A saying doing the rounds these days is that association with anything red could spell a rapid upswing of political fortunes.
Yaowapa: Heavy political influence
Behind Somchai Wongsawat, a man of power, stands his better half _ Yaowapa, for whom high public office is familiar territory.
It may not be far off the mark to say Ms Yaowapa is one of the very few who does not need a guided tour of Government House. First, her elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra became the only prime minister in Thai history to have been ousted in a military coup after having completed his four-year term in office.
A couple of years later in 2008, her husband Somchai was voted into parliament to assume the premiership, replacing the late Samak Sundaravej who lost his seat after the Constitution Court judged him guilty of conflict of interest after having made an appearance on a TV cooking show.
Now, her younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, has gone down in history as the country's first woman prime minister after the Pheu Thai Party garnered a majority of seats in parliament last year and took over the government.
Three of the people closest to her have enjoyed or are enjoying a stint as premier, not to mention members of the Wang Bua Barn faction she controls in the ruling Pheu Thai who have been assigned major portfolios in the cabinet and in government agencies. With the Wang Bua Barn camp's reported quiet political manoeuvring, Ms Yaowapa has slipped into stealth mode and a preferred life in the media's blind spot. But as her faction is one of the titans of the ruling party, it is never easy for its matriarch to escape the prying eyes of the media and scrutiny by its opponents.
Ms Yaowapa, nicknamed Daeng (red), has recently been identified with alleged efforts by elements in her faction to carve out a substantial slice of state funds during the scrutiny of the budget bill by a House committee.
The budget bill often involves a vicious fight for the largest share of the pie. It is also a test of the political prowess a political group can muster in augmenting portions of the central fund to be diverted to the constituencies of its standing MPs, according to political experts.
In many cases, developmental projects are earmarked for the constituencies, which in turn help push up the respective MPs' popularity at the next polls.
The experts say some veteran MPs have managed repeated re-election and tenaciously cling to their constituencies by winning the hearts and minds of voters after they successfully fend off cuts in the budget to get funds disbursed to the districts they represent.
However, the projects oiled by state funds, and which were put on the table for them by the MPs, raise eyebrows as well as trigger scandals when canvassers are awarded building contracts which help the party they work for secure a return to power.
For Ms Yaowapa, another Shinawatra in Government House may have brought her yet more good news. But it could also put her faction, seen as one of the core pillars of the ruling party, on the spot.
New GLO chief takes a gamble
One of the first tasks Attagrit Tharechat had in mind after taking the director's seat of the Government Lottery Office (GLO) was to give the rather dated lottery tickets a facelift.
The former head guard for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra is now supervising the country's cash-spinning treasure trove.
Attagrit: Big-ticket plans
He envisaged a redesign of the lottery tickets to add a fresher appeal in the hope of tapping into customers of neighbouring countries living and trading on the common border with Thailand.
Pol Maj Gen Attagrit wants the tickets to look modern with an ''international'' twist to cash in on the advent of the Asean Economic Community set for 2015. The lottery result in Thailand is announced every fortnight, in the middle and at the end of the month. This is less frequent than the national lottery in Laos which is drawn every week.
In Malaysia, the lottery results are released online, which is a far cry in terms of technological advancement in betting than in Thailand, which relies on paper tickets sold by vendors.
Appearance aside, the lottery in Thailand is appealing on the account of its first prize money of 4 million baht per pair of identical-numbered tickets.
Pol Maj Gen Attagrit said improvements include the addition of English descriptions of key labels on the tickets, which will also be printed with pictures of Thailand's landmark tourist attractions and well-known characters of Thai literature.
The new-look tickets are intended not only to expand the customer base but also increase the country's tourism attractiveness. Pol Maj Gen Attagrit feels the lottery tickets will not be discarded as they will be attractive enough as collectables.
The GLO is the goose that lays the golden egg for the government. It generates huge revenues each year and 28% of its profits from the sale of tickets are put into the national coffers.
Each ticket is priced at 80 baht and around 50 million tickets worth 4 billion baht are produced each round.
More than 10 billion baht from the lottery ticket sales go to the national budget annually.
The government also raises funds for charities through the special lottery draw. The proceeds are spent on the construction of new wards at state-run hospitals or medical centres.
The lottery tickets will look different and the new management at the GLO will also try to change people's perception of it.
The GLO wants to project the image of the lottery as a product which people will see as putting the money they spend toward a charitable cause, and also as a scheme that does not create debt problems for purchasers.
'Red' DSI man called unsuitable
The Department of Special Investigation may be swimming in precarious waters by probing the bloody street violence between the red shirts and the military in 2010.
A no-win outcome is expected from the probe given the fierce sensitivity and intense conflict that is generating deep social polarisation.
Prawet: Visited by red shirts
The issue has thrust the DSI into hostile territory, particularly after it assigned supervision of the case to its deputy chief Prawet Moolpramuk, who has pledged his allegiance to the red-shirt movement.
His assuming charge of the investigation was instantly met with indignation from some political quarters who rebuked the DSI for placing a person with a clear bias in charge of a case which demands absolute neutrality if it is to proceed with impartiality.
Some politicians say it is unhelpful for the department chief Tarit Pengdith to be seen trying to keep his distance from the case by delegating responsibility for the probe to his deputy.
The investigation team has been changed with officers from upcountry recruited to take part in the probe.
A source familiar with the issue said the DSI might have to justify its decision to appoint the officers, some of whom apparently have no knowledge, experience or connections with the violent incident, to the team.
Some investigators could get bogged down by the complexity of the incident which could easily touch off rows between opposing political groups.
The red shirts have persistently asserted the military fired on unarmed protesters during the political violence and that the force must face the music.
The army, however, insists the troops followed strict legal procedures in containing the protracted street protest in the middle of Bangkok and that the officers themselves were victims of weapon-wielding men in black.
Kok Wua intersection was a major battle ground between the red-shirt protesters who occupied Phan Fah bridge and were staving off the advance of military troops who were moving in to break up the protesters' stronghold.
Col Romklao Thuwatham, from the Prachin Buri-based 2nd Infantry Division, was killed in a grenade blast during an attempt by his unit to retake an area at the intersection.
Eye witnesses, including reporters, were called in to give statements to the investigators.
Pol Col Prawet rose through the police ranks after he had been roped in from the provincial police bureau to work in the DSI when it was a newly formed agency.
He worked alongside Col Thawee Sodsong, the former DSI chief and now director of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre.
Several red-shirt members recently paid a courtesy call on the DSI deputy chief to extend to him their moral support for his role in the investigation.
Pol Col Prawet told the group he has every intention of bringing the truth out into the open.
He said the red shirts had converged on the protest in good faith and never thought lives would be lost. He promised to deliver justice.
