The former prime minister of Thailand, Banharn Silpa-archa was died in Bangkok at the age of 83. His scandal-ridden tenure a Prime Minister preceded the Thailand’s economic collapse in the 1990s.
- Mr. Banharn, a regional power broker and a master of money politics, enriched his home province, Suphanburi, as a political patron. But his 16-month tenure as prime minister, in 1995 and 1996, was marked by allegations of corruption and economic mismanagement.
- Thailand’s bubble economy of reckless and unchecked lending grew on his watch and burst one year later, touching off the Asian financial crisis.
- Mr. Banharn’s style of small-party coalitions has since been eclipsed by the ideological, nationally based politics introduced in the 2000s by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which has split the country along deep economic and social fault lines.
- Banharn Silpa-archa was born on Aug. 19, 1932, in Suphanburi, to a family of Chinese traders. He made a fortune in trade and construction, riding an infrastructure boom in the 1960s that was partly fueled by American investment during the Vietnam War.
- He became active in politics in 1974 when he joined the Chart Thai party. He was elected to Parliament for the first time in 1976 and re-elected repeatedly by huge margins, as he used his power to help make Suphanburi one of Thailand’s most prosperous provinces.
His children are active in his Chart Thai Pattana party. But the party has been so entwined with his personality and leadership that its future is uncertain.
