Anutin Charnvirakul ( th, อนุทิน ชาญวีรกูล, ; born 13 September 1966 in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

) is a Thai politician. , he is a Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand and is also the

Minister of Public Health The Minister for Public Health and Women's Health is a junior ministerial post in the Scottish Government. The minister is not a member of the Scottish Cabinet, however, they report to the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care. ...

. Notably, he is the prominent public figure in charge of managing the

COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand The COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Thailand was the first country to report a case outside China, on 13 January ...

Early life and family

Nicknamed ''Noo'' ( th, หนู; literally:

Rattus ''Rattus'' is a genus of muroid rodents, all typically called rats. However, the term rat can also be applied to rodent species outside of this genus. Species and description The best-known ''Rattus'' species are the black rat (''R. rattus'') ...

), Anutin is the son of Chavarat Charnvirakul, former Minister of the Interior in the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva. He was first married to Satannuch Charnvirakul and has two children. His second marriage is to Sasitorn Charnvirakul. Anutin completed secondary education at Assumption College and higher education in engineering from Hofstra University in 1989. Anuthin is heir to a major construction company fortune. His family's company, Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction PCL, built several government mega-projects such as Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. An engineer, Anuthin served as president of Sino-Thai. He has over the years been a member of many political parties such as the National Development Party,

Thai Rak Thai Party The Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT; th, พรรคไทยรักไทย, , ; "Thais Love Thais Party") was a Thai political party founded in 1998. From 2001 to 2006, it was the ruling party under its founder, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawat ...

and as leader of the

Bhumjaithai Party Bhumjaithai Party (BJT; th, พรรคภูมิใจไทย, , ; 'Thai Pride Party') was founded on 5 November 2008, in anticipation of the 2 December 2008 Constitutional Court of Thailand ruling that dissolved its "de facto predecessor ...

Political career

In 1996, he entered politics by becoming adviser to Prachuap Chaiyasan (the Minister of Foreign Affairs) and served as Deputy Minister of Public Health from 2004 to 2005 and Deputy Minister of Commerce in 2004. He was then banned from political office for five years due to his membership of the

. Anutin then joined the Bhumjaithai Party in 2012 after the expiration of the ban and was elected as the leader of the Bhumjaithai Party on 14 October 2012. In the 2019 Thai general election, he was the Bhumjaithai Party's candidate for prime minister. Anutin has been a leading proponent of

medical marijuana Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions ...

. On May 8, he said his ministry would give away 1 million cannabis plants in June 2022 to Thai households for license-free cultivation.

Controversy

During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, Anutin made a series of derogatory comments disparaging foreigners.https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2020/03/13/minister-anutin-white-western-foreigners-tourists-public-face-masks/ Anutin wrote on a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account, "...all you see are ''farangs'' ('Westerners'). They flee their own countries for the safety of Thailand. In Chiang Mai, 90% of Thais are wearing face masks, although none of the ''farangs'' are wearing masks." He went on to add, "This is the reason our country is being infected y the SARS-CoV-2 virus We should be more careful of the ''farang'' than other Asians. At the moment it is winter in Europe and ''farang'' come to Thailand to hide from the ovid-19disease. Many ''farang'' dress dirtily and don't shower. All haihosts have to be very careful." Following a negative public reaction to Anutin's outburst, the Twitter account was deleted, after attracting hundreds of comments across various media platforms, criticizing his ill-considered remarks, with some commentators pointing out that Thailand did not appreciate the contribution made to its economy by foreign tourism. Pressed on the matter, Anutin later claimed that he did not know who the Twitter account belonged to and that he did not post the comments, although he later apologised for them. The Thai language news website ''Khaosod'' covered the incident in detail, showing a portion of the original comments before the Twitter account was deleted. A month prior to his March outburst, in February 2020, Anutin was criticised for remarking that foreigners should be kicked out of Thailand when he saw some who were not wearing face masks at an event at the

Siam BTS station Siam station (, , ) is the cross-platform interchange station for the BTS Skytrain in Pathum Wan district, Bangkok, Thailand. It is the largest and busiest station on the BTS with 40,000–50,000 passengers per day, where passengers on the Sukhu ...

in Bangkok. Later, hearing advice from the

US Surgeon General The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. ...

, Dr

Jerome Adams Jerome Michael Adams (born September 22, 1974) is an American anesthesiologist and a former vice admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who served as the 20th surgeon general of the United States from September 5, 2017 un ...

, that the wearing of masks was unnecessary for the uninfected, Anutin changed his opinion.

Royal decorations

Anutin has received the following royal decorations in the

Honours System An order is a visible honour awarded by a sovereign state, monarch, dynastic house or organisation to a person, typically in recognition of individual merit, that often comes with distinctive insignia such as collars, medals, badges, and sashes ...

of Thailand: * Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of The Most Noble

Order of the Crown of Thailand The Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand ( th, เครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์อันมีเกียรติยศยิ่งมงกุฎไทย; ) is a Thai order, established in 1869 by King Rama ...

* Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of the Most Exalted

Order of the White Elephant __NOTOC__ The Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant ( th, เครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์อันเป็นที่เชิดชูยิ่งช้างเผือก; ) is an order of Thailand. It wa ...

ราชกิจจานุเบกษ�
ประกาศสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี เรื่อง พระราชทานเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์ (ชั้นต่ำกว่าสายสะพาย ชั้นสายสะพาย สมาชิกวุฒิสภา เนื่องในวโรกาสพระราชพิธีเฉลิมพระชนมพรรษา วันที่ ๕ ธันวาคม ๒๕๓๗)
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charnvirakul, Anutin 1966 births Anutin Charnvirakul Anutin Charnvirakul Anutin Charnvirakul Anutin Charnvirakul Living people Anutin Charnvirakul Anutin Charnvirakul Anutin Charnvirakul Anutin Charnvirakul Cantonese people Anutin Charnvirakul Anutin Charnvirakul