The populist Thai Rak Thai party, led by prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, came to power in 2001.

A general election on 23 December 2007 restored a civilian government, led by Samak Sundaravej of the People's Power Party, as a successor to Thai Rak Thai.

** Thaksin Shinawatra 丘達新 / 丘达新 ( 1949 -; Fengshun, Guangdong ; born in Thailand ; Hakka pronunciation: Hiew Tat Sin ), founder Thai Rak Thai political party ; only Prime Minister of Thailand to finish a term of office and be reelected, 2001 – 2006 ; exiled, 2008.

In the 2005 election, the Thai Rak Thai party took 126 of these seats, with six for Chart Thai and two each for the Democrat party and Mahachon Party.

* Thai Rak Thai, a former Thai political party

The Thai Rak Thai Party (, lit.

The Thai Rak Thai was registered on July 15, 1998, by telecommunications entrepreneur Thaksin Shinawatra and 22 other founding members, including Somkid Jatusripitak, Thanong Bidaya, Sudarat Keyuraphan, Purachai Piumsombun, Thammarak Isaragura na Ayuthaya, and Prommin Lertsuridej.

The Thai Rak Thai party had a populist platform, appealing to indebted farmers – which had become indebted as a result of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 – with promises of a strong economic recovery.

Thai Rak Thai won the legislative election of 2001 by a landslide margin over the ruling Democrat Party led by Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai.

Thai Rak Thai was also able to negotiate for a merger with the New Aspiration Party and a coalition with the Thai Nation Party, resulting in a majority of 325 out of 500 seats for the coalition government.

The Thai Rak Thai Party was the first political party in Thailand to have been represented by more than half of the Members of the House of Representatives.

* Wang Nam Yom – Originally a splinter group from Wang Bua Ban, Wang Nam Yom is led by Labour Minister Somsak Thepsutin and Industry Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit, who also serves as Thai Rak Thai's Secretary-General.

The faction includes all the Thai Rak Thai's MPs who represent Bangkok and a handful of others from the surrounding region.

Thaification policies removed the alphabet and now the language is written in the Thai alphabet, if at all, and the name changed to Isan to sever the political connection with Laos.

While Thai classical music was somewhat discouraged as being unmodern and backward looking during Thailand's aggressively nationalistic modernization policies of mid-20th century, the classical arts have benefited recently from increased governmental sponsorship and funding as well as popular interest as expressed in such films as Homrong: The Overture ( 2003 ), a popular fictionalized biography of a famous traditional xylophone ( ranat ek ) performer.

In the 20th century, Thaification policies were undertaken to encourage the Isan Lao to think of themselves as Thai and not with their colonized and later Communist-ruled brethren across the Mekhong River.

The main objectives of FTI are to represent Thai manufacturers at both national and international levels, to help promote and develop industrial enterprises, to work with the government in setting up national policies, and to offer consulting services to members.

Although the reelection of Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai party in an unprecedented landslide in February demonstrated the widespread popularity of his policies, slower economic growth ( 4. 5 % in 2005 ), has given ammunition to critics of Thaksinomics.

But others point out that consumer indebtedness and trade deficits plagued the Thai economy in 2005, as a direct result of Thaksin's policies.

Thaification is a byproduct of the nationalist policies consistently followed by the Thai state after the Siamese coup d ' état of 1933.

The third set of policies was designed to encourage Thai nationalism in all the country ’ s people: obvious examples are the promotion of the king as a national figurehead, saluting the flag in school and the twice daily broadcasts of the national anthem ( Phleng Chat-เพลงชาต ิ) on radio and television at 8 AM and at 6 PM.

However, following a series of internal party disputes, changes in international communist alliances, successful counter-insurgency policies of the Thai government and, ultimately, the end of the Cold War, the party disappeared from the political scene in the early 1990s.

The Thai government is noticing and concerned about this trend, but tends to let families care for their elderly members rather than create extraneous policies for them.

On July 16, 2003, the Thai Post published comments from media rights advocate Supinya Klangnarong, who said that the Shin Corporation, at the time majority owned by the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had benefited because of favorable policies by the Thaksin government.

Other languages, such as Thai Sign Language, developed as a creole of ASL and indigenous sign ; a similar situation may have occurred with Malaysian Sign Language, which in turn was the base of Indonesian Sign Language.

In Thailand, where the Thai solar calendar is used, the months and days have adopted the western standard, although the years are still based on the traditional Buddhist calendar.

Most languages have one main copula, but some languages, like Spanish and Thai, have more than one, and some have none.

The Thai Department of Export Promotion claims that " China's halal food producers are small-scale entrepreneurs whose products have little value added and lack branding and technology to push their goods to international standards " to encourage Thai private sector Halal producers to market their products in China

The pilot flying the Thai Airways Airbus A310-300 is thought to have suffered spatial disorientation.

Laos might have reached the same point of normalization in following Vietnam's economic and diplomatic change, but by moving ahead resolutely and responding to Thai and Chinese gestures, Laos has broadened its range of donors, trading partners, and investors independent of Vietnam's attempts to accomplish the same goal.

They are rather contemporary regional sports that coexist with the modern forms of martial arts sports as they have developed since the 19th century, often including cross-fertilization between sports and folk styles ; thus, the traditional Thai style of Muay Boran developed into the modern national sport of Muay Thai, which in turn came to be practiced worldwide and contributed significantly to modern hybrid styles like kickboxing and mixed martial arts.

In the case of Thailand, muay Thai evolved from the older muay boran ( ancient boxing ), an unarmed combat method which would have been used by Siamese soldiers after losing their weapons in battle.

As a result, western practitioners have incorporated much more powerful hand striking techniques from boxing although some Thai purists accuse them of diluting the art.

Most Thai governments have stipulated parliamentary systems ; however, several of them also called for dictatorships, e. g., the 1957 Constitution.

As a result, there have been 18 coups and resultant 18 constitutions in the history of Thai politics.

The succeeding Governments tried to solve the economic problems by implementing several measures, some of which ( e. g. promoting export and tourism ) have become crucially important for the Thai economy until today.

Having known all of the economic problems confronting the Kingdom and that Thailand had used the multiple currency basket peg exchange rate, the foreign speculators ( including the Hedge Funds ) were certain that the Thai Government would soon have to devalue the Baht.

There have been claims by the Thai government that Malaysia has taken an interest in the cause of their opponents in the war, which is vehemently disputed by the latter.

Thai cuisine and the culinary traditions and cuisines of Thailand's neighbors have mutually influenced one another over the course of many centuries.

Two restaurants specialising in Thai cuisine have received Michelin stars: " Nahm " in London, run by David Thompson received its star in 2002, and " Kiin Kiin " in Copenhagen, run by chef Henrik Yde-Andersen and Lertchai Treetawatchaiwong, received its in 2009.

Many Chinese dishes have been adapted to suit Thai taste, such as kuai-tiao ruea ( a sour and spicy rice noodle soup ).

Due to the increased demand for vegetarian food from foreign tourists, many hotels, guesthouses and restaurants that cater to foreign tourists, will now also have vegetarian versions of Thai dishes on their menu.

Pescatarians would have very few problems with Thai cuisine due to the abundance of Thai dishes which only contain fish and seafood.

Laos might have reached the same point of normalization in following Vietnam's economic and diplomatic change, but by moving ahead resolutely and responding to Thai and Chinese gestures, Laos has broadened its range of donors, trading partners, and investors independent of Vietnam's attempts to accomplish the same goal.