When Thaksin Shinawatra went into self-imposed exile in 2008 after he was charged with abuse of power following a military coup that overthrew his government, he issued a handwritten note.
“If I am fortunate enough,” wrote Thaksin. “I will return and die on Thai soil.”
On Tuesday, the now 74-year-old finally returned to Thailand as Pheu Thai, the latest incarnation of his populist political movement, prepared for a vote in parliament on its candidate for prime minister.
Despite his long absence, Thaksin remains enormously influential in Thai politics.
“It closes a crucial chapter in Thailand’s politics,” Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, said of Thaksin’s return. “He has been such a dominant force over the past two decades.”
A former policeman turned telecoms tycoon, Thaksin used his vast fortune to bankroll his first successful bid for political power in 2001, drawing support from the rural north and northeast with a raft of policies in areas such as healthcare and employment that promised to improve people’s lives and income.
Source from www.aljazeera.com