Former Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. (Source: iisd.ca)Bangkok (VNA) – Former Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, 77, said on January 5 he would run for the next election as he believed only those who represented the Thais understood their problems.
In an interview with BBC Thailand, the former PM, who is chairman of the Democrat Party’s advisory board, said he is willing to be the people’s representative.
In his opinion, people must be told the truth about what led Thailand to two military coups over the past decade. Political instability that led to the coups did not associated with the Constitution but the key lies in the need to maintain the rule of law.
Chuan Leekpai was born in 1938 in Trang province, southern Thailand. He studied law at Thammasat University in Bangkok. After graduated, he worked as a lawyer and then as a politician.
As a leader of the Democrat Party, Chuan was elected as Prime Minister in 1992 after the coup by General Suchinda Kraprayoon.
He was defeated in the 1995 election but assumed power in the late 1997 following the fall of Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyut who was responsible for the economic crisis the same year.-VNA
