I thought Thailand was seen to have a Kleptocracy ....
It doesn’t matter who it is , as soon as they consolidate coalition and power , the stealing and cronyism begins .
Who is immune to this . I once thought it was taksin because he came in with big money and didn’t necessarily have a goal to make more . Goes to show : never enough....
Perhaps the Supreme Patriarch ?
Eh, this gets into the intricacies of Thai politics that is as complicated as anything I’ve encountered. North versus South, rich versus poor, educated versus rice farmer, democracy versus monarchy, etc.
I lived in Thailand when Thaksin was elected and the problem is he was promising all sorts of socialist programs for the northern poor (who do constitute the majority). Aside from some of them flirting with communism many years back, the rural poor never felt they had anyone looking out for them. Thaksin filled that role. Unfortunately, he filled it much like Chavez did in Venezuela. Add to that that he and his family and friends are pretty corrupt (though to be fair, as you pointed out, that is par for the course).
I think the elite basically felt like Thaksin was positioning himself to, effectively, be the new King of Thailand when the current King dies. He’s like 86 and in ill health, so he won’t be lasting too much longer. I guess, in the end, that is what scared the elite and royalists most.