By Out-Crowd
A WORKING RELATIONSHIP between former prime minister/current de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra and unnamed elements of the old-time powers-that-be virtually showcases mutual slaps and kisses every once in a while as long as the strange bedfellows share the same enemy – the Move Forward.
Since the polarised politics unexpectedly ground to a halt overnight with the populist Thaksin and ultra-conservative “uncles”, namely former prime minister/de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss Prayut “Uncle Tu” Chan-o-cha and former deputy prime minister/current Palang Pracharath leader Prawit “Uncle Pom” Wongsuwan, virtually becoming strange bedfellows who shared an unwavering, ultimate intent to dump the Move Forward out of last year’s Pheu Thai-led alliance, the slap-and-kiss, bittersweet relationship between the current coalition partners has capriciously prevailed over the political landscape, according to political observers personally connected with partisan sources.
For starters, Thaksin who had returned home from 17 years of self-exile abroad last August had never literally spent a single day behind bars to otherwise serve a royal pardon-curtailed, one-year jail sentence for convicted counts of power abuse perpetrated during his previous premiership.
The existing judicial and correctional systems had been allegedly ostensibly flouted by the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict at large whilst legal loopholes had been shrewdly used in his favour and easy access to double-standard privileges had been granted for him at Police Hospital where he had supposedly stayed for medical treatment of his mystery-shrouded, “critical illnesses” for six months until he was granted parole earlier this year.
“In his private ward at the hospital, Thaksin had been given the role of a kingmaker who had not only manipulated to set up the jaw-dropping Pheu Thai-led coalition by double-crossing and dumping the Move Forward and joining ranks with the parties earlier viewed as his political arch-enemies but allocated cabinet portfolios among coalition partners and named Pheu Thai-attached members of cabinet. Of course, all those shenanigans played out the way the old-time politicians would play,” one political observer put it.
The ultra-conservative powers-that-be who had been allegedly closely associated with coup juntas since nearly the last couple of decades found Thaksin to be the right choice vested with political power, wealth and potential to effectually counter the reformist Move Forward whilst Srettha Thavisin exists as prime minister in name only with all major government policies and high-level government mechanisms being practically steered by the de facto Pheu Thai boss, albeit in behind-the-scenes fashion.
Representing the powers-that-be one way or another inside the House of Representatives as well as outside are elected MPs attached to “camps of the uncles”, both of whom had been largely defeated by the Move Forward under previous partisan leadership of Pita Limjaroenrat in last year’s general election.
Given such electoral upsets, the old-time power-that-be desperately needed help from the de facto Pheu Thai boss in keeping the Move Forward from being part of government, let alone taking helm of it as the largest elected party.
Though the Move Forward might possibly be dissolved by a majority of nine politically-minded judges of the Constitutional Court on questionable grounds of attempting to undermine rule of the country by openly pushing for amendment to the lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code, with the party’s former executive board members including Pita and current party leader Chaithawat Tulathon, among others, being immediately deprived of their MP status and legally prohibited from assuming any political positions for a number of years, most of the total 148 Move Forward MPs would effortlessly find and join a brand new party within a 60-day time provided by law with their political ideologies, partisan strategies and reformist campaigns being likely to remain unchanged.
Nevertheless, the de facto Pheu Thai boss would still be needed by the old-time powers-that-be who undeniably fear change at the hands of the young reformists who had won most MP seats in last year’s election under the banners of the Move Forward.
That said, the billionaire Thaksin will likely be saved from a lese majeste lawsuit under which he is scheduled for the upcoming Tuesday to be brought before the Criminal Court by the Office of the Attorney-General to formally hear relevant charges.
“To say the least, Thaksin cannot be denied release on bail after the hearing in court that day. He simply cannot afford to be detained behind bars for a single day as evidently had been the case after he had returned from abroad. Apart from a free Thaksin, who else could fight against the Move Forward when it comes to the power-wrestling among politicians or personal and partisan popularity among constituents nationwide?,” another political observer put it.
In the meantime, hush-hush lobbying has been attempted to have the OAG make sort of an aboutface and delay the proceedings of the lese majeste case against the billionaire, powerful Thaksin in court for the longest possible from the upcoming Tuesday, given his latest excuse that police investigators handling the case had worked under threats from the 2014 coup junta headed by the former army chief-turned-prime minister Prayut.
Thaksin would undoubtedly manipulate to see to it that even if he was brought to hear of the draconian lese majeste charges before the Criminal Court that day, he would be released on bail immediately afterward.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss who had been accused of involving the paramountly revered monarchy in the 2006 coup which ousted him from power during an interview with a news agency in Seoul nearly a decade later categorically dismissed the allegations as “utterly groundless.”
Meanwhile, it is up to anyone’s guess as to whether the Pheu Thai-attached Srettha, quietly pushed to elected premiership by Thaksin’s fugitive sister/deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, will be as well saved from an impeachment lawsuit lodged by 40 senators, known to be personally loyal either to Prayut or Prawit.
The Constitutional Court is scheduled for the upcoming Tuesday, the same day as for Thaksin’s case in the Criminal Court, to handle the impeachment case against the besieged Srettha with the possibility that the judges could reconsider whether he may be eventually suspended from performing his prime-ministerial duties and ordering an immediate effect.
Srettha, who had been earlier barely spared the court-ordered freeze, would be legally barred from addressing the House on the 2025 budget legislation scheduled for the upcoming Wednesday if he was eventually suspended from performing his duties by court a day earlier.
If finally found guilty and impeached by court, the Pheu Thai-attached prime minister could possibly be deprived of his status as head of government in immediate fashion.
Srettha had been accused of severely breaching the coup junta-designed constitution and code of political ethics by naming Thaksin’s notorious former lawyer Pichit Chuenban a minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office in the latest cabinet lineup.
Though Pichit who had been handed a six-month jail sentence for an attempted payoff and contempt of the Supreme Court, thus carrying a permanent stigma of an evident professional dishonesty, had already called it quits as the portfolioless minister, the impeachment-seeking senators considered the contentious act on the part of the prime minister as a fait accompli, allegedly perpetrated at the order from the de facto Pheu Thai boss.
Given the phenomenon in which Srettha is invariably viewed by many people as a “puppet” prime minister, a possible court order to temporarily stop his literally running around the country could probably be sort of a lesson to the man who is virtually pulling the strings.
CAPTIONS:
Top: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, left, and de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss Prayut Chan-o-cha. Photo: Thai Rath
First insert: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, left, and Palang Pracharath leader Prawit Wongsuwan. Photo: Thai Rath
Second insert: Move Forward’s victory parade in Nonthaburi. Photo: Thai Rath
Third insert: Move Forward followers. Photo: Thai Rath
Front Page from left: De facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss Prayut Chan-o-cha , de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra and Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Photo: MNG Online.
Also read: Thammanat shrugs off strained ties between Pheu Thai and Palang Pracharath
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Court proceedings on lese majeste case against Thaksin might be put off again
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Army falls behind in drone deployment along Thai-Myanmar border
A lot of movement at pier before 3 oil-smuggling boats disappeared
