By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PRIME MINISTER SRETTHA Thavisin today (Feb 26) shrugged off criticism that de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole Thaksin Shinawatra would quietly play a pivotal role in a future reshuffle of cabinet members.
The prime minister categorically dismissed speculation that a cabinet reshuffle might probably be looming under the influence of the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole to whom he paid an informal visit on Saturday.
Srettha, viewed as a protege pushed to the elected premiership by Thaksin’s sister/deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra following last year’s election, persisted that only he himself and nobody else be entirely responsible for a possible reshuffle of the Pheu Thai-led cabinet at any time.
The Pheu Thai-backed Srettha was responding to criticism that Thailand is virtually simultaneously run by two prime ministers with the other one being Thaksin who had been deposed from premiership in the 2006 coup, resided in self-exile abroad and returned home last August to literally serve half of his curtailed, one-year sentence for court-convicted misconduct at a hospital in lieu of a prison under a lame excuse of “critical illnesses” the symptoms and details of which remain a mystery to the public.
Thaksin had allegedly manipulated the post-election setup of a Pheu Thai-led coalition government and allocated cabinet portfolios among coalition partners literally from a private ward at Police Hospital giving instructions via cellphone to his right-hand man/Pheu Thai wheeler/dealer Phumtham Wechayachai.
Meanwhile, the prime minister advised members of his cabinet, especially those attached to the ruling Pheu Thai, to take liberty to follow in his footsteps by visiting the “sickly” Thaksin with soft splints around his neck and right arm at his Chan Song Lah residence on the Thonburi side of the capital.
Srettha said Thaksin is a former boss of those cabinet members who may feel free to visit him since they have missed him so much for more than 10 years.
The real estate mogul-turned-prime minister maintained that he invariably views all his predecessors as respectable persons who, he said, could probably give him some advice pertaining to the running of the country, given their knowledge and experience.
For instance, he cited former coup leader-turned-prime minister/de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss Prayut Chan-o-cha and the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole with whom he had separately held tete-a-tete talks for over an hour.
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Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: Matichon
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