Thread by @zenjournalist

My latest #SecretSiam article tells the story of political godfather Newin Chidchob, and it struck me that like a malignant Forrest Gump, he was present at most of the disasters and scandals of recent decades. Here's a THREAD about his shady past secretsiam.news/p/mafia-bosses… 1/16

An early classic episode in Newin's career was when he paid some crooked police to bomb his own house, to try to make him look like a brave whistleblower at risk of being assassinated by his enemies. Professor @bkksnow wrote about it in this paper journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09… 2/16

In 1995, his vote canvassers were caught with a huge stash of his elections leaflets each with 120 baht stapled to them. The total haul was 11.4 million baht. Newin said he knew nothing about the vote buying antics of his canvassers and escaped charges. 3/16

During the mid-1990s, Newin made a fortune in cahoots with management of Bangkok Bank of Commerce via stock market pump-and-dump scams financed by loans based on fraudulent land values. This bankrupted BBC, leading directly to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. 4/16

In 1999, Democrat MP Panawat Liangpongpan, from a rival Buriram gravel quarrying clan to the Chidchobs, was shot several times by a hitman who confessed he was hired by Newin's older brother. Panawat survived and began wearing a bulletproof vest and amulets for protection. 5/16

After Thaksin became prime minister, Newin quickly became a close ally. He was put in charge of winning more seats in the south in the 2005 general election but had to be removed after he was caught on tape arranging vote buying. 6/16

Newin played a key role in securing the immensely profitable monopoly duty free concessions at Suvarnabhumi and other airports for Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. He also routinely funnelled contracts to his own family businesses and the Charnvirakul clan's Sino-Thai Construction 7/16

Newin got even closer to Thaksin by arranging various black magic spells and rituals for him, including in March 2006 when Thaksin rode into Buriram on the neck of an elephant with Newin walking alongside. 8/16

After the coup of 2006, the junta ordered the arrest of Newin as they thought he was the most dangerous of Thaksin's allies. They dropped him by the roadside a week later in just his underwear, allegedly because they wanted to ensure he had no magic amulets. 9/16

Newin betrayed Thaksin in December 2008, switching sides to support Abhisit Vejjajiva as prime minister in return for massive bribes and control of three crucial ministries — Interior, Transport and Communications, and Commerce. 10/16

Newin's control of the Transport Ministry allowed him to protect Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha's duty free monopolies, and funnel projects to Chidchob and Charnvirakul companies. Meanwhile, his nominee for commerce minister owned the Poseidon brothel. 11/16

In March and April 2009, Newin created the "Blue Shirt" militia, a fake grassroots organisation to fight the Red Shirts. He was photographed in Pattaya commanding the Blue Shirts as they caused chaos at an ASEAN summit in April. As usual he denied involvement. 12/16

He also arranged for two gasoline trucks to be parked at King Power and Din Daeng Apartments during Red Shirt protests in April, then claimed the Red Shirts wanted to blow them up. It was fake, just like when he bombed his own house. 13/16

Widely hated outside of Buriram for his corruption and betrayal of Thaksin, Newin claimed in 2010 he was retiring from politics to focus on his football club. But he remains de facto leader of the corrupt amoral Bhumjai Thai, a party with no ideology at all. 14/16

Newin's fingerprints are all over the coronavirus crisis. The incompetent Anutin is health minister because Bhumjai Thai wanted to promote a gimmicky marijuana policy. Newin's brother Saksayam, the transport minister, spread the virus after visiting Thonglor hostess bars. 15/16

Newin's toxic influence over Prayut and the current regime is a major factor in the ongoing disaster of the government's response to the pandemic. As usual, when something bad happens, Newin Chidchob is involved. Check out the full article here secretsiam.news/p/mafia-bosses… 16/16