By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A BAG OF GARBAGE was literally hurled at de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra whilst he was blatantly bragging about government plans and schemes for the purported betterment of Isaan constituents during his ruling party’s provincial electoral campaign in Maha Sarakham today (Jan.20).
A local woman villager, identified by nickname as Auntie Oun, threw the plastic bag containing some leftovers onto a makeshift platform barely a few metres from the face of the de facto Pheu Thai boss/father of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was delivering the heated campaign speech in Payakhapum Pisai district of the northeastern province.
A dozen Pheu Thai members surrounding the billionaire power player including the partisan contender running for head of the Maha Sarakham provincial administration scheduled for Feb.1 were literally taken aback by the unanticipated, harmless incident whilst police quickly rounded up the woman who had mingled with the crowd.
Thaksin told the police he would not press any charges against the little-known woman, a native of Wapee Pathum district, who had hurled the garbage at him.
Auntie Oun told the police she makes a living as a food vendor who used to be a Red Shirt activist and that she had been earlier promised by an unnamed canvasser to be given 200 baht in cash in exchange for her attending Thaksin’s campaign speech but had been eventually denied.
She said she had only been told after she arrived at the scene that more villagers had been recruited to show up than earlier anticipated and that no money was left for her.
Red Shirt activists, mostly Isaan constituents, had ostensibly engaged in political protests in support of Thaksin after he had been ousted as elected prime minister in the 2006 coup, fled the country and lived in self-exile overseas.
The pro-Thaksin, Red Shirt activism culminated in the May, 2010 massacre where nearly 100 of them were indiscriminately killed and hundreds of others seriously injured by government troops on Bangkok streets.
Many former Red Shirt activists had apparently felt betrayed by the de facto Pheu Thai boss after he had allegedly manipulated the jaw-dropping setup of a Pheu Thai-led coalition government by joining hands with coup junta-installed parties, namely the Palang Pracharath and Ruam Thai Sang Chart following the 2023 election, regardless of the fact that his fugitive sister Yingluck Shinawatra was deposed from elected premiership by the same coup junta in 2014.
CAPTION:
De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra giving a speech in Maha Sarakham today, Jan. 20, 2025. Photos: Thai Rath
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