BANGKOK: Now that she is Thailand's First Lady, Madam Yaowapa Wongsawat speaks demurely of taking on the role of a housewife.

But history shows her to be a major political player with a tough side.

Back when Thaksin Shinawatra, her elder brother, was prime minister, she flatly told a senior faction leader in the Thai Rak Thai party that he was old and should just let younger politicians work.

In those days, the wife of newly-minted Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was a Thai Rak Thai MP herself - and a leader of one of the party's most powerful factions, the Wang Bua Baan faction based in northern Thailand.

Thai Rak Thai has since been dissolved. She and many of its MPs were banned from politics, but more than 30 members of her faction are now in the ruling People Power Party (PPP) - a party often called a proxy for Thaksin.

As a gauge of her heft in the PPP, when rifts open between factions, Madam Yaowapa exerts her charisma to patch things up.

Just last month, 200 MPs were furiously demanding that then-premier Samak Sundaravej explain why the police were allowed to issue an arrest warrant against Thaksin and his wife, who had fled to avoid corruption charges.

Then Madam Yaowapa and her sister, Madam Yingluck, appeared at party headquarters.

It took leaders with Thaksin's blood to command respect from the MPs.

Mr Somchai, 61, a lifelong judge and civil servant who is a neophyte in politics, claims his wife's visit then had nothing to do with politics: She was just paying homage to the Buddha image there.

While there, Mr Somchai claims, she just chatted with the MPs, whom she knew from her days as a politician.

But Madam Yaowapa had other sources of power. She has been prominent in business, especially in telecommunication and property: There have been investigations into her family's businesses and her role in concealing Thaksin's shares in companies.

Thaksin once mentioned that, had Madam Yaowapa been his brother, she would have had held a ministerial post. It remains to be seen how this formidable housewife will affect Thailand's fortunes.

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