Surapong Tovichakchaikul
Surapong Tovichakchaikul ( Thai : สุร พง ษ์ โต วิจักษณ์ ชัย กุล ; * May 1, 1953 in Chiang Mai ; † May 20, 2020 in Siriraj , Bangkok ) was a Thai politician and from August 2011 to May 2014 Foreign Minister of Thailand .
education
After studying engineering at Khon Kaen University , Surapong went to the United States to study at Youngstown State University in Ohio and later did his PhD at the University of Akron .
Surapong was related by marriage to the family of the former Prime Ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra : his aunt was married to the uncle of Thaksin and Yingluck.
Political work
Surapong was elected to the House of Representatives for the Democratic Party in Chiang Mai in 1996 . In 2000 he became chairman of the finance committee and had to help shape the difficult transition of the Thai financial economy after the crash of 1997 . He ran again for the Democrats in the 2001 and 2005 elections, but was not re-elected. During this time he appeared as a critic of his brother-in-law and then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra .
However, after it was overthrown by a military coup in 2006 and its Thai-Rak-Thai party (TRT) was banned, Surapong moved closer to the political camp of Thaksins. After the end of military rule, he stood in the parliamentary elections in December 2007 in Chiang Mai province as a candidate for the People's Power Party (de facto successor party to the TRT) and returned to parliament. Again he chaired the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives. As he did not hold a leading party function, he was not affected by the ruling of the Constitutional Court , which dissolved the People's Power Party in December 2008 and banned its leaders from politics. Instead, Surapong joined the Pheu Thai Party (PTP), which is now the third incarnation of the Pro Thaksin camp. For the PTP, he came 20th in the 2011 parliamentary election on the nationwide party list and was re-elected to the House of Representatives.
On August 9, 2011, Surapong was appointed Thai Foreign Minister in the government of Yingluck Shinawatra . On October 28, 2012 he also became Deputy Prime Minister. He was removed from office on May 7, 2014 - together with Prime Minister Yingluck and other members of her cabinet - by a ruling by the Constitutional Court.
He died on May 20, 2020 at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.mfa.go.th/web/2687.php?id=2924 ( Memento from February 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (last accessed on September 24, 2011)
- ↑ http://www.matichon.co.th/news_detail.php?newsid=1250590064&catid=01 ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (last accessed on September 24, 2011)
- ^ Former foreign minister Surapong dies of cancer. In: Bangkok Post. Retrieved May 21, 2020 .
Web links
- http://www.mfa.go.th/web/2687.php?id=2924 ( Memento from February 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Site of the Thai Foreign Ministry (in English, last accessed on September 24, 2011)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Surapong Tovichakchaikul |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | สุร พง ษ์ โต วิจักษณ์ ชัย กุล (th) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Thai politician, foreign minister |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 1, 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chiang Mai |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 20, 2020 |
| Place of death | Siriraj , Bangkok |