LYON, FRANCE – Interpol announced that ousted PM Thaksin Shinawtra has been disguising himself as a J-pop star, known to legions of teenage fans as “Takki Shinegra,” since July.
The international police agency says Thaksin, using the alias “Takki Shinegra,” joined the Japanese boy band Hey! Say! JUMP after bribing the band’s manager and overcoming misgivings from the nine other teen members that a 60-year-old was too old for the group.
But according to Interpol, the success of the boy band’s first single with Takki, “Red Hot Love,” made him an instantly popular member who was also a surprise hit among Hey! Say! JUMP’s female teen groupies. “Red Hot Love” reached number 3 on both the Thai and Korean pop charts in August.
Using the group as a cover, Thaksin was then able to travel throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe, performing sold-out shows at night and meeting opposition MPs, business contacts and world leaders during the day.
“When I first met Thaksin after a show in Seoul,” said an anonymous Pheu Thai MP who admitted the report was accurate, “I could barely recognize him with the spiky, gelled hair, the make-up, light blue track suit, and undershirt. It was brilliant.”
“We talked for hours about politics, his alliance with Hun Sen but also for a long time about music and the tour. He was working on a few songs,” the MP said.
When Takki Shinegra and Hey! Say! JUMP performed in Bangkok last month at Impact Arena, none of the thousands of Thais in attendance recognized their former PM, who reportedly signed autographs after the show and posed for cameras. Interpol believes Takki was able to use that appearance to smuggle millions of baht out of the country, concealed in wardrobes, guitar cases and other equipment. The agency also believes he met backstage with Red Shirt leaders who posed as a Hey! Say! JUMP fan club.
“Since his exile, Thaksin Shinawatra or Takki Shinegra or whatever he calls himself has become a master of disguise,” said Interpol. According to the agency, since 2007 Thaksin has traveled around the world using no fewer than 14 aliases, including “Tex Sheen” in the US, “Taal Shienweiss” in Israel, “Aksim Szchenewassad” in Egypt, “Toxeus Shinawapoulus” in Greece, and “Tocque Zinne J’ene Veauetreu” in France.
Police were still determining whether passport holders Thakslav Shinawatov from Russia, Thaksiano Shinawati from Italy and Dak Shinsson from Finland are also Thaksin aliases.
But it is as Takki Shinegra, J-Pop back-up singer and dancer, that the fugitive prime minister has pulled off his most brilliant ruse, completely fooling not only international police but music fans around the globe.
“I only worry the fame is going to head,” a Red Shirt leader told NottheNation. “He says Hey! Say! JUMP has changed his life and now sees music as a way out of this personal crisis. He insisted I call him Takki. He showed me some new lyrics and some new steps. He’s even thinking of going solo.”
