Samak Sundaravej

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Samak Sundaravej (2008)

Samak Sundaravej ( Thai: สมัคร สุนทร เวช , RTGS : Samak Sunthorawet; pronunciation: [ sàmàk sǔntʰɔráwêːt ]; *  June 13, 1935 in Bangkok ; † November 24, 2009 ibid) was a Thai politician . From January to September 2008 he was Prime Minister of the country.

In the mid-1970s, Samak was the best-known right-wing representative of the Democratic Party and a key figure in the ultra-royalist camp in Thai politics. From 1976 to 1977 he was Minister of the Interior . In 1979 he founded the right-wing populist Thai Citizens' Party , which he chaired until 2000. For a time he was a member of the government in various positions, including 1992 and 1995 to 1997 as Deputy Prime Minister. From 2000 to 2004 he was directly elected governor of Bangkok . In August 2007 he became chairman of the newly founded People's Power Party (PPP) and, after its election victory in December 2007, head of a coalition government. After weeks of protests against Samak's government, he was dismissed by the Constitutional Court on September 9, 2008 for unconstitutional sideline activity.

Origin and education

Samak Sundaravej came from an aristocratic family of Chinese descent. His grandfather was the personal physician of King Rama VI. (Vajiravudh), his father high officials in the royal government. Despite this noble origin, the square samak had a very popular, almost peasant demeanor. Even later, as a professional politician, he retained the habit of going to the market himself every Sunday morning, tasting and commenting on the goods at the fish and vegetable stalls. He graduated from Thammasat University with a law degree . He then continued his studies at Chulalongkorn University and the US American Bryant & Stratton College . As a student he already gained a reputation as a talented speaker. Throughout his political career he was known for his very direct, blunt language, which often swung into angry outbursts.

Political life

Interior Minister Samak Sundaravej (c. 1976)

In 1968 Samak joined the Democratic Party. In 1973 he was elected to parliament for the first time. In the years that followed, while Indochina came under communist rule, Thailand was split between left and right activists. Samak became the hope of the right wing ultra monarchists. He was supported by circles in the military who were unhappy with Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj's indulgent stance towards the left and his urging for the rapid withdrawal of American troops from Thailand. In April 1976 he entered the same constituency as the incumbent Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj and won.

Samak became the leader of the right-wing Democratic Party and deputy interior minister in the short-lived cabinet of Seni Pramoy . He openly criticized his party leader and head of government Seni and sparked constant internal disputes with the liberal and moderate wing in the Democratic Party. He weakened Seni's already unstable leadership and the stability of the civilian government. Samak had a radio broadcast on the army station in which he agitated against the student movement. He denigrated political opponents as communists and “street gangsters”. Some interpreted his verbal attacks as a call to violence against politically active students. On October 6, 1976, police and armed "auxiliaries" attacked students demonstrating from Thammasat University and massacred at least 46 of them. Shortly thereafter, Samak became Minister of the Interior of a government established by the military and in this position intensified the fight against the students and left-wing activists, intellectuals and writers whom he had arrested en masse.

After General Kriangsak Chomanan's military coup in September 1977 and in the relatively quiet years that followed, Samak largely disappeared from the headlines as the leader of his right-wing populist Prachakon Thai party . From 1983 to 1986 and from 1990 to 1991 he was Minister of Transport under Prem Tinsulanonda and Chatichai Choonhavan . When General Suchinda Kraprayoon formed a government after another military coup in 1992, Samak Sundaravej again played a central political role as deputy prime minister. In this position he supported the government's attempt to bloodily put down street protests of the democracy movement with the help of the army. The demonstrations and a word of power from King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) ultimately forced Suchinda to resign and enabled a return to democracy. In the mid-1990s, Samak served as deputy prime minister in the government of Banharn Silpa-archa , along with Thaksin Shinawatra , and in the cabinet of Chavalit Yongchaiyudh .

In July 2000, Samak was elected governor of Bangkok and pledged to fight corruption. After four years, however, he admitted that he had underestimated its extent and that there was no power to prevent it. He did not stand for re-election. On the last day of his tenure, he signed a contract with Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug AG for the purchase of 315 fire engines and 30 boats at a price of 6.6 billion baht, well above the market comparison values. A court later ruled that the deal was corrupted after Samak's death and sentenced his widow and heiress Khun Ying Surat Sundaravej to pay 587 million baht in damages.

After the end of his tenure as governor, he became a television talk show host and presenter of the cooking show Chim Pai Bon Pai ("Try and complain"). He was elected to the Senate in 2006, but lost his seat as a result of the military coup in September of the same year. Even after he took over the chairmanship of the newly formed PPP in 2007, he insisted on continuing his television show. His party was de facto the successor to the Thai Rak Thai party of the disempowered Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which was banned after the military coup . Thaksin was a one-time political rival of Samak and had fled overseas before being sentenced to prison. One of the main goals of the PPP was to enable Thaksin's return from exile.

Term of office as Prime Minister

Caricature representation of Samak (left) and his supposed backer Thaksin Shinawatra as puppets in a shadow theater play

In the parliamentary elections in Thailand on December 23, 2007, the PPP won a majority of the votes. According to a preliminary final result, 228 of the 480 seats in the House of Representatives went to Samak's party. In doing so, it missed an absolute majority. However, Samak announced that he wanted to form a coalition government. He himself claimed the office of prime minister for himself. On January 28, 2008, he was elected new Prime Minister by the Thai parliament. In addition to the PPP, five other, smaller parties were involved in his government.

In an interview with CNN in February 2008, Samak denied his involvement in the Thammasat massacre in 1976. He denied that there had been any mass killings of students at all. He claimed that only one student had unfortunately died, despite the fact that his interlocutor, Dan Rivers, held against him the official number of victims of 46 and the widespread assumption that there had actually been many more deaths.

At the end of August 2008 there were mass protests by the opposition People's Alliance for Democracy (“yellow shirts”) against Samak, during which the government house (Government House) was occupied for days. They accused him of being just a straw man for Thaksin who had fled. They gained popularity due to dissatisfaction with the rise in consumer prices and called for the resignation of Samak's government. In addition, several airports and railway lines were briefly blocked and a television station was occupied. At the beginning of September 2008 the mass protests also resulted in deaths and injuries, whereupon a state of emergency was declared in Bangkok. At this point in time Samak declined to resign.

Impeachment

On September 9, 2008, the Constitutional Court ruled that Samak had violated the constitution by working as a television cook for a private broadcaster. Immediately after the verdict was pronounced, Samak was declared deposed. The PPP's plans to reinstate Samak as prime minister after his impeachment failed due to opposition from the coalition partners who boycotted the parliamentary session on September 12th. The PPP then announced that it would forego Samak's candidacy and instead chose Thaksin Shinawatra's brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat as his successor.

Illness and death

In October 2008, Samak announced that he had liver cancer . He died on the morning of November 24, 2009 after a three-day coma in Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, where he had also been treated for the previous months. In a first short obituary, The Nation described him as one of the most colorful and controversial figures in Thai politics.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Samak Sundaravej. In: The Economist , December 3, 2009.
  2. ↑ Samak Sundaravej. In: Munzinger International Biographical Archive. Edition 08/2010, February 23, 2010.
  3. ^ Robert F. Zimmerman: Reflections on the Collapse of Democracy in Thailand. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 1978, pp. 77-78.
  4. ↑ Sudarat Musikawong: Between Celebration and Mourning. Political Violence in Thailand in the 1970s. In: Toward a Sociology of the Trace. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2010, p. 268.
  5. ^ David van Praagh: Thailand's Struggle for Democracy. The Life and Times of MR Seni Pramoj. Holmes & Meier, New York / London 1996, p. 187.
  6. ^ Van Praagh: Thailand's Struggle for Democracy. 1996, p. 243.
  7. ↑ Chris Baker , Pasuk Phongpaichit: A History of Thailand. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0521-767-682 , p. 300.
  8. ↑ Samak's wife, Pracha ordered by court to pay Bt587 million to BMA. In: The Nation , April 30, 2014.
  9. ↑ B587m fire-trucks damages order against Samak's heirs. In: Bangkok Post , April 30, 2014.
  10. ↑ “Debacle for the Generals” Der Spiegel, December 24, 2007
  11. ↑ Thailand's parliament elects prime ministers. Samak Sundaravej is the new head of government. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 28, 2008.
  12. ↑ Interview with Samak Sundaravej. (Interviewer: Dan Rivers), CNN Talk Asia , Feb. 19, 2008.
  13. ^ Volker Grabowsky: Brief history of Thailand. CH Beck, 2010, p. 190.
  14. ↑ Thitinan Pongsudhirak: Thailand Since the coup. In: Journal of Democracy. Volume 19, No. 4, October 2008, doi : 10.1353 / jod.0.0030 , p. 148.
  15. ↑ Tagesschau : Airport on Phuket blocked - trains stand still ( memento from September 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from August 30, 2008 (accessed on September 13, 2008).
  16. ↑ Tagesschau : The power struggle in Thailand escalates ( Memento from September 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from September 2, 2008 (accessed on September 13, 2008).
  17. ↑ Tagesschau : “Nobody can force me to resign” ( Memento from September 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from September 4, 2008 (accessed on September 13, 2008).
  18. ↑ Kittisak Prokati: Remarks on ruling of the Thai Constitutional Court No. 12-13 / 2551 ("Cookery Show"). In: European-Asian Journal of Law and Governance , Volume 1, pp. 123-132.
  19. ↑ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : Head of Government as illegal TV chef from September 9, 2008 (accessed on September 13, 2008).
  20. ↑ Focus : Samak Sundaravej gives up from September 12, 2008 (accessed on September 13, 2008).
  21. ↑ Former PM Samak dies of cancer Tuesday ( Memento from November 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Daily newspaper The Nation from November 24, 2009 (in English)

Web links

Note on Thai names : This article addresses people by their first name.
personal data
SURNAME Samak Sundaravej
ALTERNATIVE NAMES สมัคร สุนทร เวช (th)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION thai politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Bangkok
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 2009
Place of death Bangkok