How In The World Did Taskin Become A Billionaire?

[britmaveric]

Somehow I doubt anything Thaksin gained was due to "dumb luck". Doesn't seem to be in the man's makeup to rely on luck.

He consulted the stars and good fortune was blessed upon him!!!

[simcity]

he is not dumb !

from CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/...s.ap/index.html

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra may have whisked some of his assets out of the country aboard two aircraft days before a military coup ousted him from power, airline officials said Sunday.

[Lacoste]

Ofcourse he is not dumb, he used all the tools he had at his disposal for maximum gain. Thats what a good business man does.

[sriracha john]

The same as any good burglar uses the tools (glass cutter, penlight, bolt cutters, etc.) at his disposal to ply his trade.

[johnnyk]

He was born into a rich family. He becomes a police officer. He goes to the USA to earn a bach, masters and then doctorate degree in Criminal Justice from two relatively unspectacular universities that arent even close to being Ivey league.

He comes back to Thailand. Opens a few different business which all fail putting him 50 million baht in debt.

He continues to be an enterprenuer, with what money? He is supposed to be 50 million baht in debt.

He found AIS. When he did he ever learn anything about computer and mobile phone networks?

Mobile phone industry blows up during the 90's and he becomes a multi-billionaire? That is some success story! How much did he initially invest and where did he get that money?

He enters politics in 1994, seven years later he becomes Prime Minister...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaksin_Shinawatra

It seems as though the WikiBio has more holes than Swiss cheese. Anyone want to feel in any missing information?

All resumes are full of lies.

Mine is.

Given that wikipedia can be changed at will by anybody, I wouldn't put too much credence in anything I found there.

BTW, Toxin was also a cop. Need we say more?

[steveromagnino]

He is my version, verfied by people he studied with, my own connections with that family and the very good book by Baker.

He was born into a fairly affluent Thai Chinese merchant family, but the family (as with many families) went through peaks and troughs; in one trough the father did actually resort to selling coffee on the street; so for him to claim to come from a poor background (which he has implied on many occasions) is somewhat marketing, but there are a few tiny elements of truth to it. I might point out MANY Thai Chinese and Thai families have gone through similar cycles, and some end up never coming out the of the bottom trough bit. He is not a BKK guy, and speaks the northern dialect, so no wonder he controls votes there just like the Democrats through Chuan et al control the south.

He worked as a police man and then went abroad and studied, and ended up marrying the daughter of someone both wealthy and influential somewhere during this time. His study in the USA was not at top universities, but was somewhat reflective of the amount of money he personally had to fund it and probably his own ability to study; again there are many rich Thai family children in USA studying at a community college, working in the local restuarant and eating instant noodles. At that time Taksin was very much in the 'eating noodles and working part time' camp of student study. Not everyone (including most people on this board) can get into Harvard or Yale; not all of us have parents that can get us jobs in the oil industry either, as Michael Moore has pointed out.

His two big breaks in business were leaving the police and then setting up business selling computers to the police and then getting the GSM license. Both were a result of the hub of connections he had built up and various favours granted presumably. Again, as with many entrepreneurs he had good times and bad times ;but his entrepreneurship was primarily dealing with state owned licenses and supply deals. Before we single him out, bear in mind at that time most business was done like this back then; there are many other rich people now (e.g. Charoen, monopoly on Thai whisky; Bharompakdi, monopoly on beer singha etc) that had exactly the same situation. Those were the rules of the game back then, and he played them with skill. He was able to use the same skills to obtain the exclusive sattellite rights for Shinsat a little later on. For the main concession for GSM, the bandwidth he had apparently requires fewer stations so is cheaper to set up, plus compared to people like TT&T he negotiated a much better concession revenue share with CAT/TOT for AIS. For any of you that think doing deals with the state doesn't require skill, obviuosly you have never worked or lobbied in this capacity. It takes just as much skill but the objectives of both parties may be wildly different to the 'real world'. They may also involve large amounts of pork, bribes, favours, trade offs or whatever you want to call it. Ask the lads at TT&T if it is that easy to get a good deal.

In 1997 I would add to what The Skipper said, in fact he was one of the few business men at that time not to lose his shirt, as he hadn't borrowed in USD to the same extent as others; and as a result this one move crippled his competitors while he was left relatively unscathed, and that allowed him to then grab most of the market since until Telenor came in, what we now know as DTAC was a complete mess. There are rumours he was a short seller of the baht and profitted from it; however how true this is, we won't know.

Then the various moves he made upon entering politics with TRT as PM enabling his family to triple their wealth. However, it could be said that he was pushed to the point where he had to enter to protect his interests; deregulation posed a significant opportunity/threat to his business, and his entry into politics was able to ensure, how does one financial analyst put it - ah yes - a major share of regulatory benefits.

But let's be quite clear; almost every major Thai business family has members or the ability to influence policy through funding parties. This is the norm here, so even though he may have been very corrupt as PM and may have made his money through behind the scenes power plays in utilities; his competitors were doing the same negotations in the behind the scenes power plays back in the day and he just happened to do it better. He started from a similar background to countless other Thai Chinese, and just chose to play things a little better and a little smarter than many others in many decisions.

I'm ex energy industry and what Enron et al and their equivalents did around the world to try to influence business policy was with all the same motives, and in some cases, almost the same method of execution. Doing business in monopoly type businesses is all about the initial deal, and he negotiated some great deals.

I am delighted he is gone BTW...

Edited September 25, 2006 by steveromagnino

[the swagman]

The guy is a smart businessman and was a multi Billionaire long before politics.

He lost a ton in the crash of 1997.

Since he was elected, the world economy has recovered and so has his portfolio.

He made some bad calls with censorship, the South, Drug war but overall, Thailand benefitted under his leadership.

Gotta agree but at the same time nice to see the back of him.

[Unknown]

He was born into a rich family. He becomes a police officer.

He indeed was a police officer but not really from a rich family.

But he married somebody from a very rich family...

[the swagman]

He indeed was a police officer but not really from a rich family.

But he married somebody from a very rich family...

She also had very good connections.

[Unknown]

He indeed was a police officer but not really from a rich family.

But he married somebody from a very rich family...

She also had very good connections.

And probably still has...

[sfokevin]

See Thread "Anti-corruption Body To Act On Unusually Rich Politicians"

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85091

[Johpa]

Of course he is not dumb, he used all the tools he had at his disposal for maximum gain. Thats what a good business man does.

And this is one of the great achilles heels of modern capitalism has preached by the free market fundamentalists like Thomas Friedman: there are no limits placed upon greed. And as just about every major religion on the planet teaches, unlimited greed is a bad thing for everyone.

[Little_Buddy]

his first fortune came when he left the police force and opened a business selling computer sysytems to the police calling on contacts within the police. he married the daughter of a high ranking and well connected police chief , went back into public service and the rest is history.

despite everything , he is a charismatic and astute businessman who was in the right places at the right times to take advantage of the growing need for computer systems and communications technology.

being involved in politics enabled him to alter legal frameworks to benefit his business interests.

he could have and should have taken thailand to great places.

his greed and pride brought him down.

Or maybe he was still focusing on consolidating his power so that he could take Thailand to great places? Seems that way to me.

He was a big admirer of Lee Kwan Yew's Singapore. Mr. Lee couldn't have taken Singapore from 3rd world hellhole to 1st world model city-state in only 30 years unless he had total power. From what little I know about this, Thaksin apparently wanted to emulate Singapore in the sense of making Thailand a real player in the world economy. Was he somewhat corrupt? I suppose so. Thailand has a corrupt system - how could he have gotten as far as he did unless he was corrupt?

My guess is that he wasn't the most corrupt. He stepped on some corrupt people's toes in the process of consolidating power, and these people decided to get rid of him while they still could, so as to preserve their own corrupt business empires.

I admit this is mostly conjecture at this point, but it's a theory that helps me explain what happened. I'm willing to learn more, so please fill me in with any FACTS you have which would contradict (or support) my theory.

[Little_Buddy]

I am delighted he is gone BTW...

Why? Did you just say that to cover your ass because so many seem to hate him and viciously attack anyone who even tries to discuss things objectively?

[Heng]

Oh, he's an alright guy. I think a lot of folks around here wouldn't mind having a life with similar successes. Myself, I wouldn't change much, except perhaps choosing more hip sounding names for my offshore holding companies. Also, instead of blue and yellow... I'd use burnt orange and white for my flagship company colors.

[Maizefarmer]

I am delighted he is gone BTW...

Why? Did you just say that to cover your ass because so many seem to hate him and viciously attack anyone who even tries to discuss things objectively?

Well said LITTLE BUDDY - a truer comment in respect of Thaksin's departure has yet to be made on this forum!

Tim

[sriracha john]

I am delighted he is gone BTW...

Why? Did you just say that to cover your ass because so many seem to hate him and viciously attack anyone who even tries to discuss things objectively?

Well said LITTLE BUDDY - a truer comment in respect of Thaksin's departure has yet to be made on this forum!

Tim

Actually, a more ridiculous conmment would be difficult to find on this forum.

Thaksin was a murdering tyrannical despot.

Why wouldn't anyone despise him?

While we may verbally attack him on here... his preferred method was to physically attack those that oppose him. There's quite a difference between the two.

*edit*

just noticed we won't be hearing any further discussions from Little Buddy.... so long, Gilligan.

Edited October 1, 2006 by sriracha john

[The Skipper]

I was pro Thaksin early on.

He did win a legitimate election by landslide under the rules of the new constitution.

Became too arrogant and did make some bad moves for sure, censorship with the press, screwed up in the South and his Drug War was ill advised.

Stealing the Country blind? Don't think so.

How much wealth has his companies brought to this Country?A ton.

We should not forget Thailand had the best performing stock market in the world a couple years ago. Anybody in Communications, Real estate or Thai Stock Market the last 5 years or so did very well.