Once again the Shinawatra clan has pulled off an unlikely feat: One of the wealthiest families in Thailand has convinced the poor and politically disenfranchised that it understands their problems, feels their pain and will fight for their rights.
The paradox of a billionaire family winning Sunday’s election by championing the have-nots — a notion that flabbergasts its adversaries — was on full display here in San Kamphaeng, the Shinawatra family’s hometown.
In grubby market stalls and ramshackle shops, residents flew red flags that advertised their support for Thaksin Shinawatra and his younger sister, Yingluck, who is now in line to become Thailand’s first female prime minister.
“We are so happy and relieved,” said Somboon Kamduang, a 55-year-old resident who scratches out a living selling peanuts and beans in the market and singing in restaurants at night.
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As Chinese immigrants who arrived in northern Thailand in the early 1900s, the family’s forebears were outsiders. But the family grew deep roots in the community, married local villagers, bought land, planted orchards, lent out money and soon became the overlords of the area.
Bangorn Auppara, 76, a resident who once worked for the Shinawatras, says the secret to the family’s success has been a mixture of hard work, resourcefulness, and “stinginess.”
The family became powerful in the area, she said, partly by lending out money and confiscating land when the borrowers could not pay back.
It’s hard to find someone here who has a bad thing to say about the family, partly because so many people in San Khampaeng work for them or rent property from them.
Most the buildings in town are owned by the various branches of the Shinawatra family, said Penphan Supittayaporn, 58, who sits behind the counter of the Shinawatra silk shop, one of the family’s businesses.
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