By Thai Newsroom Reporters
MOST PEOPLE HAVE VIEWED de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole Thaksin Shinawatra as the most politically powerful person, says a NIDA Poll today (Mar. 3).
According to the opinion poll recently conducted among a total of 1,310 people from all walks of life in all regions of the country, 42.9% of the respondents say the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole is the most politically powerful person who has been allegedly pulling the strings behind the Pheu Thai-led coalition government in general and Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin in particular in behind-the-scenes fashion.
Thaksin who has been granted parole and quietly resides at his Chan Song Lah residence since late last month is more or less speculated to be visited by his party’s rank and file including cabinet members and MPs, among others, given the power play in which he has clandestinely taken part since he returned from self-exile abroad last August.
Literally from a private ward at Police Hospital where he had been given privileges of staying for mystery-shrouded “illnesses” for a six-month period to serve his curtailed, one-year sentence without spending a single day behind bars, the de facto Pheu Thai boss had allegedly manipulated the setup of the post-election government and allocation of cabinet portfolios among coalition partners simply by giving instructions via cellphone to his right-hand man/Pheu Thai wheeler-dealer Phumtham Wechayachai.
In the meantime, the NIDA Poll has found 21.9% of the respondents consider Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin as the most politically powerful person though he had been allegedly pushed to rise to power by Thaksin’s sister/deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The Pheu Thai-backed Srettha has allegedly practically had nothing to do with purely political activity such as the naming of cabinet members or reshuffling of his cabinet – the chores orchestrated in hush-hush fashion by the de facto Pheu Thai boss. Not a single member of the Srettha cabinet was known to have been picked by the prime minister.
The opinion poll has found 17.4% of the respondents view former Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat as the most politically powerful person whose first-time attempt to rise to elected premiership had been overwhelmingly aborted by a Pheu Thai-led alliance of parties and coup junta-named senators.
Thaksin had allegedly managed to keep Pita at bay under a secret deal which he had earlier made with the powers-that-be, referring in part to former coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the de facto boss of the ultra-conservative Ruam Thai Sang Chart which has become one of the current coalition partners.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss had been accredited for his ability to bring two extreme ends of Thailand’s political polarisation together and set up the Pheu Thai-led coalition government under the compromise-based, interest-sharing deal.
The poll has found 15.1% of the respondents considering Prayut as yet the most politically powerful person though he currently acts as a privy councillor following nine years of his post-coup rule until last year’s election.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Top photo: VOA, Front Page photo: BBC
First insert: Prime Minister Sretha Thavisin. Photo: Thai Rath
Second insert: Former Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat. Photo: Thai Rath
Also read: Cabinet reshuffle only depends on Thaksin, not Srettha
Anand to Srettha: Don’t forget Bangkok’s slums
Patcharawat grilled over repeated absence from weekly House meeting
Tourism tops agenda of Prime Minister’s Feb. 27-29 visit to the South
China repatriates hundreds of scam factory workers from Myanmar
Foreign man throws glass at a Thai woman in a dog cafe
Swiss man,Thai wife apologise for assaulting female doctor
