Media mogul criticises Thai PM

THAILAND: Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's star is aligned too close to Mercury. This means no press conferences until the end of the year to discuss the biggest political crisis to face Mr Thaksin in nearly five years in power.

Mr Thaksin is coming under pressure from the media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul, who accuses him of cronyism, mixing his family business empire with politics, fostering corruption and mishandling a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand.

Mr Sondhi - until two months ago a staunch ally of Mr Thaksin - has staged televised talk shows and demonstrations in Lumpini Park in Bangkok's business district. About 40,000 joined one of these rallies last Friday.

Mr Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai ("Thais love Thais") party were voted in with a big majority in elections in January. However, Mr Sondhi has won support among middle-class Thais, who are angry at Mr Thaksin's efforts to control the media and his failure to tackle corruption.

Although the turnout at the rally was below the half a million Mr Sondhi had hoped for, it is still a boost to his campaign to expose government wrongdoings and to oust the prime minister.

Analysts are unsure of Mr Sondhi's motives, although he said he began speaking out after becoming dismayed by "rampant" government corruption.

He accuses Mr Thaksin of purchasing outdated and inefficient jet fighters from Russia to reap a kickback of 3.5 billion baht, about €718 million, instead of buying modern aircraft from the US or Sweden. He also said the prime minister's sister had used a military aircraft to fly guests to her birthday and housewarming party in the city of Chiang Mai.

Tensions cooled last week after Thailand's king said in his birthday speech that Mr Thaksin needed to accept criticism and stop striking out at opponents with lawsuits. Two days later, Mr Thaksin dropped half a dozen lawsuits against Mr Sondhi. But Mr Sondhi said this would not stop him attacking corruption.