BANGKOK -- Is Thailand's prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra just an entrepreneurial businessman in a hurry, anxious to bring to the country the same benefits that he won in the telecom business, where he became a U.S.-dollar billionaire and very quickly, one of the world's richest 500 people? Or does he just love power so much that he will do anything to keep it?

Bangkok's newspapers and political circles were full of both claims in late May when the prime minister abruptly sacked the respected governor of the Bank of Thailand Chatu Mongol Sonakul. Supporters of Thaksin claimed that the central bank governor had to be removed because he did not support raising interest rates, which the government believes is a way of getting the economy moving. Chatu Mongol had fought fiercely for the independence of the central bank and had also clashed with the previous government of Chuan Leekpai.

Some critics of the governor said that his problem was that he was too outspoken. "He was an arrogant so and so -- a typical Finance Ministry bureaucrat," claimed one young official who approved of Thaksin's action. "The question of interest rates is interesting, but was not the key. The main issue was the bank governor's constant criticisms about the government policies. What chief executive of a country could tolerate the constant public criticism of his policies in which Chatu Mongol indulged. He had to go, since he was disruptive."