Yingluck Shinawatra

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yingluck Shinawatra (2012)

Yingluck Shinawatra ( Thai ยิ่ง ลักษณ์ ชิน วัตร [ jîŋlák t̠͡ɕʰinnáwát ], RTGS transcription Yinglak Chinnawat ; born June 21, 1967 ) is a Thai manager and politician ( Pheu-Thai party ). She was Prime Minister of Thailand from August 2011 until her dismissal by the Constitutional Court on May 7, 2014 .

Private life

Yingluck is the youngest of nine children of Lert and Yindee Shinawatra and the sister of former prime minister and telecommunications entrepreneur Thaksin Shinawatra . After school, she began studying political and administrative science at Chiang Mai University, graduating in 1988 with a bachelor's degree. She continued her political science studies in the United States at Kentucky State University , where she received her master's degree in 1990 . After her return to Thailand she worked in various companies of the Shinawatra family in leading positions. From 2002 to 2006 she was CEO of the mobile operator Advanced Info Service (AIS), then Secretary General of the non-profit Thaicom Foundation. Yingluck lives in a - in Thailand this is widespread - unregistered marriage with Anusorn Amornchat, a manager of the M Link Asia Corporation . The couple has a son.

In August 2019, it was announced that Yingluck Shinawatra had received Serbian citizenship.

Top candidate and prime minister election

On May 11, 2011, the opposition Pheu-Thai Party (PTP) nominated Yingluck, which until then had barely appeared politically, as the top candidate for the 2011 parliamentary election . She is the first woman in Thailand to run for prime ministerial office. The PTP party is close to its brother Thaksin , who was disempowered as prime minister in 2006 and who is living in exile after being convicted of abuse of office. Thaksin commented on her candidacy that Yingluck was not his puppet, but his "clone". He also advertised that his sister could make decisions in his place: "She can say 'yes' or 'no' on my behalf." He later explained that by "clone" he meant that both had the same parentage That Yingluck is also an experienced manager and successful business woman and she learned from him. In the election campaign, Yingluck explicitly referred to Thaksin. She regularly asked, “If you love my brother, will you give his younger sister a chance?” Her followers always loudly said yes.

Her party won an absolute majority in the July 3 elections . On August 5, 2011, Parliament elected Yingluck as the country's first female prime minister.

Time as prime minister

US President Barack Obama and Yingluck Shinawatra at the ASEAN Summit (November 2011)
Yingluck on her visit to Munich with the then Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Martin Zeil (July 2012)

Her cabinet, which initially comprised 23 members (including only one other woman, was sworn in on August 10, 2011). Right at the beginning of its term in office, the government was faced with dealing with the flood disaster during and after the 2011 rainy season. The government has been criticized for poor coordination between the authorities involved. However, Yingluck's personal commitment earned her sympathy and allowed her to gain political stature in the public eye.

An important political project of Yingluck's government was the introduction of a guaranteed minimum price for rice, at which the government has since bought the grain from the farmers. This led to a rapidly increasing national debt and overflowing stores with rice that was unsaleable on the world market. 10% of the national budget went into this program. It also implemented the tax refunds promised in the election campaign for the first home and the first car of a family, which should stimulate domestic demand .

According to the economist and poverty researcher Peter Warr, who specializes in Thailand, both the rice and the first car program are populist and unsuitable for combating poverty. Instead of helping the really needy, large sums of taxpayers' money would go to small interest groups. Thailand's poor couldn't afford a car anyway. Instead, wealthy second car buyers would often have sent a car-less straw man to reap the tax advantage. The main beneficiaries are the car manufacturers who want to increase their sales. Small farmers who consume part of the grain produced themselves and do not sell it would also benefit much less from the guaranteed price of rice than large farmers, warehouse and rice mill owners. The programs would therefore not address any of Thailand's economic and infrastructural deficits in a sustainable manner.

As of 2012, the Yingluck government had a tablet computer distributed to every first grader as a teaching aid. Although the education budget made up the largest item in the national budget with 20% of all expenditure, the country regularly comes off below average in international educational comparisons.

After a cabinet reshuffle on June 30, 2013, Yingluck also took over the defense department - she is also the first woman in this position. From taking office through August 2013, Yingluck paid official visits to 42 states. The opposition criticized Yingluck for spending too much time on trips abroad and too little in parliament. It was absent from over 30% of the meetings of the House of Representatives, including key political debates. The Prime Minister defended her travels as useful for interstate relations, particularly for Thai trade interests. In November 2013, both chambers of parliament decided on a project initiated by the Yingluck government for loans amounting to 2.2 trillion baht (equivalent to around 50 billion euros) for major infrastructure projects.

Protesters on December 1, 2013

Yingluck's government pursued an amendment to Thailand's 2007 constitution . First and foremost, the composition of the Senate should be modified. The senators appointed by a selection committee, who make up almost half of the members of the House of Lords, should be replaced by those directly elected in the provinces. The Constitutional Court declared a corresponding amendment law passed by parliament in November 2013 as incompatible with fundamental constitutional principles. Yingluck did not accept the verdict.

On the occasion of an amnesty law initiated by Yingluck's government, which would also have meant impunity for her exiled brother Thaksin, mass protests by the opposition led by Suthep Thaugsuban began in November 2013 . The amnesty law was postponed due to the protests. After Yingluck survived a vote of no confidence in parliament in November, she asked the king to dissolve parliament in order to hold new elections on February 2, 2014.

On May 7, 2014, she was removed from office by the Constitutional Court for abuse of office. There was then a military coup in Thailand and she was arrested by the coup plotters on May 23.

Corruption convicted

In early 2015, Yingluck Shinawatra was officially charged with corruption . The indictment was accepted by the Thai Supreme Court on March 19, 2015. She is accused of having inflicted heavy financial losses on her country through subsidizing rice cultivation - damage of around 4 billion US dollars is in the area. As a result, she appeared in court in January 2016 and was sentenced a few months later to pay a fine of 35 billion baht (the equivalent of around 1 billion euros).

The trial ended on August 25, 2017. Since she did not appear to deliver the verdict due to alleged illness, but did not provide a medical certificate, the judge issued an arrest warrant for the risk of escape. The ruling was postponed to September 27, 2017. Yingluck is said to have fled about a month earlier via Cambodia to Singapore and then to Dubai , where her brother Thaksin Shinawatra lives. She was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in absentia. There is no extradition agreement between Dubai and Thailand.

On August 25, 2017, former Trade Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom was sentenced to 42 years in prison.

literature

  • Robert Horn: Rice prices rise. But can Yingluck deliver? In: Asia Today International. Vol. 29, No. 5, October / November 2011, p. 52
  • Michael H. Nelson : The Yingluck Phenomenon - Thaksin's unknown little sister becomes Thailand's first female prime minister. In: Southeast Asia. No. 3, pp. 40-43

Web links

Commons : Yingluck Shinawatra  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Seth Mydans: Candidate in Thailand Follows Path of Kin. In: New York Times . June 12, 2011
  2. ↑ a b c Pheu Thai picks Yingluck for PM. In: Bangkok Post . May 16, 2011
  3. ^ Bangkok Post Public Company Limited: Yingluck gets Serbian citizenship. Retrieved August 12, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Thaksin Shinawatra's sister Yingluck to run for Thai PM. In: BBC News . May 16, 2011
  5. ↑ Jochen Buchsteiner: Thaksin's coup. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 15, 2011
  6. ^ Yingluck takes center stage. Thaksin proudly claims his sister is 'his clone'. In: Bangkok Post. May 17, 2011, accessed January 9, 2013
  7. ↑ Thailand's ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra: “My followers expect my input”. In: Stern . July 1, 2011, accessed January 9, 2013
  8. ↑ The meteoric rise of the little sister. In: Tages-Anzeiger . July 2, 2011, accessed January 9, 2013
  9. ↑ Thailand. Army recognizes opposition election victory. In: Spiegel Online . 4th July 2011
  10. ↑ Parliament elects Yingluck as Prime Minister. In: Spiegel Online. August 5, 2011
  11. ↑ Government swears oath on King Bhumipol. In: ThaiZeit.de. August 10, 2011
  12. ↑ Floods in Thailand: Radical flood plan to save Bangkok. In: Spiegel Online. October 28, 2011
  13. ↑ The flood spared downtown Bangkok. In: Zeit Online . October 29, 2011
  14. ↑ Thithinan Pongsudhirak: Thailand's Uneasy Passage. In: Journal of Democracy. Vol. 23, No. 2, April 2012, p. 50
  15. ↑ Steve Finch: How Rice is Causing a Crisis in Thailand. In: The Diplomat. November 10, 2012
  16. ^ Chairat Charoensin-o-larn: Thailand in 2012. A Year of Truth, Reconciliation, and Continued Divide. In: Southeast Asian Affairs 2013. ISEAS Publishing, Singapore 2013, p. 297
  17. ^ A b Peter Warr: The changing face of Thai populism. In: East Asia Forum. June 12th, 2013
  18. ↑ Yingluck defends performance in 'challenging' first year. ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Asia News Network. September 25, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.asianewsnet.net
  19. ↑ James Hookway: Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra Refuses to Resign. In: The Wall Street Journal . December 10, 2013
  20. ↑ Let them eat tablets. In: The Economist . June 16, 2012
  21. ↑ Thailand's head of government now also Minister of Defense. ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Zeit Online. 30th of June 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zeit.de
  22. ↑ Relations, trade and investment expanded from 42 trips abroad of PM in 23 months. Royal Thai Government, accessed December 10, 2013
  23. ↑ Hataikarn Treesuwan: Yingluck - the PM who's always missing. In: The Nation . 2. September 2013
  24. ↑ Yingluck defends globe-trotting. In: Bangkok Post. 29th August 2013
  25. ↑ Senate endorses B2 trillion borrowing bill. In: Bangkok Post. 20th November 2013
  26. ↑ Thailand's constitutional court rejects dissolution of the ruling party. In: derStandard.at . 20th November 2013
  27. ^ Thomas Fuller: Thai Court Rejects Bid for Direct Elections of All Senators. In: The New York Times. 20th November 2013
  28. ↑ Court: Charter amendment unconstitutional. In: Bangkok Post. 20th November 2013
  29. ↑ Dagmar Dehmer: Yingluck: I don't know how I could give in. In: Der Tagesspiegel . December 10, 2013
  30. ↑ Banyan: Blowing the whistle. In: The Economist. November 16, 2013
  31. ↑ Thomas Fuller: Anger Erupts in Thailand Over Plans for Amnesty. In: The New York Times. November 16, 2011
  32. ^ Thai prime minister calls early elections . In: Al Jazeera. December 9, 2013
  33. ↑ Thailand's head of government removed from office. In: The world . May 7, 2014
  34. ↑ Impeachment: Court removes Thailand's head of government. In: Spiegel Online. May 7, 2014
  35. ↑ The military arrests former Prime Minister Yingluck. In: Zeit.de . May 23, 2014
  36. ↑ Yingluck Shinawatra has to go to court on tagesschau.de, March 19, 2015
  37. ↑ Aukkarapon Niyomyat, Amy Sawitta Lefevre: Ousted Thai PM Yingluck in court for corruption trial. In: Reuters . January 14, 2016, accessed December 15, 2016 .
  38. ↑ Yingluck Shinawatra: Thailand's ex-head of government is fighting against a million-dollar fine. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . November 18, 2016, accessed December 15, 2016 .
  39. ↑ Thailand: The Top of the Rice Mountain. (No longer available online.) In: Handelsblatt . December 12, 2016, archived from the original on December 14, 2016 ; accessed on December 15, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.handelsblatt.com
  40. ↑ spiegel.de August 24, 2017: The eight billion dollar process
  41. ↑ The Farang August 25, 2017: Yingluck evades guilty verdict
  42. ↑ Thailand: Ex-Prime Minister Yingluck sentenced to five years in prison from zeit.de, September 27, 2017 (accessed on September 27, 2017).
  43. ^ Before judgment in corruption process: Thailand's ex-head of government fled abroad . In: News> Politics . Spiegel Online . August 25, 2017. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
Note on Thai names : This article addresses people by their first name.
personal data
SURNAME Yingluck Shinawatra
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yinglak Chinnawat; ยิ่ง ลักษณ์ ชิน วัตร (Thai)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Thai manager and politician (Pheu-Thai party)
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1967