May 15, 2007
BANGKOK (AFP) - Ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra's wife Pojaman, who pleaded not guilty Monday to tax evasion charges, is the silent partner in her husband's political and corporate interest.
Described by Thaksin as his conscience and the only person he completely trusts, she built up a fortune guiding his decision-making but now risks prison over their lucrative business dealings.
"No matter how important I have become, I always listen to her," Thaksin once told reporters while he was still prime minister. He was ousted in a coup in September.
Always perfectly coiffed and dressed in sharp tailored suits, Pojaman often appears in Thai media but rarely says anything.
Rather, she perfected the art of appearing in public as the concerned wife and mother, allowing cameras to capture her during religious ceremonies or accompanying Thaksin and their three children.
But behind the scenes, she exerts enormous influence over Thaksin and his political and business interests, and is a trusted trouble-shooter when things go wrong.
"She is tough, but she will show her toughness only when needed," former Thaksin cabinet member Vissanu Kreu-Ngarm once said.
The Nation newspaper called her a "shrewd political femme fatale" after she managed to obtain an unexpected meeting with the Thai king's most trusted adviser in the weeks after the coup, in what was widely seen as an attempt to rehabilitate Thaksin's image.
While Thaksin has stayed in exile since the coup, she has shuttled in and out of the country, managing his affairs here and then travelling to meet him as he travels the world.
Pojaman was born on November 22, 1956, as the youngest of four children of former assistant national police chief Sameur Damapong.
She started her education at the prestigious Saint Joseph Convent School, where she first met Thaksin, who was a friend of her brother's.
She went on to study arts in the United States where Thaksin was studying for his doctorate. They married in Thailand in 1976, and had three children -- Panthongtae, Pintongta and Praethongtan.
Pojaman helped Thaksin build up a small computer business into a telecom empire that became known as Shin Corp and included Thailand's biggest mobile phone company, Advanced Info Service.
When he became prime minister, Thaksin relied on Pojaman to resolve feuding within his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party, and she was generally perceived as his only true confidante on matters of policy and business.
Much of the billions of dollars that Thaksin earned through Shin Corp was actually held in her name. She even owned the glass-and-steel high-rise where TRT once kept its party headquarters.
Thaksin's fall has left her -- as well as her step-brother and two of her children -- in the sights of corruption-busters appointed by the junta.
Pojaman is now on trial for tax evasion charges that could land her in prison over a 1997 sale of Shin Corp shares.
She also remains under investigation in a slate of other corruption cases, including over Thaksin's sale of Shin Corp last year to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
The deal sparked huge public protests that eventually led to the coup -- and ultimately her appearance in court.