THAKSIN AS ‘SUPER BRAND’: The Political Desk examines why Thai Rak Thai did so much better in yesterday’s general election than in 2001

Published on February 7, 2005

If Thai Rak Thai used a three-pronged strategy for the 2001 election, then it used a four-pronged one yesterday, the addition being Thaksin Shinawatra as not only party leader, but also national leader.

It was a fait accompli as far as the future of Thai politics was concerned.

Thai Rak Thai stuck very much to the same strategy that gave it close to 300 parliamentary seats the last time out. The first prong involved merging as many political factions and parties as possible under the Thai Rak Thai banner.

For yesterday’s election, Thai Rak Thai, given its financial and political clout, lured many first-choice candidates at the constituency level from the now-defunct New Aspiration and Chat Pattana parties, from Chat Thai, and even some Democrats.

If it is true that “all politics is local”, then Thai Rak Thai loaded the dice, lining up candidates with the best chances of winning. Results for the North and Northeast were clear evidence of the success of this tactic.

Second was to stick to the core policies that won it a mandate four years ago. But this time, there was an emphasis on continuity and potential benefits, given that the effects of the 1997 financial crisis had faded.

Third was the expert marketing of its policies in a variety of media, with regular polls to detect the mood of the public. The sentiment that helped propel Democrat Apirak Kosayodhin into the Bangkok governorship had certainly ceased to be of any threat to Thai Rak Thai in the capital.

Fourth, and what really made this election stand apart from the previous one, was the way that party leader Thaksin conducted his campaign.

In the 2001 election, he came across as a successful billionaire with the financial clout and political acumen to win over major political factions, such as that headed by Snoh Thienthong in the Central region and the North.

This time around, he put his personality on display. Northern audiences found his campaign speeches in the local dialect to be both entertaining and inspiring. He ran his campaign like a personal crusade, the same as in a US or British national election.

Thaksin’s “poverty” caravan that visited each province, complete with village sleepovers, was not unlike those tactics used to great effect by George W Bush and Tony Blair.

Thaksin’s personality became very much intertwined with the Thai Rak Thai brand, or even superseded it, with the PM himself becoming a “super brand”.

Bush won despite his reputation of having a “peanut-sized brain”. Blair won despite being considered “as slippery as an eel”. And so Thaksin came out an acceptable leader despite his image as a crony capitalist, autocrat and populist. Of course, each of these current leaders faces insignificant opposition parties led by irrelevant politicians.

And whenever the opposition taunted him with the “dictator” label, he answered them point blank. As Thaksin told supporters at a mass rally in central Bangkok at the climax of his campaign on Friday: “Where in the world is a single-party government called a dictatorship? What’s wrong with the people having faith in me?”

So, the voters did not just endorse Thai Rak Thai alone, but also Thaksin – and perhaps much more so. But it must be said that Thai Rak Thai was the best organised and most professional of all of the major parties contesting yesterday’s election. Chat Thai leader Banharn Silapa-archa also campaigned on the strength of his personality but was pretty much viewed as past his prime and “yesterday’s politician”.

The four-pronged strategy also won over the hearts and minds of most Bangkok voters, known for their fickleness in party politics and whose support was crucial to Thaksin’s desire for a strengthened mandate. The lack of forward-looking leadership among the rival parties effectively sealed the nails on their own coffins.

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