In the autobiography published as part of his political campaign in 1999, Thaksin presents himself as a "backwoods kid" with a tough childhood (Thaksin 1999). This was a partial truth. By the time of Thaksin's birth on 26 July 1949, the Shinawatra clan was both well off and well connected. His uncle would shortly become a municipal councilor; his father would be a Chiang Mai MP; and another uncle would be an MP and deputy minister. One fifth of the book Pioneers of Chiang Mai is devoted to the Shinawatra clan. Yet it was true that the fortunes of Thaksin's immediate family were rather wayward. Thaksin's father, Bunloet sae Khu, later known as Loet Shinawatra, was born in 1919. He studied secondary school at Yupharat College in Chiang Mai and entered Thammasat University, but left after one term because the family wanted him in the business. He followed the pattern of his father and grandfather by marrying a local girl, Yindi from Sansai. But Yindi does not seem to have shown the same business affinity and migrant spirit as her predecessors, and scarcely appears in the accounts of the family by Thaksin or his biographers. Loet's younger brother, Sujet, completed engineering at Chulalongkorn University and returned to Chiang Mai to become a construction contractor. He recruited Loet to help him Their main business was a government concession-erecting poles for electricity lines.