Villagers in Thaksin's home area around the northern city of Chiang Mai say many poor people have run up large debts because they have little understanding of the obligations of borrowing.
Tong Taan Wong, 66, a shopkeeper, said he resigned from his village's loan committee because he did not want to be involved in the unpopular cause of debt collection.
Nepotism
In Bangkok, nepotism is a major concern. The prime minister's cousin, General Chaiyasit Shina-watra, is now commander in chief of the army. One of Thaksin's sisters, Yaowapha Wongsawat, heads a faction within the governing Thai Rak Thai Party. Another sister, Yaovares Shinawatra, is the leader of the National Council of Women.
Somkiat Tangkitvanich, an economist and a research director at the Thailand Development Research Institute, recently completed a study of how political connections affected Thai businesses. His analysis showed that companies on the Bangkok stock exchange in which the Shin Corp, the Thaksin family's company, owned significant holdings, did spectacularly better last year than other listed companies, including those whose major shareholders included families of Cabinet members.
Further, Somkiat said, a government decree effectively barred the liberalization of the telecommunications industry, which is dominated by the Thaksin family company. The decree added an excise tax on new telecommunication companies.
Media under pressure
Since Thaksin took office, news organizations have come under intense pressure from the government. The editor of the influential English-language daily, The Bangkok Post, Veera Pratheepchaikul, was removed last month after the newspaper ran articles critical of Thaksin. Other journalists and editors have been dismissed. The family of a senior Cabinet member has become a major stockholder of a second English-language daily, The Nation.
Asked about the assertion that the government policies favored the prime minister's family interests, Thaksin's spokesman, Jakrapob Penkair, said: "The prime minister wants the economy to be better off because then everyone benefits. He compares the economy to a container. When it rains, a big container collects more water, a small container less."
Giving a rendition of trickle-down economics, Jakrapob said those who had a big container in the economy -- the wealthy -- received "more reward" but those with a small container also benefited.
Somkiat, the economist who studied the Thaksin administration, said, "I'd say Thaksin has the only container."
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