue for the foreseeable future. As the authors convincingly demonstrate, it was the combination of the Asian financial crisis that started in 1997, Thaksin's revolutionary rethinking of the staid politics in the aftermath of that crisis, and his party's deft marketing skills of promises of restored pride and a better future for much of the Thai populace which laid the base for his political trajectory. Most brilliant are four of the book's nine chapters: Chapter Two, "Family and Business", not only chronicles Thaksin's formative years as a son of successful Chinese immigrants in the northern Thai province of Chiangmai, but also his shadowy beginnings in the computer leasing business as well as his leap into telecommunications and television through which he amassed one of the largest fortunes in Thailand. Chapter Three, "Political Rise", traces Thaksin's initial dabbling in politics in the mid-1990s before going on to launch his own political party, Thai Rak Thai (TRT), in 1998 and subsequently winning the general election of January 2001 following a cleverly-run campaign in which he accused former Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leepkai of running a grossly ineffectual government. The TRT then rapidly consolidated its power by absorbing several opposition parties, thus cementing its unassailable hold on the House of Representatives. That, in turn, gave the party the ability to legislate virtually unopposed while guaranteeing both political stability and policy continuity for...