Career
From 2002 to 2005, he was Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. Consequently, a Democrat Party led coalition gained the majority in the National Assembly. Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Democrat Party"s leader, was elected by a majority of the Parliament to be the new prime minister in December 2008.
During the political tension in April 2009 caused by pro-Thaksin groups widely known as the Red Shirts, Newin publicly blasted Thaksin, his former "boss", as the root of the political tension due to his "doubts" of Thaksin"s loyalty towards the monarchy and the current political system of the kingdom.
Previously in 2008, Newin had wept with Thaksin when the former Prime Minister kissed the tarmac at Suvarnabhumi airport after returning to Thailand after a self-imposed exile. He comes from a Thai Khmer family.
Many of his ancestors were elephant drivers (mahouts). On 19 June 1998, the Buriram Provincial Court handed Newin a suspended six-month jail sentence and a ฿50,000 fine in a vote-buying slander case filed by Democrat Member of Parliament Karun Sai-ngam.
A year later, the Constitutional Court ruled 7-6 that Newin could keep his ministerial post.
Newin was acquitted in 2009 of involvement in the rubber sapling scandal for bid rigging, corruption and collusion. In December 2009, it was announced Newin take over PEA F.C. and rename in Buriram PEA F.C until 2012 to rename again Buriram United F.C.