SINGAPORE -- One year after he was re-elected in a landslide, Thailand¡¯s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been forced to dissolve the National Assembly and call a snap election. Although his Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party commands a 75 percent majority in the assembly, Thaksin is embattled.
He remains immensely popular with rural voters and the urban poor, who comprise more than 60 percent of Thailand¡¯s electorate, but he has been battling a fervent Bangkok-based insurrection against his rule by the intelligentsia and middle classes.
They accuse Thaksin, Thailand¡¯s wealthiest businessman, of corruption and treason for the tax-free sale of his family-owned Shin Corporation to the Singapore government¡¯s Temasek Holdings for $1.9 billion. Thaksin¡¯s rapid reversal of political fortune attests to the limits of the ballot box, as well as to democratic shortcomings that now beset a host of developing countries, including regional neighbors such as the Philippines.
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