LOSERS: Political dynasties shown the door

Published on February 8, 2005

Some long-established political families and their often tailor-made political parties bit the dust on Sunday

Their dash is done – many powerful families who ruled politics like feudal lords and barons for decades have been brutally excised by vengeful voters.

The defeat of the likes of Maj-General Sanan Kachornprasart and Vatana Asavahame and their flunkeys is unprecedented – and final in most cases.

“I committed a political blunder. It is time for me to end my career,” Sanan said yesterday as he stared at the ruins of his political dynasty. Now he will slip quietly into retirement and spend his days supervising his winery and ostrich farm.

His son, Siriwat, failed in a re-election bid in Phichit, which long had been the Kachornprasart family fiefdom. The Mahachon Party, which Sanan co-founded after splitting from the Democrats in an effort to revive his flagging political fortunes, campaigned aggressively across the country, but flopped miserably and is likely to win only one seat.

Sanan was once Thailand’s most powerful political figure. A former interior minister, he was the Democrat Party’s secretary-general during the 1990s when it twice ran the country. But the rot set in when the Constitution Court ruled him guilty of filing a false assets-declaration in 2000.

Sanan was banned from politics for five years.

Although the struggling Democrats lured him back into the fold as “election-centre chief” last year, Sanan soon quit to join Mahachon as chief adviser.

Mahachon cohort Vatana Asavahame, a veteran politician of dubious distinction, is also bowing out, having been whipped and beaten at all levels of politics in recent years.

Vatana used to lead the Rassadorn Party, which was renamed Mahachon last year after several politicians suggested the country needed a new alternative to Thai Rak Thai (TRT) and the Democrats. He jumped on the bandwagon partly because the party’s only MP, Rewadee Rassameethat, switched her allegiance to TRT.

Vatana once counted Samut Prakan as his stronghold, but the 2001 election, in which only Rewadee managed to get elected, and subsequent local elections showed the voters no longer feared him.

Although Vatana campaigned for his nephew Akrawat Asavahame and close aide and four-time MP Man Pattanomai in Samut Prakan on Sunday, both were rejected, signalling Vatana’s complete political demise.

In Kanchanaburi, the Pothipipit family was dethroned after having won three previous elections. It remains unclear whether this influential family will fade from the scene or take stock and attempt a comeback.

Up North, the “na Chiang Mai” family conceded defeat – two members were pushed aside.

“But I am going to continue my political work,” Duantemduang na Chiang Mai said. “Though I have not been elected, I am happy that so many voters gave me moral support during the campaign.”

Duantemduang is the daughter of five-time MP Thawatwong and another unsuccessful MP candidate, Kingkarn na Chiang Mai.

Thawatwong was a deputy public health minister but lost his seat in 2001. He then chose local politics and is now Chiang Mai Provincial Administrative Organisation chairman.

Down South, the influential Wadah faction’s four candidates – Najmudin Uma from Narathiwat, Muk Sulaimarn from Pattani, and Phaisarn Yingsamarn and Burahanudin Useng from Yala – will not be gracing the halls of Parliament.

“We accept our defeat but we will continue our political work,” a faction leader, Areepen Utrasin, who seems certain of a TRT party-list seat, said.

“At the next general election, we will again ask constituents for an opportunity to represent them.”

The Wadah faction, led by the South’s most powerful Muslim figure, Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, has ruled the four southernmost provinces for 12 years. Its poor performance on Sunday will surely diminish Wan Noor’s chances of another Cabinet seat.

Sucheera Pinijparakarn

The Nation

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