By Thai Newsroom Reporters
FORMER DEMOCRAT LEADER Chuan Leekpai was quietly threatened with an immediate ouster as partisan member if he made concrete moves to keep the country’s oldest party from joining the Pheu Thai-led coalition government, according to partisan sources.
Chuan, a former prime minister and currently a Democrat MP, had verbally raised strong objection to a long-awaited plan of the Democrats, headed by party leader Chalermchai Sri-on, to jump onto the Pheu Thai bandwagon and be given a couple of ministerial seats in a new cabinet lineup, speculated to be finished with decisive consent from de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra within this week.
All 25 Democrat MPs and members of the party’s executive board have yet to formally resolve as to whether to join the Pheu Thai-led government whilst Chuan has been sternly warned to not persuade others or make any moves which might probably lead to a revolt against an imminent partisan resolution which would almost certainly endorse Chalermchai’s plan to skip over from the opposition bloc to the coalition side otherwise the former Democrat leader could probably be ostracised and ousted for objecting to it, according to the partisan sources.
More or less inclined to agree to Chuan’s anti-coalition standpoint are former Democrat leader Jurin Laksanavisit and former deputy Democrat leader Banyat Bantattan.
Despite the former Democrat leader having been vehemently critical of the current one’s desperate attempts to join the Pheu Thai-led government, 21 out of the total 25 Democrat MPs, including the senior trio, will almost certainly support an imminent partisan resolution to meet the latter’s goal. Chalermchai had desperately attempted to join a previous Pheu Thai-led government under court-deposed prime minister Srettha Thavisin.
The pro-coalition Democrat MPs and executive members would not do anything against the former party leader if he merely expressed his personal viewpoints without practically persuading others into making anti-coalition moves, the partisan sources said.
If the rebellious Chuan was stripped of Democrat membership for whatever reason, he would be legally provided a 30-day period to register himself for membership of another party to keep his MP status intact.
Largely expected to be given ministerial seats in the new Pheu Thai-led cabinet under Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of the billionaire power player Thaksin, are Democrat secretary-general Det-it Khaothong and Chalermchai.
In another development, chances are very slim for Palang Pracharath secretary-general Thammanat Prompao to be named a minister in the Paetongtarn I cabinet due to his previous personal stigma, the partisan sources said.
Paetongtarn would definitely not take a risk by giving Thammanat a ministerial seat because he could probably otherwise prompt a fresh lawsuit to be filed against the woman prime minister, given the likelihood that he would be retroactively deemed as an unethical person who had been earlier arrested on drug-trafficking charges and sentenced to jail in Australia.
Srettha was immediately deprived by the Constitutional Court of his prime-ministerial status due to his having named a former lawyer-turned-convict, Pichit Chuenban, one of the ministers in a previous cabinet lineup, albeit allegedly under pressure from the de facto Pheu Thai boss.
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Top and Front Page: Former Democrat leader Chuan Leekpai. Photos: Thai Rath
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