Power in Thailand now runs through a football-mad rural strongman

BURIRAM – On a sun-drenched October day in northeastern Thailand, caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul waited patiently alongside other prominent figures who flew in from Bangkok to show respect to one of the nation’s most powerful men.

Simply known as “uncle” by locals in rural Buriram province, Mr Newin Chidchob – the guest of honour and co-founder of Mr Anutin’s ruling Bhumjaithai party – received a blessing for his 67th birthday from a group of revered elephant handlers. The annual ceremony, held in the shadow of his 32,600-seat Chang Arena football stadium, featured a long table filled with offerings: the severed head of a pig, soft drinks and hundreds of bananas to feed nearly a dozen elephants.

Dressed in shorts, sneakers and a navy short-sleeved collared shirt, Mr Newin finally summoned the nation’s leader to come and sit beside him. He held up Mr Anutin’s arm as the mahouts tied yellow blessing threads around his wrist. “Make him prime minister for four more years,” Mr Newin said to them. “Win the election.”

In the rough-and-tumble world of Thai politics, which has produced 10 prime ministers in the past 20 years, few have played the game better than Mr Newin. A former lawmaker and Cabinet member once seen by Bangkok’s power brokers as a crooked provincial boss, he’s now the best shot to help royalist parties form the next government if they can deny pro-democracy reformers a majority in a Feb 8 election.

Although Mr Anutin is the public face of Bhumjaithai, Mr Newin remains its chief decision maker behind the scenes. And while he lives far from Thailand’s scenic beaches and storied night life, his influence can be seen by the marijuana smoke wafting along Bangkok’s streets and throngs of tourists wearing football jerseys emblazoned with a Chang Beer logo.

The owner of Buriram United – one of South-east Asia’s most valuable football clubs – as well as a track that hosts MotoGP motorcycle racing, Mr Newin was a close associate of duty-free shop billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who owned Leicester City when it won the English Premier League in 2016 against staggering odds. Mr Newin is still spotted occasionally using the now-deceased tycoon’s Pullman Bangkok King Power luxury hotel for political meetings.

More and more, politicians, diplomats and tycoons are heading out to Buriram near the Cambodian border to pay homage to Mr Newin, who was born into a Khmer-Chinese political family and named after former Burmese dictator Ne Win. The once-sleepy agricultural province has seen a surge of tourists drawn to sporting events, ruins of ancient Khmer temples and the birthplace of Lalisa Manobal, better known as Lisa, the star of K-pop sensation Blackpink who also recently had a role in the HBO hit The White Lotus.

“He’s really the power behind Bhumjaithai,” Dr Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University who has written about Thai politics for decades, said of Mr Newin. “It’s all about money politics,” he added. “You conduct patronage politics, patron-client ties to win elections, to win enough MPs to get into power, to get into the cabinet. And then you reap your investment.”

Buriram is the sixth-most populous province in Thailand outside of Bangkok, yielding 10 seats in Parliament – one of the biggest hauls in the country. The Chidchob clan has dominated elections in Buriram for most of the century, and hasn’t lost a parliamentary seat in the area since 2011.

That has given Mr Newin leverage to play kingmaker over the years, joining in coalition governments with anyone regardless of ideology – including royalist generals who staged coups, pro-democracy reformers and the populist telecom billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra – as long as it nets some high-profile Cabinet portfolios.

“In Thailand and Thai politics, there are no permanent friends or foes,” Mr Newin told a local television station in 2023. “Believe me.”

His ability to marshal billions of baht of taxpayer funds has allowed Buriram to climb up the income ladder in recent years after perpetually being listed among Thailand’s poorest provinces. Faster growth over the past decade has started to transform the area and spur business opportunities, including for the Chidchob family. While there is no public disclosure of their wealth, businesses with at least one direct family member as a shareholder are valued at nearly US$100 million (S$127 million), according to estimates by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The growing clout of Bhumjaithai has made Mr Newin a key figure in steering Thailand’s economy, which has lagged behind regional peers for years. The International Monetary Fund projects the one-time Asian tiger will grow 1.6 per cent in 2026, far below the 5.6 per cent expansion in Vietnam, 4.3 per cent in Malaysia and 5.1 per cent in Indonesia.

Thailand’s lacklustre growth can be explained in part by constant sparring between pro-democracy parties, which have finished first in every national vote since 2001, and royalists in Bangkok, who have used coups and court decisions to repeatedly overturn election results. The instability, including three prime ministers since the last election in May 2023, has made the Thai stock exchange one of the world’s worst performers in that period.

At the same time, figures like Mr Newin are essential for understanding why Thailand remains so inward-looking. For all his success playing power politics, he hasn’t articulated a vision for boosting the nation’s competitiveness in a world being transformed by geopolitical tensions, supply-chain disruption and new technologies like artificial intelligence.

“He’s good at organising and getting things done,” Mr Abhisit Vejjajiva, who became prime minister in 2008 after securing support from Mr Newin’s party, said in an interview in January. “But in terms of an overall picture of where he wants the country to go, you don’t really hear much of that, even during his time as a politician.”

Mr Newin declined to be interviewed through his representatives at Buriram United, and they separately didn’t respond to written requests for comment. Several senior Bhumjaithai Party officials, who asked not to be named because they’re not authorised to speak for Mr Newin, also said he’s not available to comment on politics as he has resigned from official political roles. 

Speaking at a campaign rally in Bangkok last week, Mr Chaichanok Chidchob – Mr Newin’s eldest son and secretary-general of Bhumjaithai – told Bloomberg that his father was “the power behind us” but quickly added that he doesn’t call all the shots.

“I’m not going to deny that he has influence on us, but it’s not an influence where everything he says goes,” Mr Chaichanok, 35, said of Mr Newin. “Even though a lot of the time we agree because his opinion is right and is smart, there are times where we disagree.”

Mr Newin’s family wealth stems from his father, Mr Chai Chidchob, who built his fortune by running a quarry and acquiring land. By combining deep local ties with a mastery of regional vote networks, the Chidchobs became part of what Thais often call baan yai, or big house – political families that effectively run key districts or provinces.

Not long after Mr Newin first became a lawmaker in 1988, he was hit with allegations of vote buying. In the mid-1990s, he became known as “Mr 120” after two canvassers were caught with 100- and 20-baht notes attached to his campaign card. They were eventually found guilty by the Supreme Court and given a one-year sentence.

Although never charged, the episode tarnished Mr Newin’s reputation, helping to spur other nicknames over the years. He was labelled a “cobra” for betraying political allies and a “Khmer wizard” for espousing superstitious beliefs. A US ambassador once called Mr Newin an “infamous dirty-trickster” in a classified cable.

As Thaksin rose in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, consolidating power throughout the poor and populous northeast, Mr Newin and his faction eventually joined the billionaire’s Thai Rak Thai party to avoid a head-on fight. But after Thaksin’s ouster in a 2006 military coup, and protests that saw royalist protesters seize Bangkok’s main airport, Mr Newin turned on his former ally. He threw his backing behind the traditionalist Abhisit, who sealed the new alliance by giving Mr Newin an embrace and a bouquet of imported roses.

Once Mr Newin was banned from politics in the wake of the coup, he retreated into a backroom operator – a role he appeared to relish. Unlike Thaksin, who regularly appeared in front of the cameras, Mr Newin is rarely seen outside Buriram. When he does speak publicly, it’s almost never about policy. Instead, he’s focused on building an intensely loyal fan base in his province while courting allies to support his interests and govern the country.

No relationship has been more important than with Mr Anutin, 59, who is also the son of a construction tycoon-turned-politician: Chavarat Charnvirakul, the founder of Bangkok-based construction firm now known as Stecon Group, which has built much of the capital’s subway system as well as government buildings such as the new parliament. Mr Anutin has focused on cultivating ties with conservative elites in Bangkok since taking control of Bhumjaithai in 2012, while Mr Newin supplies the provincial machinery to deliver lawmakers on election day.

“It’s a perfect match: one is in the forefront, the other behind the scenes,” said Mr Jatuporn Prompan, a former lawmaker who worked with Mr Newin when they were both part of Thaksin’s ruling party before the 2006 coup. “If Newin were to fight politically, he would be crushed. But by focusing on sports, you see how people’s perception of him has changed.”

“Is he the most influential person in the government? Yes, he is,” Mr Jatuporn added. “He just doesn’t show it.”

In recent years, Bhumjaithai was the main driver of a push to decriminalise cannabis, prompting thousands of shops selling marijuana to pop up around Thailand.

It has also taken a nationalist stance towards a border dispute with Cambodia, a move that has strengthened its ties with the military. Twice last year, Mr Newin opened up his Buriram racetrack as an evacuation site for thousands of people fleeing the border fighting.

Mr Sihasak Phuangketkeow, a seasoned diplomat who became Thailand’s foreign minister in September, was recently designated as the party’s second prime minister candidate after Mr Anutin going into the election. In an interview back in October, Mr Sihasak said Mr Newin took a hands-off approach when it came to navigating relations with the US, China and other nations.

“When I see him, it’s different from what I hear,” Mr Sihasak said. “He’s making sense of politics. Foreign policy – I think he’s going to leave it to the professionals.”

One major question is whether Bhumjaithai can obtain more broad-based appeal in the election next week. In 2023, it produced its best-ever performance with 71 seats, or roughly 14 per cent of the 500-member lower house. It’s aiming to expand that by consolidating support from pro-military voters while eating into the tally of the Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai and the pro-democracy People’s Party, giving it enough seats to lead a cobbled-together pro-royalist coalition.

Even if it fails to top them on election night, history is on the party’s side. Bhumjaithai has previously cooperated with both Pheu Thai and the People’s Party, and can potentially negotiate a key role in government while waiting in the wings for courts to eventually take action against those political groups – something that has happened after every election dating back to 2001.

One increasing advantage for Bhumjaithai is money. Whereas decades ago it was difficult to compete with Thaksin’s cash, now there is plenty of largesse to go around.

Mr Anutin has declared assets worth US$124 million, including three private jets, two speedboats and a luxury property in Bangkok. While Newin hasn’t issued a public wealth declaration for years, an analysis of five private companies with family members as shareholders shows a valuation of US$98 million wealth, calculated against company filings and a comparison with publicly-listed peers. Most of that is tied to K Motorsport, the Buriram football club and its affiliated hotel and e-sports units.

Bhumjaithai has also managed to control the Senate, which is indirectly elected and nominally nonpartisan, giving it increased sway over constitutional amendments and proposed legislation, as well as independent agencies that investigate politicians. That’s a crucial advantage in Thai politics, where a subjective ethical violation can oust a prime minister, as happened to former leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra in 2025.

The Chidchob clan faces its own share of legal troubles. The Election Commission and the Department of Special Investigation have opened probes into alleged collusion and interference in the Senate election, with nearly 230 people under scrutiny. Mr Anutin has insisted he played no role in the Senate election.

In 2024, the Constitutional Court found Mr Newin’s brother, Saksayam Chidchob, guilty of concealing assets while serving as transport minister and using a third party to hide ownership of a company that won government construction projects. The court’s decisions can’t be appealed, and Saksayam resigned as a lawmaker afterward. The family is also currently locked in a dispute over land in Buriram that is also claimed by the State Railway of Thailand, a matter that sits before the courts.

Mr Chaichanok, Mr Newin’s eldest son, said the family has done nothing wrong in the land case and views it as politically motivated. He also said Bhumjaithai denied any wrongdoing with the Senate election, and if any individual members are found responsible then they need to face justice.

In Buriram, support for Mr Newin and the Chidchob family runs deep. On a recent visit, residents spoke highly of a politician who would regularly settle the bills for every table before leaving a restaurant and whose donations have sustained the city’s main hospital.

At the Chang Arena, visitors flocked to buy jerseys of Buriram United. One of them, a 28-year-old fan who goes by the Thai nickname Ball, hailed Mr Newin for investing in the local football club and boosting the province’s economy. 

“Everyone, every family, every household wears Buriram United jerseys,” Ball said. “He makes us proud to be from Buriram.” Bloomberg