Sondhi does it again
When I worked for Sondhi Limthongkul in the early 90s, everyone thought he was well on his way to becoming the Asian Rupert Murdoch. However, Sondhi’s media empire largely collapsed in the Asian economic downturn of the mid-90s, and it turned out that Asia’s Rupert Murdoch was … Rupert Murdoch.
But Sondhi’s place in history is more than secure now that he has, quite spectacularly, played a major role in the overthrow of not one, but two, prime ministers in his native Thailand. As Asia Times Online—the web-only spinoff of a newspaper Sondhi founded—put it today, “whether one is for him or against him, media mogul and anti-government protest leader Sondhi Limthongkul has indelibly changed the course of Thai history.”
Will Sondhi’s next step be to move from angry protest leader to conventional politician? “I’m not running for office, I’m not interested,” he told Asia Times, before adding that, if he was “invited and had the power to change things,” he’d be willing to work on a panel “to reform and supervise the country” as his “final act for the country.” Something tells me Sondhi’s real final act is likely to be a long way off.
