Former Thai prime minister Banharn Silpa-archa dies aged 83 after asthma attack
Former coalition partner of the Shinawatras was banned from Thai politics for five years in 2008 and his party was dissolved for electoral fraud.
Banharn Silpa-archa, a provincial political powerbroker who served a scandal-ridden 16 months as Thailand’s prime minister in 1995-96, has died at age 83.
His death early on Saturday morning was announced by Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital, where he was admitted on Thursday after an asthma attack.
Banharn was considered a master of pork barrel politics, making his home province of Suphanburi, in Thailand’s central rice-growing region, one of the country’s most developed and prosperous-looking. His domination of politics and business there led to it being dubbed “Banharnburi”.
However, his wily political ways played out badly at the national level.
Critics charged that corruption and mismanagement of the economy during his stint as prime minister paved the way for the collapse of Thailand’s currency, sparking the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Born in Suphanburi to a family of ethnic Chinese traders, he went into the construction business without completing his higher education. Thailand’s building boom of the 1960s – fuelled by infrastructure development promoted by the United States as it used Thailand as a rear base during the Vietnam war – made him a millionaire. He joined the conservative Chart Thai Party and was elected to Parliament in 1976, becoming party leader in 1992.
Banharn became prime minister in 1995 by hammering together a coalition with similar regional-based political party leaders keen to share the spoils of power. He also served in a variety of ministerial posts in several governments over four decades.