The Billionaires Club by James Montague

Author:James Montague
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING

8. Paris, France

Thaksin Shinawatra watched Leicester City’s remarkable Premier League campaign far from home. Powerless for almost a decade, the former Thai prime minister had not returned to his homeland since 2008, when the military junta froze his assets and vowed to arrest him on corruption and other charges the moment he set foot on Thai soil. What followed was a nomadic existence, looking for a country that would take him in. The UK revoked his visa, leading to Thaksin withdrawing his request for political asylum. Others didn’t want to know. Instead, it was left to the UAE, and in particular Dubai, to offer Thaksin sanctuary, both for himself and what remained of his fortune.

But on this sunny May day, Thaksin Shinawatra is not in Singapore, or Beijing, or the Middle East. He is sitting in his hotel in Paris. He is staying in a plush suite with a low-key, private entrance and a Thai security guard – complete with earpiece and a dead-eyed scowl – that gives the impression that a head of state is being guarded inside. Thaksin is sitting on his sofa in an immaculately ironed white shirt, looking exactly the same as the fresh-faced billionaire who had shaken up Thailand’s staid political scene when he entered the great game in the mid-1990s. ‘I remember a state visit to London, and Prince Philip and I talked about the drug war,’ Thaksin says as we sat down to talk. ‘He surprised me. He told me I should decriminalise drugs. All drugs!’ He laughs with a little shake of the head. Thaksin couldn’t do that, of course, but he was amused by how an elderly member of the British royal family might in fact be a radical libertarian. Thaksin has many stories like this: moments when he was treated like a statesman, like an equal to the other rulers of the world.

Now he was in Paris, escaping the intense Dubai summer heat, taking it easy, spending time with his grandchildren and checking up on some of his new investments – small sums sunk into biomedical research and a few other stocks he declined to name before the conversation turned to his favourite topic: football. ‘What happened with Leicester is the combination of a good coach, good team spirit and moral support from the owner. It is not about the stars and very expensive players and coaches,’ says Thaksin proudly.

Thaksin knew the hard way the game that had to be played to survive in Thai business, and didn’t bear any grudges at how his former colleagues and supporters had lined up behind the current regime. Business was survival, and survival was business. ‘He is very Thai and has a [Thai] touch; he has a good touch with the players and coach, and they work together like a family,’ he says of Vichai’s regime at Leicester City. ‘Also, he brings some Thai monks in to give a kind of belief, faith that you play better. And they really played better!’ He

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