Just cannot be forgotten - Why two coups cannot keep Thailand’s Shinawatra clan down

Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is preparing to return to Thailand after 15 years of self-imposed exile. - PHOTO: AFP

BANGKOK: Billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra and his family have dominated Thai elections for much of the past two decades.

A royalist establishment made up of army generals, judges and senior civil servants sees the clan as a threat to its political power, and the Shinawatras were ejected from office twice in military coups. The intense rivalry is returning to the fore after opposition parties, including one linked to Thaksin, prevailed in a May election.