Bangkok Post - Timeline: Ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra s life in politics bangkokpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bangkokpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BANGKOK: He was ousted in a coup more than 17 years ago and spent 15 of them in self-imposed exile, but even abroad Thailand's billionaire former premier Thaksin Shinawatra cast a remarkable shadow over the kingdom's politics.
Fifteen years in absentia, two military coups and numerous corruption charges, and yet Thaksin Shinawatra and his family continue to be the most formidable force in Thai politics
To the rural masses, Thaksin is loved as the first leader to pay attention to the needs of millions living beyond Bangkok's bright lights. To many in the urban middle class and the royalist elite, he was a crony capitalist who plundered the economy.