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Published on December 5, 2007

Former tycoon Prachai Leophairatana ended his disastrous leap into real politics when he quit the Matchima Thipataya Party yesterday.

The Criminal Court's sentencing him to three years in jail for stock-market violations has brought him to his knees.

He had been fighting the rebels in his party who tried to undermine his leadership in recent weeks. Last week the faction of influential member Somsak Thepsuthin was engaged in a row with Prachai over the alleged extortion of Bt60 million from Prachai by Somsak's close aides. Both sides threatened to sue each other.

The friction almost led to a break-up between Prachai and Somsak, but they reached a deal at the last minute.

Prachai has not walked the red carpet since jumping into politics in September and taking off like a rising star. That's because he has managed to make foes instead of friends.

He joined veteran Snoh Thienthong's Pracharaj Party around August as a key financier.

With the support of mighty Somsak and his faction, Prachai saw many former members of Parliament from the disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party flock to his camp. His bargaining power gained momentum overnight.

But Prachai became a problem for his critical role in a frustrated attempt in September to merge three groups - Matchima, Saman Chan and Pracharaj - into Puea Pandin.

Prachai opposed installing Supachai Panitchpakdi as leader of the new party. He claimed Supachai, currently director-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) in Geneva, was responsible for the enactment of 11 economic laws following the 1997 financial crisis.

Prachai says he lost control of his petrochemical empire due to the controversial economic reform prescribed by the International Monetary Fund.

Prachai's stubborn stance continues to cause trouble.

The Somsak faction believed Pracharaj would not win many seats as long as Snoh remained Pracharaj leader, so its members decided to back Prachai to replace Snoh. Prachai accepted the invitation. That made Snoh furious and he challenged Prachai to leave if he believed he was good enough to go solo.

Prachai and the Somsak faction decided to split up with Snoh. They moved to Matchima Thipataya.

That put Prachai in the limelight as a leading contender to be the next prime minister.

Two weeks after Prachai became Matchima Thipataya leader, some Somsak faction members and other candidates cried foul over his "dictatorial" management style. Some left for other parties.

An attempt to bring Matchima Thipataya, Pracharaj and Ruam Jai Thai Chat Pattana together on October 20 was believed to be Prachai's last-ditch effort to keep his poll hopes alive. But it turned into humiliation. The deal fell through.

Prachai is a fierce enemy of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra and allegedly was behind a plot to overthrow him by financially backing the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy rallies led by key ally Sondhi Limthongkul.

He is accused of getting into politics in a bid to exploit state authority to seize back control of his industrial empire. Thai Petrochemical Industry, renamed IRPC, went bankrupt soon after the economic crisis of 1997.

This led to a long and bitter struggle with creditors, and seemingly endless court disputes, before Thaksin's administration called on state entities led by PTT Plc to take over TPI - a move that Prachai challenged in the courts, but was unable to stop.

Prachai seems to be a clone of Thaksin - a wealthy businessman with no political base. It was expected that he would use his large fortune like Thaksin did to consolidate his political clout.

Although Prachai and Thaksin are businessmen-turned-politicians, Thaksin was patient and gradually collected political factions until he finally grabbed the reins of power. He was also generous when it came to "funding" his party members.

 Maybe Snoh was right in what he called Prachai when they parted ways. "Prachai is just a kindergarten boy in this political battle."

Weerayut Chokchaimadon

 The Nation