Thailand’s military junta is using a program of economic stimuli and tax reforms to try to undermine the support for ousted and exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The National Reform Council, led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who as army commander removed the elected civilian government earlier this year, plans to introduce taxes aimed at the commercial classes. Self-made entrepreneurs tend to support Thaksin and oppose the royalists in the military and the country’s aristocracy. The rural poor also support Thaksin, but they will be exempt from the new taxes in an effort to change their loyalty.
