Chaturon Chaisang

Chaturon Chaisang with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India in 2004

He intended to found a new party of his own, but given the difficulties under Thai party law, he instead joined the relatively new Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT) of telecommunications tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra shortly ahead of its landslide success in the 2001 general election.[2] He immediately became a deputy leader of the party. In Thaksin's cabinets he successively served in different positions. First he was Minister to the Office of the Prime Minister from 2001 to 2002. In this position he was responsible for political decentralisation, bureaucratic reform and energy policy. By proposing a decentralisation of revenue collection on a local level and direct election of the chiefs of local administration, he took on conservative bureaucrats in the Ministry of Interior, but also sceptic members of TRT, and even the Prime Minister, who favoured a more centralist leadership. As the cabinet's representative in the Energy Policy Committee, he interfered with the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, when he proposed a more user-friendly clearing of power bills, and endorsed social activists' and groups' demands to cancel several projected power plants and dams.

Thaksin intervened and transferred Chaturon to the Ministry of Justice in March 2002. In this capacity he created the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) as a government-controlled special unit to counter the influence of the more independent judiciary, prosecution and police force. Again, he had to struggle with resistance from the bureaucratic establishment, and again Thaksin transferred him to a new position: In October 2002 he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, overseeing social affairs.

In this capacity he was present in public, presenting a campaign to reduce alcohol consumption, control online computer games, and children’s television time. Moreover, he was tasked to deal with problems in university admission tests. His proposal of a law banning alcohol commercials on TV during prime time, as well as locally and temporally restricting the sale of alcohol met with opposition from the business sector.[5] In 2003 he represented a committee that (unsuccessfully) promoted the idea of making 14 October—the date of the 1973 democratic uprising—a national holiday ("Democracy Day").[6]

In the light of the violent conflict in Thailand's southernmost provinces erupting in 2004, Chaturon proposed a reconciliation and ceasefire plan, calling for an amnesty for Muslim separatists, a reduction in deployed police and the lifting of martial law. The draft was lauded by local partners in the conflict zone, but immediately rejected by the Prime Minister and his security advisers, who instead chose a repressive approach. Chaturon had to take a new position once again, becoming Minister of Education in August 2005. In this position, he tried to advance a reform of the school laws and the structure of the ministry, and to introduce education funds, but failed to convince more conservative forces within the ministry.[5] He was removed from office by the coup d'état of 19 September 2006.

After the coup, with Thaksin and key party executives either abroad or arrested, Chaturon became the interim party leader after Sudarat Keyuraphan declined to take the post.[7] He strongly condemned the coup, saying it destroyed Thai democracy by violating the liberal 1997 constitution. When the new rulers called political parties to nominate a representative to the National Legislative Assembly, Chaturon refused to do so.[8] The TRT was dissolved by a verdict of the junta-appointed "Constitutional Tribunal" in May 2007.[9] Like other (former) party representatives, the court barred Chaturon from holding political office for five years.

In 2009 Chaturon joined the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), also known as the "Red Shirts" movement. Reportedly, Thaksin wanted Chaturon to become one of the movement's leaders, but he could not come out on top, given the network's heterogenous and decentral structure. Still, Chaturon supported the "Red Shirts" during their protests in 2010. He condemned the violent strategy of Abhisit Vejjajiva's violent approach toward the protest movement, but also insisted that the "Red Shirts" should keep a non-violent strategy, arguing against hardcore leaders of the movement.[10]

After his political ban expired, he was re-appointed Minister of Education during a reshuffle in Yingluck Shinawatra's cabinet in June 2013. He was once again removed from power by the military coup d'état of 22 May 2014. Unlike other politicians, he defied the National Council for Peace and Order's order to report to the military leadership. He was arrested after giving interviews at Bangkok's Foreign Correspondents' Club on 27 May.[11]

In the 2019 elections, Chaturon was on the party list for the Thai Raksa Chart Party, an offshoot Pheu Thai. However, Thai Raksa Chart was dissolved by the Constitutional Court prior to election day, thus disqualifying all its candidates.[12] Afterwards, he returned to the Pheu Thai and was elected a party list MP in the 2023 elections.[13]