Thai coup leader wants phone firm back from Singapore

The Straits Times, February 16, 2007

BANGKOK - Thai coup leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin said bluntly on Friday he wanted to reverse Singapore’s US$3.8 billion (S$5.8 billion) purchase of the telecommunications giant founded by Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister he ousted.

'I want my belongings back, especially the satellites,' General Sonthi said in a speech on patriotism, five months after leading a bloodless coup against Mr Thaksin, accusing him of rampant corruption and abuse of power.

Shin Corp’s subsidiary Shin Satellite operates four telecom satellites, which are owned by the Thai government but are run by the company now controlled by Singapore’s state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings.

Gen Sonthi said the satellites were 'treasures' and said he would retrieve them. 'Singapore is a small country that lacks any farming area, but they are rich capitalists and brokers who can buy our assets,' he said.

'I am concerned about our national assets that were bought. I want my assets back, especially the satellites. That's one of our treasures that I really want,' he said. 'That's what we have to think how we can retrieve our assets,' he said.

Gen Sonthi, who intensified a row with Singapore last month by suggesting Thai military phone calls were being monitored in the city state following its takeover of Shin Corp, did not say how he planned to get the firm’s assets back.

But he said he was working hard on the problem. 'I am looking at the country’s assets and resources which have been bought by Singapore,' Gen Sonthi told 2,000 students and merchants, referring to the purchase last year by Singapore state investment firm Temasek.

It was the Thai army’s duty not to 'let anybody to take our national assets', he said.

'National assets, no matter where they are located, always belong to Thailand and the Thai people,' he said.

Do you want me to sit idly? My duty is to salvage the country and its assets,' he told reporters after the speech.

Temasek’s takeover of Shin Corp gave it control of Advanced Info Service (AIS), Thailand’s biggest mobile phone firm with a 45 per cent share of a market in which more than half of the 64 million population has a mobile phone.

It also got control of Shin Satellite, Thailand’s only satellite firm, and the takeover prompted immediate charges that Mr Thaksin’s family - which got US$1.9 billion tax free for its controlling stake - had sold out national security.

Gen Sonthi first railed against the deal last month.

'Our army has a problem now. When we make a call, the line goes to Singapore. When we talk secrets, they go straight to Singapore,' Gen Sonthi told high school students.

AIS and Shin Satellite denied they had ever eavesdropped on customer communications.

But Gen Sonthi’s remarks came hard on the heels of a diplomatic spat between Thailand and Singapore in January over a meeting between the exiled Thaksin and a Singapore Cabinet minister.

That resulted in Bangkok’s cancellation of an invitation to Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, saying its ally ought to have been sensitive to the Thai government’s feelings. Singapore said the meeting was a private one with no political implications.