Thai Junta Throws Money at Poor Northeast in Bid to Stop Thaksin
- Junta leader seeks ground in traditional Thaksin stronghold
- Thaksin-aligned parties have won every election since 2001
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Deep in Thailand’s rural northeast, home to the political base of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, rice farmers like Wassan Chaipanya are warming to the military junta that seized power in a 2014 coup.
Surveying his four-acre crop in Ubon Ratchathani, one of the region’s biggest provinces, Wassan credits coup leader and current Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha for bringing peace and stabilizing grain prices. Rice subsidies and welfare cards introduced by the junta have helped buoy his 80,000 baht ($2,450) annual income, he said.