[size=6]Chief Thaksin Advisor Now Yingluck's Guru [/size]
Written by Our Correspondent
Bangkok: -- Pansak Vinyaratn, the former chief political adviser to ousted Prime Miister Thaksin Shinawatra, has reappeared in the same role for the Pheu Thai government headed by Thaksin’s sister Yingluck, according to a government spokesman.
Called “Thaksin’s Oracle” in dispatches by US diplomats liberated by the website Wikileaks and “Rasputin” by others, the appointment is even clearer evidence, if any were needed, just how integral to Yingluck’s government Thaksin is and appears to be sign of the reassembling of the Thai Rak Thai government in place prior to the 2006 coup.
It is uncertain what effect Pansak’s appoint might have. In earlier years, he was close to Sondhi Limtongkul, the Thai publishing tycoon who initially supported Thaksin’s government but who broke with the former premier and became the de facto leader of the Yellow Shirts, the People’s Alliance for Democracy. The PAD’s violent tactics ultimately played a major role in bringing down not only Thaksin’s government but two surrogate ones that followed. A onetime newsman, Pansak was the first editor of Asia Times, Sondhi’s abortive regional broadsheet daily, which went broke in the wake of the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis. [more...]
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