Thailand gets an Old Etonian PM

British tourists who spent days holed up in Bangkok airport during the recent anti-government riots in Thailand will be delighted to hear that the country has a new PM as of this morning – a handsome young politician born and educated in Britain who the Thai parliament hopes will find a way out of the country’s political mess.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, 44-year-old leader of Thailand’s oldest political party, the Democrats, succeeds three premiers who were toppled in quick order amid charges of misrule and corruption. They included billionaire politician Thaksin Shinawatra, a convicted fugitive from Thai justice – and for a short while the owner of Manchester City football club - who tried unsuccessfully from exile to block Abhisit’s election.

Like Thaksin, Abhisit comes from an influential family with Chinese origins. But any comparison with the disgraced Thaksin ends there. Abhisit has a clean political record and has fought against the endemic corruption of the Thai political scene since he entered politics at the age of 27.

He was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, son of medical professors working in England. He attended Eton and went on to Oxford University, where he obtained a BA in philosophy, politics and economics from St. John’s College.
 
According to The First Post’s correspondent in Chiang-Mai, Edward Loxton, Abhisit’s impeccable background gives him star status in the dark dealings of Thai politics. He speaks Oxbridge English without the trace of an accent and, although a Buddhist, is comfortably at home in the Western culture, nurturing an eclectic taste in British pop music, classical English literature and German philosophy. He’s also a loyal Newcastle United fan.
 
His anglophile leanings will probably be welcomed in Whitehall after Britain’s short-lived relationship with Thaksin, who was declared persona non grata after continuing to meddle in Thai politics while in exile in London. Thaksin is now sheltering in Hong Kong, an embittered man on the run from a prison sentence and a raft of outstanding corruption charges in his homeland.
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