By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Feb 28 2008 (IPS)

Thailand’s ousted prime minster Thaksin Shinawatra wrote a new chapter in the country’s political history when he returned home to a hero’s welcome Thursday, after 17 months in exile.

Till now, no elected leader, driven from power by a military coup has been welcomed back with such an outpouring of public feeling. Close to 2,000 people gathered outside the VIP terminal at Bangkok’s international airport under a cloudy morning sky to cheer, whistle and chant slogans, such as ‘’Thaksin, fight, fight!’’

Among them was Sirichom Kongpaiboon, who was moved by the jubilant mood as Thaksin’s supporters waited for him to appear. ‘’I am very happy to be here; am happy to see so many people. We came here with our hearts,’’ said 55-year-old Sirichom, as tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘’He did good during his five years, helping with education and health.’’

This mother of two, who teaches social studies in the northern province of Phrae, had driven overnight in a van with other members of her community to witness this historic moment. There were others in the crowd, too, who had made similar long journeys by road from other northern and north-eastern provinces. Both regions are home to Thailand’s rural poor, where support for Thaksin runs deep.

Thaksin’s supporters from Bangkok, too, were among the welcoming party. Somkiat Kavnate, a 48-year-old manager at the multinational company IBM said: ‘’I like to show Thaksin’s critics that the Thai people want him back. He helped to upgrade the people at the bottom when in government,’’ said Somkiat, who had taken the day off from work. ‘’Today is a blow to the military.’’

The significance of the moment was apparently not lost on Thaksin, who has spent most of his time in exile in Britain after the country’s armed forces staged Thailand’s 18th putsch in September 2006. As soon as he stepped out from the terminal, the former premier knelt and touched the ground with his forehead, a gesture that has never been made by a political leader in a public setting.

‘’Thaksin is the first elected prime minister who was deposed from power and who has come back with politically active support and with the party in power backing him,’’ says Thanet Aphornsuvan, associate professor of history at Thammasat University, based in Bangkok. ‘’In the past, leaders who were ousted from power never came back to such a triumphant reception.’’

‘’This is unprecedented,’’ he added during an IPS interview. ‘’What the PPP has achieved are also firsts, because previous political parties that were forced out of power by the military could never recover. We are witnessing something new here.’’

Much of that is due to the political transformation Thailand underwent after Thaksin led his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai – TRT) party to two thumping election victories, in 2001 and 2005. The TRT’s platform of pro-poor polices struck a chord with the urban and rural poor and gave rise to a strong constituency that swore allegiance to Thaksin.

‘’Today’s events show the meaning of grassroots support; it is strong and here to stay,’’ says Thanet. ‘’We can even say it is a moment of democracy taking root in Thai soil.’’

Such an alliance between a large vote bank of the underclass and Thaksin, a billionaire telecommunications tycoon before becoming premier, had not impressed the country’s old moneyed elite, the entrenched aristocrats, and sections of Bangkok’s middle class. The latter threw their weight behind the coup, which was staged after months of street protests in Bangkok in early 2006. The demonstrations, which won wide support among Bangkok’s middle class, were directed against Thaksin. They called for his ouster amidst allegations of corruption, nepotism and the abuse of power.

Efforts by the old elite to keep Thaksin out of power continued. In mid-2007, a special tribunal appointed by the military found the TRT in violation of election laws during a 2006 poll. It ruled that the party be dissolved and 111 executive members of the TRT, including Thaksin, be banned from politics for five years.

Thaksin faces several legal battles. On arrival he was escorted by the police to the Supreme Court where he and his wife, Pojaman, face corruption and conflict of interest charges over a questionable purchase of land in the Thai capital. He was released on bail of eight million bhat (267,000 US dollars).

He was then taken to the attorney general’s office for another case, charging him and his wife of concealing shares in a real estate company owned by the Shinawatras. He was freed after paying bail of one million baht (33,350 dollars).

And at a packed encounter with the press, where Thaksin only read a statement, these cases were on his mind. ‘’I believe this is the proper time for me to return to Thailand so as to argue my case against all wrongful accusations made against my family and me,’’ he said. ‘’Almost every member of my family and I have been accused of various wrongdoings without the international standard of legal due process.’’

He also admitted little interest in active politics – at least for now. ‘’Upon my return to Thailand, I wish to live quietly and peacefully with my family just like any other Thai person,’’ he said.

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