Suthep, Our Yes-Man’s No-Man

They’re a couple, the two, there is no other word. When there’s good or not too bad news to tell you’ll hear the words from Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

If a guy for the tougher, more unpopular jobs is needed, you’ll most surely hear it from Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, a kind of Abhisit’s bouncer.

Thick-skinned and not the least fearful, Suthep’s the man for the dirtier work. Suthep’s the warner, the accuser, the intriguer – Abhisit’s most important shield.

Born on the 7th of July, 1949 – what a lucky series of sevens – in the southern province of Surat Thani “Thep Thuak” became a village head at the crisp age of 26.

In his long political career he became a parliamentarian when 30, was later on commerce and agriculture secretary, deputy agriculture minister and minister of transport & communication.

Today’s secretary general of the Democrat Party was a key in the fall of the first Chuan government when the opposition launched a debate accusing Democrat leaders of corruption in Phuket’s land reform scheme. Suthep was the architect of the scheme.

The debate was initiated by Chart Thai’s Banharn Silpa-Archa and – hear hear! – house representative Newin Chidchob.

Suthep was never found guilty by the courts, but the issue had dogged him politically ever since, we learn from the Siam Report.

Suthep played an active role, we learn, in organizing and bringing forth the electoral lawsuit against former prime minister Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai party – a suit that eventually led to the suspension of 111 of its members in 2007.

He’s not only Thaksin’s nemesis. Suthep is instrumental in Abhisit’s rise to power and maintaining of power.

Now … who pulls the strings. Who’s in whose shadow.

There’s hardly any Abhisit without his political hatchet man.

Suthep got his presentable face.