Thaksin's Thailand

It's nearly 10 p.m., and the new Carrefour hypermarket near Bangkok's waterfront is hopping. Hundreds of late-model Toyotas, Hondas, and Fords crowd the parking lot. Inside, shoppers jostle each other, their carts piled high with groceries. One of them, Sunthorn Kansatian, pulls five-kilogram sacks of rice from the shelves. The rice is for the monks at a Buddhist temple where he'll soon celebrate his birthday -- a luxury he hasn't permitted himself since Thailand went into a financial tailspin in 1997, dragging his business of selling household goods down with it. "In the past two years, life has gotten better," says 44-year-old Sunthorn. "Now everyone has money in their pockets."

Sunthorn may be bringing rice to the temple, but he doesn't say it's the monks who have improved his fortunes. The real credit, Sunthorn will tell you, goes to Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's Prime Minister since January, 2001. Thaksin's policies of low interest rates and cheap loans to farmers have helped fill pockets with cash -- which has started Sunthorn's business growing again. So Sunthorn has twice sought out Thaksin to thank him. "I just said, 'Hello, how are you?"' Sunthorn recalls. On both occasions -- once at the Prime Minister's Bangkok residence and once at a golf course -- Thaksin glanced his way and waved. Not much, but enough to satisfy his admirer. "The Prime Minister is a guy who can talk to people of every level," Sunthorn says.