On 26 December 2004, the southern part of Thailand was hit hard by the Asian Tsunami triggered by an earthquake under the Indian Ocean. At that time, hundreds of seaside resorts were demolished and many tourists from around the world were among the 5,400 dead (BBC 2009). Thaksin employed his CEO management-style to handle the disaster in a more effective way when compared with the previous red-tape-laden Thai governments. Most Thai political scientists believed that this successful crisis management was one of the factors that brought victory to the TRT party in the general election for the second time (Richburg, 2005).