By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DE FACTO BHUMJAITHAI BOSS Newin Chidchob has categorically expressed his dissent to de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra’s sustained plan to promote casinos anywhere in Thailand, said a noted political critic over the weekend.
During a hush-hush talk between the de facto Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai bosses at the latter’s Chan Song Lah residence earlier this month, Thaksin’s casino project was raised for discussion, among other mega-projects, in apparent search of Newin’s solid support, according to Thanaporn Sriyakul, director of the Institute of Political & Policy Analyses.
The billionaire power player/father of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was desperately seeking a nod from the de facto Bhumjaithai boss over his quietly-hatched scheme to promote casinos, which are yet an illegal business in this country, to the extent that they be built in the premises of planned entertainment complexes at tourist spots in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya and elsewhere but Newin unambiguously disagreed to it, Thanaporn said.
Nevertheless, concerns have been largely raised to the extent that a casino, if ever legally opened anywhere in this country, could easily tempt prospective gamblers into eventually getting themselves in debt and immensely aggravate social and economic woes.
Thanaporn quoted an unnamed source as saying Newin would only lend his support for the planned construction of tourism-promoting entertainment complexes on condition that no casinos exist in the premises of those venues.
He suggested that Thaksin had better not do anything which might probably dissatisfy Newin, given the circumstances over which the de facto Bhumjaithai boss has appeared to hold the trump cards over the de facto Pheu Thai boss in power-bargaining talks.
Thaksin has been formally accused of playing his illicit, political roles by allegedly manipulating to dominate, mastermind and steer the rank and file of the largest ruling party, led by his daughter-turned-prime minister, as well as the leaders of all coalition partners, namely the Bhumjaithai, Palang Pracharath, Ruam Thai Sang Chart, Chart Thai Pattana and Prachachart.
In the wake of the multiple lawsuits filed to “independent” agencies, namely the Election Commission and Constitutional Court, against Thaksin and others in pursuit of a court-ordered dissolution of those ruling parties, the polling agency has recently set up an ad hoc committee to find out the truth about Thaksin’s illicit power play.
Allegations stated in those cases were primarily based on last August’s rare phenomenon in which the de facto Pheu Thai boss hosted a hush-hush meeting of those leaders of the current coalition partners at his house hours after former prime minister Srettha Thavisin had been immediately deposed of power by a split decision of the Constitutional Court on grounds of perpetrating a severe breach to political ethics.
The real estate tycoon-turned-prime minister had named Pichit Chuenban, a lawyer-turned-convict who had previously worked for the de facto Pheu Thai boss, a portfolioless minister in a cabinet lineup earlier this year.
Due to his having been earlier convicted by court as guilty of power abuse charges and thus sentenced to jail, albeit without literally being put behind bars for a single day, Thaksin is legally prohibited from engaging in political affairs at any levels, either in overt or surreptitious manner.
Meanwhile, the billionaire power player allegedly looked for ways and means to streamline a joint Thai-Cambodian development project on undersea natural gas and resources around Koh Koot islands in the Gulf of Thailand off Trat, a 99-year lease of condos for foreigners and a southern land bridge construction project, among others.
Shortly after Thaksin had been released on parole from Police Hospital where he had allegedly staged a fake-out as patient of “critical illnesses” for a six-month period, the de facto Pheu Thai boss received his first guest, former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen, at his Chan Song Lah house on the Thonburi side of the capital.
They were believed to have discussed the debatable, undersea development project around Koh Koot islands, part of which has been unilaterally claimed under Cambodia’s territorial sovereignty.
CAPTION:
Top: De facto Bhumjaithai boss Newin Chidchob with an image of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra inset. Photo: Sanook.com
Insert: Political critic Thanaporn Sriyakul. Photo: Thai Rath
Front Page: From left: Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, de facto Bhumjaithai boss Newin Chidchob and de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Photo: MNG Online
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