A Mixed Record
	Since he became Thailand's Prime Minister four years ago, Thaksin Shinawatra has inspired both adulation and animosity
	By Andrew Perrin | Bangkok

	CHUVIT KHEMTONG / AP  OUTGUNNED: A drug crackdown left some 2,500 dead in 2003

Posted Monday, January 31, 2005; 20:00 HKT
January 2001
Thaksin and his new Thai Rak Thai party sweep to victory in the general election. He promises to revive the depressed rural economy and to crack down on corruption and drugs.

August 2001
In an 8-7 decision, the Thai Constitutional Court clears Thaksin of concealing his business assets while in public office. A conviction could have meant a five-year ban from politics. Learning of the verdict, a jubilant Thaksin declares that Thailand is "open for business again."

January 2003
A Cambodian mob trashes the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh after reports that a Thai actress asserted Angkor Wat was "stolen" from Thailand. More than 500 Thai nationals, including the ambassador, are evacuated. Thaksin averts a crisis by rejecting a plan to send Thai special forces into Phnom Penh to secure the embassy and by talking Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen into restoring order.

February 2003
The Thai authorities start to crack down on the drug trade. By year's end, more than 2,500 people, mostly small-time pushers, are killed nationwide. The government says criminal gangs are responsible; human-rights groups say the deaths are extrajudicial killings. The U.S. State Department later complains that Thailand's human-rights record has "worsened." Thaksin responds by calling the U.S. "an annoying friend."

July 2003
Thailand repays the International Monetary Fund the $13 billion it loaned the country following the 1997 Asian financial crisis—two years ahead of schedule. "We are now free," says Thaksin.

August 2003
In a major victory in the war on terror, Thaksin—who had long denied that Thailand was a terrorist hideout—announces the capture of Jemaah Islamiah's alleged operations chief Riduan Isamuddin, a.k.a. Hambali, in Ayutthaya, Thailand's ancient capital.

January 2004
Muslim militants raid a Thai army base in the country's troubled south. Four soldiers are killed and the attackers escape with more than 300 automatic weapons. The event leads to a spike in violence that claims more than 600 lives by year's end.

January-March 2004
An outbreak of bird flu causes the deaths of 10 people and the near collapse of Thailand's billion-dollar poultry industry. Thaksin admits he had "suspected" an outbreak "weeks before" the official announcement was made; his critics accuse the government of a cover-up.

April 2004
In a single day, Thai security forces kill more than 100 suspected militants in scattered clashes throughout the south, including 32 holed up inside a historic mosque.

October 2004
Six men are shot and another 78 die, many from suffocation, while in military custody, following a protest outside a police station in the south. Thaksin suggests the prisoners died because they were weak from fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Muslim neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia condemn the episode.

December 2004
Thousands are killed when a tsunami devastates communities on the western coast of southern Thailand, including the tourist resort of Phuket. Thaksin is on the ground within 24 hours to coordinate the government's relief effort. His decisive leadership wins him praise at home and abroad.

	Thailand's Bloody Monday [Nov. 01, 2004] In a day of horror, scores of Thai Muslims in the country's restive south die while in military custody, sparking outrage at home and abroad Southern Discomfort [Mar. 22, 2004] Thailand's Prime Minister is used to getting his way, but the country's restive south seems rapidly spinning out of control The Thaksin Effect [Oct. 21, 2003] Is Thailand's Prime Minister revolutionizing his country's economy—or creating another bubble? The Killing Season [Mar. 05, 2003] Thailand's swift, popular crackdown on drugs has claimed more than 1,000 Publish And Perish [Mar. 25, 2002] Thailand has prided itself on its freedom of the press. Now, the country's (over?)sensitive PM is starting to crack down In The Clear [Aug. 07, 2001] Acquitted of corruption charges last week, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra must now make good on his vision for a more prosperous Thailand More Related Items | Search all issues of TIME Magazine