Chuan Leekpai

Chuan was born to ethnic Chinese parents on 28 July 1938 in Mueang Thap Thiang, Trang province, Thailand, to a teacher, Niyom Leekpai{{Cite web |title=Chuan Leekpai {{!}} Biography & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chuan-Leekpai |access-date=2022-08-16 |website=Britannica.com }} and Tuan Leekpai, Chuan has nine siblings and is the third child in the family. He would later move to the temple school at Wat Amarintraram in Bangkok where he lived for six years. He went on to study law at Thammasat University, Bangkok and later became a barrister-at-laws of the Thai Bar Association. Chuan is ethnic Hokkien, coming from a third-generation Thai Chinese.{{cite book|title=A History of Thailand|year=2005|author=Chris Baker, Pasuk Phongpaichit|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofthailan00bake|url-access=registration|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=back matter|isbn=0-521-81615-7|no-pp=true}}{{in lang|zh}} [http://news.sohu.com/90/85/news148058590.shtml 泰国华裔地位高 出过好几任总理真正的一等公民] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008022155/http://news.sohu.com/90/85/news148058590.shtml |date=8 October 2018 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.mtoday.co.th/55089 |script-title=th:ต้นตระกูล” หลีกภัย” จากจีน โพ้นทะเล สู่ เปอรานากัน แดนใต้ เมืองสยาม |language=th |publisher = MToday |date=17 June 2020 }}

In the aftermath of Bloody May, the Democrat Party won a plurality of seats in the September 1992 elections, with 79 seats, compared to the Chart Thai Party with 77 seats. Chuan formed a coalition government with the New Aspiration Party and Ekkaparb parties. The Phalang Dharma Party joined his cabinet after the New Aspiration Party left in 1994.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tcijthai.com/news/2013/28/scoop/3475|title = เลือกตั้งส.ส.แต่ละครั้งต้องใช้งบฯเท่าไหร่ มีส.ส.คนไหนเคยลาออกบ้าง-เพราะอะไร}}

Key policies of Chuan's first administration included:

• Engagement with Burma. As with all previous administrations, the Chuan government employed a policy of constructive engagement with the military government of Burma, provoking much criticism.[http://www.burmaissues.org/En/Newsletter/BINews1994-08.php The Asean Way to Human Rights and Democracy]
• Reforestation. A huge five million rai reforestation programme in honour of King Bhumibol's 50th anniversary of accession to the throne (1996) was initiated in 1994. The reforestation programme was officially declared a failure, with less than 40 percent of the target realised. The director-general of the RFD was suspended from his post for alleged corruption.[http://www.sefut.uni-freiburg.de/pdf/WP_3.pdf Thailand's Community Forest Bill: U-Turn or Roundabout in Forest Policy?]
• Emphasis on national economic stability, decentralisation of the administrative powers to the rural provinces, fostering income, opportunity and economic development distribution to the regions.

The first Chuan administration fell when members of the cabinet were implicated in profiting from Sor Phor Kor 4-01 land project documents distributed in Phuket Province. Fierce public and press criticism and dissolution of parliament were the reasons for his administration's downfall.[http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/mannheim/w3/mccargo.pdf Media and democratic transitions in Southeast Asia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929135755/http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/mannheim/w3/mccargo.pdf |date=29 September 2007 }} by Duncan McCargo

Image:Bill Clinton Chuan Leekpai.jpg in Wellington, New Zealand at the APEC summit, 1999]]

Chuan became prime minister for the second time on 9 November 1997, replacing Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, with a shaky line-up of a six party coalition and 12 independent defectors from a seventh party, Prachakorn Thai. The ruling coalition increased its 20-seat majority in October 1998, by including the Chart Pattana Party.

Chuan's second government enacted several economic reforms for which it was severely criticised. Chuan's "bitter medicine" policies brought little economic relief in the years following the 1997 economic crisis, particularly at the grassroots level. Opinions emerged that the Democrats were only helping big financial institutions and making the country more dependent of foreign investors. Nevertheless, many of the reforms recommended by the IMF were in line with the policies of market economies such as Australia and New Zealand. The subsequent government's economic growth was based even more strongly on selling national assets and private organisations abroad such as the Shin Corporation, while most of its economic gains were built on the frugality of the Democrat policy platform.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}} Thai Rak Thai painted the Democrats as having "open contempt" for the plight of the common Thai which set off a revenge vote against the party during the 2001 election, which gave a landslide victory to Thaksin Shinawatra.{{cite news|work=The Far Eastern Economic Review |url=https://groups.google.com/group/jaring.general/browse_thread/thread/da68523544d8b4d7/4a9be7f4e22b30d9|title=Thailand Incorporated |author=Shawn W. Crispin, Rodney Tasker|date=18 January 2001}}

During Chuan's second administration the National Education Act 1999 was enacted.{{Cite web |url=https://asean.org/storage/2016/08/Thailand184.pdf |title=National Education Act of B.E. 2542 (1999) |access-date=22 January 2019 |archive-date=26 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626110258/http://asean.org/storage/2016/08/Thailand184.pdf |url-status=dead }}

Chuan's second government came under fire for the violent arrest of 223 villagers protesting the Pak Mun Dam. Historian Nidhi Iawsriwong noted that "the present situation is as worse as that of the May event (the bloody crackdown of anti-government protesters in 1992). We have a tyrannical government that is arrogant and not accountable to the public. This is dangerous because the government still sees itself as legitimate and claims that it is democratic. In fact, it is as brutal as the military government".[http://www.focusweb.org/publications/2000/Son%20of%20a%20commoner%20faces%20the%20Assembly%20of%20the%20Poor.htm focusweb.org]

Controversy arose in early 1999 when it became known that Chuan nominated Thanom Kittikachorn to the post of honorary royal guard, provoking widespread criticism. The situation was resolved when Thanom resigned.{{cite news |last1=Singh |first1=Ajay |last2=Gearing |first2=Julian |title=The Murky Events of October 1973 |url=http://edition.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/magazine/2000/0128/as.thai.history1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131190202/http://edition.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/magazine/2000/0128/as.thai.history1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 January 2011 |access-date=30 March 2023 |work=Asia Week |volume=26 |number=3 |date=28 January 2000 |via=CNN}}{{cite web |url=https://ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/documents/46678.pdf |title=ให้พ้นจากตำแหน่งนายทหารพิเศษ |date=29 March 1999 |publisher=Royal Thai Government Gazette |access-date=30 March 2023 |lang=th}} Thanom was one of the "three tyrants" who ruled Thailand from 1963 to 1973 and ordered the massacre of pro-democracy students on 14 October 1973, after which he was ordered to step down and be exiled by King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

In April 2000, the editor in chief of the Chiang Mai daily newspaper Pak Nua was shot and seriously wounded in an attempted murder, but recovered. The editor believed that his repeated critical reporting on the government led to the assault.[http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Government/US/StateDepartment/DemocracyHumanRights/2000/EastAsia/Thailand.html terrorismcentral.com]

File:นายชวน หลีกภัย ประธานสภาผู้แทนราษฎร Photographed by Peak Hora 01.jpg from 2019 to 2023]]

Although generally regarded as relatively clean and honest when compared to other Thai administrations, Chuan's government found itself plagued with corruption scandals and rumours. Key cases of corruption included:

• Rakkiat Sukhthana, Health Minister, was charged with taking a five million baht (US$125,000) bribe from a drug firm and forcing state hospitals to buy medicine at exorbitant prices. After being found guilty, he jumped bail and went into hiding.
• Suthep Thaugsuban, Minister of Transport and Communications, whose brokering of illegal land deals caused the fall of the Chuan 1 government, was linked to abuse of funds in setting up a co-operative Surat Thani Province.[https://web.archive.org/web/20010221184955/http://www.atimes.com/reports/CA05Ai01.html atimes.com]
• The "edible fence" seed scandal, in which massive overpricing of seeds distributed to rural areas happened. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture was forced to resign.[http://pioneer.netserv.chula.ac.th/~ppasuk/corruptionhope.doc Corruption: Is there any hope at all?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071125103618/http://pioneer.netserv.chula.ac.th/~ppasuk/corruptionhope.doc |date=25 November 2007 }} by Pasuk Phongpaichit
• The Salween logging scandal, where up to 20,000 trees were felled illegally in the Salween forest in Mae Hong Son. Some of them turned up in the compound of the Democrat party's office in Phichit Province.
• Sanan Kajornprasart, Interior Minister, as well as eight other cabinet ministers were found to have understated their declared assets. Sanan was later barred by the Constitutional Court from politics for five years.{{Cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9344206 |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=24 July 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071227212727/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9344206 |archive-date=27 December 2007 |url-status=dead }}
• Chuan himself was found by the National Counter-Corruption Commission to have undeclared shareholdings in a rural cooperative.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

Chuan stepped down as the Leader of Democrat Party in 2003.{{Cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/prawatinaykrathmntrithiy/home/prawati-phan-tarwc-tho-thaksin-chin-watr/prawati-nay-chwn-hlik-phay|title=ประวัตินายชวน หลีกภัย - ประวัตินายกรัฐมนตรีไทย}}

Chuan Leekpai has one son, {{ill|Surabot Leekpai|th|สุรบถ หลีกภัย}}, with Pakdiporn Sujaritkul, his common-law wife. His mother tongue is Southern Thai,{{cite journal |title=วาทลีลาในโวหารทางการเมืองของนายชวน หลีกภัย |trans-title=A Linguistic and Rhetorical Analysis of Chuan Leekpai's Style of Political Oratory |first=Nawaporn |last= Meeseangsri |journal=ภาษาและภาษาศาสตร์ [Language and Linguistics] |url=https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/joling/article/download/174677/125052 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=28–29,37 |date=2005 |publisher=Thammasat University |language=th}} but his proficiency in Central Thai is native level. He is able to speak English well.{{cite web|title="Chuan" opens the ASEAN parliament meeting in English, while "Prayut" speaking Thai ("ชวน" เปิดประชุมรัฐสภาอาเซียน เป็นภาษาอังกฤษ ส่วน "บิ๊กตู่" ขอพูดภาษาไทย)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdDGj1GtSOc|via=YouTube|access-date=14 April 2022}}

• {{flag|Thailand}}:
• 80px Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant
• 80px Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of The Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand
• 80px Knight Grand Commander (Second Class, higher grade) of the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao
• 80x80px Order of Symbolic Propitiousness Ramkeerati
• 80px Recipient of the King Rama IX Coronation Medal
• 80x80px 25th Buddhist Century Celebration Medal
• 80x80px Serving Free Peoples Medal
• 80px First Class (Gold Medal) of the Red Cross Medal of Appreciation

• {{flag|Philippines}}:
• 80px Grand Collar (Raja) of the Order of Sikatuna (1993)
• {{flag|Peru}}:
• 80px Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun (1999)
• {{flag|Portugal}}:
• 80px Grand Cross of the Order of Christ (1999)ราชกิจจานุเบกษา, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304224718/http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2543/B/005/1.PDF ประกาศสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี เรื่อง พระราชทานพระบรมราชานุญาตให้ประดับเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์ต่างประเทศ], เล่ม ๑๑๗ ตอนที่ ๕ ข หน้า ๑, ๑ มีนาคม ๒๕๔๓
• {{flag|Nicaragua}}:
• 80px Grand Cross of the Order of Rubén Dario (2000)ราชกิจจานุเบกษา, [https://web.archive.org/web/20210117132415/http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2543/B/018/1.PDF ประกาศสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี เรื่อง พระราชทานพระบรมราชานุญาตให้ประดับเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์ต่างประเทศ], เล่ม ๑๑๗ ตอนที่ ๑๘ ข หน้า ๑, ๑๑ กันยายน ๒๕๔๓
• {{flag|Romania}}:
• 80px Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania (2000)ราชกิจจานุเบกษา, [https://web.archive.org/web/20201002010556/http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2543/B/021/15.PDF ประกาศสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี เรื่อง พระราชทานพระบรมราชานุญาตให้ประดับเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์ต่างประเทศ], เล่ม ๑๑๗ ตอนที่ ๒๑ ข หน้า ๑๕, ๑๖ ตุลาคม ๒๕๔๓
• {{flag|Denmark}}
• 80px Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog (2001)[https://web.archive.org/web/20211026042943/http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/00014448.PDF ประกาศสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี เรื่อง พระราชทานพระบรมราชานุญาตให้ประดับเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์ต่างประเทศ เล่ม 118 ตอนที่ 2 ข ราชกิจจานุเบกษา 8 กุมภาพันธ์ 2544]

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{{succession box|title=Prime Minister of Thailand|before=Anand Panyarachun|after=Banharn Silpa-archa|years=1992–1995}}

{{succession box|title=Prime Minister of Thailand|before=Chavalit Yongchaiyudh|after=Thaksin Shinawatra|years=1997–2001}}

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{{History of Thailand since 1973}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leekpai, Chuan}}

Category:1938 births

Category:Living people

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru

Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of Christ (Portugal)

Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of the Star of Romania

Chuan Leekpai

Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of the Dannebrog

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai

Chuan Leekpai