Thai northeast vows poll payback to Shinawatra clan

FE Team | Published: February 01, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

UDON THANI, Jan 31 (AFP): In Thailand's wealthy capital, embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra rarely ventures out in public because of fears for her safety. But in much of the vast rural northeast, her billionaire family are heroes.
The stark contrast reflects a deep political split between the government's northern strongholds and opposition heartlands where anti-government protesters are threatening to block polling stations on Sunday to prevent Yingluck's re-election.
Voters in the northeastern region of Isaan, home to a third of the population, have propelled three successive Shinawatra-backed governments to office-the first in 2001 led by Yingluck's elder brother Thaksin.
In the sleepy, sun-baked village of Baan Dong Yaang in Udon Thani province, villagers say their loyalty to Thaksin is just reward for the cash and care he has lavished on Thailand's poorest region.
Residents rattle through a list of Thaksin's good deeds that have transformed their fortunes, including rice farming subsidies, universal healthcare, job-generating micro-loans and university scholarships for the poor.
"Before Thaksin, no politicians came here," said 47-year-old Somsamai Paporn, showing off her array of red T-shirts dedicated to the Shinawatra siblings.
"Thaksin understood our situation and helped us. Now we want to help him."
Thaksin, a controversial tycoon-turned-politician, was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and lives overseas to avoid jail for a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated.
His sister Yingluck's Puea Thai party swept to power in 2011 on a wave of support among the ousted leader's "Red Shirts" supporters. Her critics accuse her of being a puppet for her brother.
Somsamai said insults by protest leaders in Bangkok have tightened the bond between Thailand's poorest people and its most prominent political outcast.
"They say Isaan people are stupid and lazy. But we are the bones of the country. We grow the rice they eat in Bangkok. We build those beautiful buildings they live in," she said with tears in her eyes.