Nitiphumthanat Ming-rujiralai

Police Captain Dr. Nitiphumthanat Ming-rujiralai (Thai: ร.ต.อ.ดร.นิติภูมิธณัฐ มิ่งรุจิราลัย; born 5 June 1960) is a Thai politician and newspaper columnist.

Nitiphumthanat Ming-rujiralai is a Thai politician and a newspaper columnist. He was born on 5 June 1960 in Trat Province but brought up in Chantaburi Province. It is believed that in his ancestral line that there is one man from India and a woman from China. His great grandmother was a Chinese lady whose surname was, Li. 17 December 1990 - 15 September 2016 He was Nitipoom Navaratna (นิติภูมิ นวรัตน์).

Nitiphumthanat studied at Wat Sueng Lang School (Buddhist Temple School) in Khlung district, also at Sriharuthai Catholic School and Khlung Ratchadapisek School. He moved to Trattrakankhun School, Trat Province and to Benchamarachuthit School, Chantaburi Province. Nitphumthanat was a Rotary foundation youth exchange student at St. Arnaud High School (now known as St. Arnaud Secondary College) in rural Victoria, Australia. At that time he was accepted as a cadet at Portsea Officer Cadet School - every foreign cadet needed to have their orientation course at Royal Australian Air Force Base at Point Cook, Victoria. Someone from Thailand accused Nitiphumthanat of being involved with politics so he was deported back to Thailand.

Nitiphumthanat graduated bachelor's degree from the department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science, Ramkhamhaeng University, master's degree in Public Administration, Thammasat University and doctorate (Ph.D) in History from the Institute of Asian and African studies (ISSA), Moscow State University.

When he arrived back from Australia in 1982 (22 years of age) he established a Tutoring School named, Balance Tutor Moo, one of the most popular Tutor Schools at that time. From 1982-2012 there have been in excess of 100,000 students who have enrolled for courses. Nitiphumthanat is also the Director of Asian and African Studies at Assumption University of Thailand.

For over 15 years, Nitiphumthanat has been a columnist with Thai Rath newspaper, writing 2 columns per day, Monday to Friday. Thai Rath is the most popular newspaper in Thailand with an audited circulation of 1.4 million copies daily.

He is also owner and M.C.of Perd Lens Song Lok (Open Lens Look at the World) a documentary program of travels from over 100 countries that is broadcast on Channel 3. These documentaries have opened trade and investment in Thailand and have received many media awards.

2006 Nitiphumthanat ran for the Senatorial Election in Bangkok. He received the most votes amongst the candidates. Mr Samak Sundaravej, who later became Prime Minister of Thailand came in at 2nd rank. The former Speaker of the Parliament and other Ministers received less votes than Nitiphumthanat. Even though he received the highest number of votes in the Kingdom, he was unable to take up his position because of the 2006 army coup d'état. After the coup, Nitiphumthanat was appointed by the King, on the advice of the Council of National Security to the National Legislative Assembly (NLA). He served in many important positions in the Assembly.

2008 Nitiphumthanat was the Party Leader of the Suvarnabhumi Party for 1 year. When he resigned from the leadership, the Party stopped all activities.

2011 he was invited to join the Phue Thai Party and was elected as an M.P. During his term, he served as the First Deputy Chair on the House Committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment. Later he was elected by the House Members as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He served there until the Prime Minister, Ms.Yingluck Shinawatra, dissolved the Parliament on 9 December 2013.

January 2014, Nitiphumthanat ran for 'Bangkok Constituency 21' (Sapansoong District and a portion of Pravet Sub-district). The results on 2 February 2014 general election gave him a conclusive win over the other 7 candidates from various Parties. The Constitutional Court voided the elections for the whole country so he has been unable to take his place.

Nitiphumthanat and his 5 children

Nitiphumthanat has been married twice and divorced twice. He has 7 children.

1. Natipoom, 1980, B.A. in International Relations, Hawaii Pacific University, M.A. in European Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. He is a politician and a former Spokesperson for Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
2. Methavee, 1987, B.A. in Communication Arts, Bangkok University, M.A. in E-Marketing and Social Media, Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom. She is presently Managing Director of an International Social Media company based in Bangkok.
3. Nitinagin, 1988, B.Ec. in International Business for Emerging Markets, Utrecht University of Applied Science (Hogeschool Utrecht), The Netherlands. He is a Director of an international trading company based in Bangkok.
4. Phanwalai, 1990, studying at the Faculty of Law, Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand. She is a presenter in documentary film company based in Bangkok.
5. Thanswan, 1991, B.A., Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
6. Jattari, 1993, studying at University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Bangkok, Thailand.
7. Nodthaleudee, 1993, studying at Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand.

(Jattari and Nodthaleudee are twins)