Banharn Silpa-archa
Banharn Silpa - archa ( Thai: บรรหาร ศิลป อาชา, RTGS: Banhan Sinlapa - acha, pronunciation: [ banhǎ ː n ː ʨ ʰ a ː sǐnlápàʔa ]; born August 19, 1932 in Suphanburi ) is a Thai politician and contractors. He was from 1994 to 2008 Chairman of the Chart Thai Party and from 1995 to 1996 Prime Minister of Thailand.
The billionaire was Banharn 1980-1992 from various ministries and from 1994 to 1995 official opposition leader. It made for a great expansion of infrastructure in his home province of Suphanburi. His short-lived government was considered economically incapable suffered from substantial allegations of corruption and strife between the coalition parties. In 2008 he was assigned by the Thai Constitutional Court of electoral manipulation with a five-year ban policy. However, he takes the Chartthaipattana Party, whose de facto leader he is, continues to Thai politics part.
Family and business career
Banharn was the son of Chinese immigrants who sold cloth on the market of Suphanburi. His original Chinese name was Tek Siang se Bae. After leaving school he went to Bangkok and worked as a Laufbote in office. Only much later, when he was already politician, he studied law at Ramkhamhaeng University, a license-free distance learning university.
He started his own business and got through the favor of senior official at the Office of Public Works lucrative government contracts. For example, he was commissioned to deliver the chlorine for water supply. He then founded a construction company that still mainly worked for the Office of Public Works. During the rapid economic growth of the 1960s, the government announced a number of major projects, in particular military facilities, in order. In addition, he acted with grain and building materials. His various ventures, extending in all sorts of industries, made him a billionaire.
Political career
In 1974 he went into politics and was for the right, near military Chart Thai Party member of the City Council of Suphanburi. By 1976, he was elected deputy secretary general of the party, Senator and later for the province of Suphanburi in the House of Representatives. He acted as a major investor of the Chart Thai Party. In it, he built up a network of local business people. He repeatedly had to confront the charge of having bought political support and loyalty with money. From the Thai press he got the nickname Mr. ATM ( " ATM "). Although he was not a member of Choonhavan family and their " Rajakru clans ", which had originally founded the Chart Thai Party, he gained considerable influence in the party.
In Suphanburi, he won 100,000 votes on a regular basis, making it one of the most elected politicians nationwide. In his home province, he has donated money for schools, bridges and other infrastructure projects that have been named in turn after him. This in turn led to the widespread statement that province was Banharns " property," or should be called " Banharn - buri ". He is regarded as the "godfather of Suphanburi ." Banharn also maintained good contacts with top military and politicians of other parties who built primarily on his wealth and his willingness to compromise. In 1981 he became general secretary of his party.
Banharn held various positions in governments with the participation of his Chart Thai Party. 1980-83 he was Minister of Agriculture, 1986-88 Minister of Transport and Communications under Prem Tinsulanonda. In 1988 his party's chief Chatichai Choonhavan became prime minister and then first made him the Minister of Industry, Minister of the Interior in January 1990 and in December of the same year to the Minister of Finance. Banharn used his participation in government for constituency gifts to his home province of Suphanburi. This was an excellent road system and an enviable compared with other provinces outside the capital region telephone network.
In 1991 the government was overthrown by a military coup, under the pretext that the prime minister and several ministers were " unusually rich " has become. In April 1992, the Chart Thai party, however, was again involved in the government, just below the coup leader General Suchinda Kraprayoon. Banharn was transport minister again. A short time later, the government was overthrown by mass protests and the Chart Thai Party was in opposition again. In 1994 Banharn the party chairmanship of Pramarn Adireksarn and became parliamentary opposition leader. Banharn is considered a main person responsible for the spread system in Thailand to buy votes.
Tenure as Prime Minister
On 19 May 1995, the king Banharn appointed as Prime Minister after the Chart Thai party had won a victory. Banharns multi -party coalition had a bad reputation due to rampant corruption. She got the nickname " 7 -Eleven " coalition, because on the one hand, consisted of seven parties and 11 intra-party wings and on the other hand understood their politicians to govern according to public perception as a self-service store of the popular retail chain. It was perceived as incapable, as she was too busy with internal conflicts, to bestow the major economic problems in the run-up to the Asian crisis of attention. Banharn himself had taken over the Ministry of Finance, although he had no experience in this area of policy.
During his reign numerous high-level events were held: in addition to the funeral in honor of the late Queen Mother and the Golden Jubilee ( the 50th anniversary ) of the accession of King Bhumibol Adulyadej were also ASEAN Summit (1995) and the 18th (Rama IX ). South East Asian Games ( SEA Games ) held in Chiang Mai. Banharn earned fierce derision, as he greeted the British Queen Elizabeth II as " Queen Elizabeth Taylor ".
In September 1996, leaving important coalition partner the government and Banharn had to resign.
After the reign
Banharn remained chairman of the Chart Thai Party, which more than half its seats lost in the general election in November 1996 and went into opposition. However, a year later, she was again a junior partner in the government of Chuan Leekpai, but without that Banharn took a cabinet post. Even after Thaksin Shinawatra became prime minister in 2001, Banharns party remained part of the government. However, they left them in 2005 in the dispute. 2006 dating Banharn with the chairmen of the two other major opposition parties to boycott the elections to protest against the policies of the Thaksin government and the perceived disability of the opposition. However, a year later he left the opposition to Thaksin and led his party in a coalition with the Party of People's Power. This confirmed his image as a " smooth eel ".
The Constitutional Court banned the three government parties in 2008, including the Chart Thai Party, because of electoral law violations and said a five-year policy prohibition against their leaders, including Banharn from. However, the non-affected members of the party which established once the Chartthaipattana Party, which acts as a de facto continuation of the Chart Thai and Banharns brother Chumpol Silpa - archa chairman had. Also Banharns Warawut son and his daughter Kanchana went into politics and was deputy minister in the cabinet of Abhisit Vejjajiva. Banharn was and is about Chumpols beyond death but continues as de facto party leader. Behind the scenes, he not only controls the party and its members, but also the ministries that are run by party members, both in the government of Abhisit, as well as in the follow Yingluck Shinawatra cabinet. During the flood in Thailand after the rains in 2011 caused Banharn by controlling the locks that his home province of Suphanburi was largely spared, while the neighboring provinces were severely affected.