Meet Khun Prachai – The Anti-Thaksin?

Apologies beforehand. This topic is a kind of hard to digest. But it contains a story for the history books: Somebody calling Thaksin to be more intelligent than Hitler.

But first meet Khun Prachai Leophairatana, former CEO of Thai Petrochemical Industry (TPI, now IRPC) and leader of Matchima Tipatai, party of the Middle Path Democracy, Matchima in short.

Prachai sees himself as a Thai prime minister in waiting. Others call him a dangerously intelligent, shrewed snake. Asia’s most infamous businessman.

And there he went, Prachai, in front of the honorable FCCT, to call Thaksin “worse than Saddam Hussein, even worse than Hitler. If Thaksin would have stayed on,” Prachai later told absolutelyBangkok.com, “I may have been killed.”

We all know Prachai is not only an adversary of Thaksin, as he accused the former premier of being the force behind his ouster of giant TPI. But the logic of how Prachai explains that Thaksin was not only worse than Hitler, but more intelligent, that logic is already a classic:

“Thaksin killed many people, over 2,000, and did not get a penalty,” said Prachai. “Remember his massacres at Krue Se and Tak Bai. At Tak Bai, he was even more clever than Hitler. Hitler used gas to kill the Jews. Thaksin, he just packed together those young men. They produced their own gas. And died. Thaksin didn’t even have to add gas.”

It was the lowest point of an otherwise entertaining self-presentation of the man, who was a full-time senator in the 90s and goes to great lengths to describe himself as the leader Thailand cannot afford to not have. “One thing you people don’t understand,” Prachai says, smiling, “I’ve been a politician before.”

With a sometimes obscure logic though. Interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, Prachai told a surprised BangkokDan, “is a nominee of Thaksin. Surayud did everything to promote Thaksin. He increased prices and let the economy go down. Consciously. All of this helps Thaksin.”

Not that Surayud and Thaksin would confer with each other. But “their wives,” says Prachai. “Their wives are talking together.”

Meet Khun Prachai, creator of many conspiracy theories, who promises Thailand’s people a way out.

His Middle Path Democracy, the party pamphlet says, follows the middle path between outright capitalism and heaviest socialism. 42 populist policies – such as 10 new electric trains for Bangkok or a more encouraged “husbandry of cows” – shall bring Thailand “Wealthy Life and Happy People with Justice”.

Corruption shall be ended by increasing the monthly salary of the 2 million government employees by 5,000 baht each.

It’s obvious. Prachai wants to copy Singapore, where the outrageously high government salaries don’t force civil servants to engage in corruption.

Take Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who draws a yearly salary of over 2 million U.S. dollars, roughly five time the amount of US-President Bush’s salary.

Thailands prime minister and ministers earn 100,000 baht a month. They are of the world’s lowest paid leaders – with an unmatched creativity though of how to scoop additional incomes.

And that’s not all: Prachai will pay for each schoolchild’s education until university level. That’s 30,000 baht per head and year, says Prachai. And that is where his maths get fuzzy.

A 150 million baht here and another 150 million baht there – Prachai dreams of the world’s most advanced welfare state. With one of the world’s not most advanced infrastructure, tax returns and education levels.

Prachai dreams of a Southeast Asian “cradle to the grave”-utopia. Which may bring him votes.

As Prachai is willing to form a coalition government “with whomever wins”. Be it the military, the Democrats, Thaksin’s PPP-nominees or any other of those many new parties formed to sell their leverage.

Prachai doesn’t care much about individual ideologies or that politics makes for strange bedfellows. “To change things I have to be at the top of things”.

Thailand could not afford to ignore his leadership: “I cannot die without helping my country. I can contribute. I have 9 years of experience as a senator and years of experience in solving unsolvable problems. I have no experience though in buying votes like other dirty politicians.”

Even he’s not elected though, says Prachai, “I am not sorry about that. I create jobs and welfare for my people since 40 years. I would just keep on doing that.”

Prachai may not be your most articulate politician. His elaborations are not quite artful.

He gets more across as a distinguished laborer in a suit. But he’s an economist through and through. So good in this his core talent, when his empire was crushed and he was burdened with 150 billion baht in personal guarantee, the creditors still had to ask for his advise of how to run the company.

“I had to bear the brunt,” Prachai smiles meanly, “and I still helped. Now I am free. I paid back all the debt. And let me tell you, I have experience in correcting the harshest financial situation. All these other politicians out there are populists. They have no experience at all in solving financial problems.”

Meet Prachai, who is at home when talking about finances and the economy.

Interesting is his take on the crisis of ‘97. When the International Monetary Fund IMF told Thailand to do exactly the opposite of what the US are doing right now with their subprime-credit-crunch.

Thailand was told to keep interest rates over 20%. “They told us to suck out the liquidity to control inflation,” Prachai says. Borrowing money was lethally expensive. Mortgages lost their value, the system was bleeding to death. And what do the US do in the similar situation? They are lowering interest rates and pumping in liquidity.

“They told Thailand to do the opposite of what should have been done. We needed a blood transfusion! But in Thailand, they sucked out the blood. We had to buy blood at exorbitant rates.”

“And in America they have Chapter 11,” says Prachai. The restructuring law allowing the debtor to be the planner. “In Thailand,” Prachai smiles meanly, “the creditor is the planner.”

And Prachai, that nemesis of Thaksin, goes on to explain how Thaksin as a former deputy prime minister had set up a clever system in collaboration with the former financial authorities “to shut down the financial system”.

Prachai pretends to know “how much money Thaksin made by selling out the country”.

And therefore it goes without saying, Prachai says, Thaksin wanted TPI.

We know the story.

Prachai fought back with the mother of all anti-takeover-wars.

Prachai had once called his TPI “akin to my own daughter. When she grows up and all of a sudden someone wants to rape her, chasing me out first, would a father allow that to happen?”

The father of TPI knows every little detail of his child. To many he remains irreplaceable, especially in the formerly sleepy fishing village Rayong, where TPI brought wealth and industrialization – and Prachai is a small saint.

Now, as a politician, he plans to play Rayong with the whole country. And will get some support, probably even in the Northeast, where “people are not lazy,” Prachai says.

“They just lack the water. And I can give them the water. It is only a question of proper management to increase the water supply of the Mekong. We dredge the Mekong and sell the sand. That’s a negative cost. We earn more than we spend. And not only that: I will guarantee prices for rubber, sugar rice.” And there he goes listing one by one the prices farmers dream of. Meet Prachai. The adversary of Thaksin. Who copies too obviously from the textbooks of Thaksin.

And again and again he blames his “role model” Singapore.

“Prachai,” as Bangkok Pundit puts it nicely, “is angry at the Singaporeans as they control the banks in Thailand – it seems the Jews were unavailable to be the scapegoat and given the Shin sale the Singaporeans are an easy bogeyman. Oddly though, they are the bogeyman when it suits him then, but it is the Singapore model which he wants to follow to make Thailand a better country.”

Textbook-nationalism in pre-election times.

Or heard that one before? “We, our party, create jobs, make people richer and give them more rights. That will give happiness to the people.”

Prachai hates everything about Thaksin – “the man was totally unethical. If he was ethical, he could have stayed.”

No no, he did not support the PAD during the ouster of Thaksin, Prachai insists. “But encourage.”

But then again with each of his words, Prachai has Thaksin whispering in the shadows:

“I have to help,” says Prachai. “I cannot see my country go down the drain.”




Sphere: Related Content

Related posts on absolutelyBangkok.com:

  1. Thaksin, The European
  2. Of Fascism, Wannabe-Thais & I Must Love Thaksin
  3. TRT Becomes CRT
  4. Elite Goes Anti-Democrat
  5. Pasuk, Baker & Thaksin

November 14, 2007 | Filed Under Politics, The Thai Mind 

Comments

2 Responses to “Meet Khun Prachai – The Anti-Thaksin?”

  1. Prachai at the FCCT : Part 2 « Asian Correspondent on October 22nd, 2009 6.16 pm

    [...] former CEO of Thai Petrochemical Industry (TPI) and now leader of Matchima speaking at the FCCT.Money quote from absolutelyBangkok.com:Prachai sees himself as a Thai prime minister in waiting. Others call [...]

  2. Surateep on November 19th, 2009 1.05 pm

    Follow this link to the truth of Khun Prachai:

    http://www.managerradio.com/Radio/DetailRadio.asp?program_no=1002&mmsID=1002%2F1002-2443.wma+&program_id=7867

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