After a long and distinguished career, Lampang veteran politician Boonchu Trithong has decided to part ways with politics to focus on an area he thinks matters most for national progress - education.
Lampang veteran politician Boonchu Trithong stands at the entrance to Thammasat University’s Lampang campus. The land on which the campus sits was donated by the former MP.
A former Thai Rak Thai Party MP for Lampang, and one of the party's 111 executive members banned from politics soon after the 2006 coup, Mr Boonchu has made it clear he will not re-enter the public sphere after serving out the ban.
The 111 former Thai Rak Thai executives were banned from participating in politics for five years when their party was disbanded as a result of electoral fraud.
Since the ban ended, Mr Boonchu has maintained a low profile in politics and has spent his time concentrating on his businesses, charity and educational activities.
Recently, Mr Boonchu signed an agreement with Thammasat University's Lampang campus to pledge further financial support to the university.
In the past, Mr Boonchu donated a 364-rai plot of land as well as money to the university for buildings such as student dormitories and other facilities.
He has also provided scholarships to support the education of needy local students.
The former politician spends his free time at the campus’s technologically advanced library. PHOTOS BY TAWATCHAI KEMGUMNERD
Mr Boonchu said as one of the country's leading universities, Thammasat should have a solid campus located closer to local students in the North so that they can have an opportunity to pursue quality higher education without the need to relocate a long distance to Bangkok.
"I have divided up all of my money, leaving 25% for the expenses of my family and myself, another 25% for business investment and 25% to support education and creating human resources," Mr Boonchu said.
Born into a family of ethnic Shan ancestry in Mae Hong Son, Mr Boonchu said his boyhood was full of hardship.
His parents were hawkers selling various goods. Sometimes his father would be away for many days buying goods elsewhere. The money he left for the family was sometimes not enough to buy food.
"There were coconut trees in front of the house. I was seven to eight years old then. I had to ask some grown-up people nearby to climb up the trees and pick coconuts for us, which we then took to the local market to sell," Mr Boonchu recalled.
He realised that education was key to overcoming his impoverishment, so he became keen on learning and reading while struggling to make a living.
He managed to study at a provincial school in Lampang on a scholarship and went on to win another scholarship to study at the Suan Sunandha Teacher's College, now renamed the Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
Then he pursued and obtained his bachelor's degree in physics at Srinakharinwirot University.
His first success in business started with his dealing in communications gear with the armed forces, followed by trading in logs and processed wood.
Mr Boonchu was among the first people to embrace communications technology in Thailand.
It took him almost 20 years to establish himself as a successful businessman in the communications technology sector. Whenever he could get away from his busy work schedule, he would return to his home province of Mae Hong Son and take part in projects to build schools, temples and libraries as well as give scholarships to students.
"I was given an opportunity for an education. Without the scholarships, I would have been unable to get to where I am today," he said.
Mr Boonchu talks with Thammasat University rector Somkit Lertpaithoon.
In 1992, Mr Boonchu made his first foray into politics. He was approached by New Aspiration Party leader Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh to join the party.
He said he spent almost two weeks contemplating the offer before deciding to contest a House seat in Lampang under the party's banner that year.
At the time, Lampang was dominated by several prominent politicians such as Boontheng Thongsawat, Sa-ard Piyawan, Pinit Chantharasuwan and Phairote Lohsoonthorn.
However, his hard work in the election campaign paid off. Mr Boonchu, then a 43-year-old political greenhorn, won a House seat in the province with the second-highest number of votes in the country, second only to Chart Thai Party leader Banharn Silpa-archa in Suphan Buri.
Mr Boonchu later joined the Chart Thai Party and then the Thai Rak Thai Party led by Thaksin Shinawatra.
Mr Boonchu has held many important ministerial positions, including minister of university affairs and deputy finance minister.
During his tenure as university affairs minister, Mr Boonchu said he worked with academics to lay educational foundations.
He said the seeds he has sown have now begun to bear fruit - the student loan project and a student exchange programme among them.
"If we want to catch up with other countries and to develop Thailand, improving the quality of the people is key, and education is the most important thing we must invest in," he said.
He stressed the importance of expanding education to the provinces and raising the standards of educational institutes in each region of the country to be on a par with those in Bangkok and overseas.
On July 8, 1996, the Thammasat University Council resolved to establish a Lampang campus to expand educational opportunities to students in the North.
Initially, the Lampang campus did not have its own building, so classes were conducted inside the Lampang provincial hall.
To support the university's further advances in education, Mr Boonchu donated 364 rai in Hang Chat district of Lampang as well as giving more than 62 million baht to build the campus's first building.
Construction began in 2000, with the foundation stone-laying ceremony presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. Construction was completed in 2002.
The university received royal permission to name the Lampang campus's first building "Sirindhararat".
The university's Lampang campus now teaches law, social administration and fine and applied arts. It has also opened a college of interdisciplinary studies.
The university also plans to erect another building at a cost of 150 million baht and Mr Boonchu has donated 100 million baht to the project, Thammasat rector Somkid Lertphaithoon said.
Mr Boonchu said he wanted to push for Lampang to become an education centre in the upper North so that underprivileged children can have access to higher education.
Mr Boonchu insists he will not return to politics and will continue to devote himself to education.
"I want to work for education and human development all through this life and in every next life," he said.
A ceremony was held at the university early last month in which Mr Boonchu pledged financial support for the construction of a new building at the campus.
Students are busy searching for information using the university’s modern facilities available at the library.
Mr Boonchu sits outside the campus’s main building.