DE FACTO PHEU THAI boss Thaksin Shinawatra is currently encountering dilemma and conundrum whilst steering the Pheu Thai-led coalition government, albeit literally behind the scenes, due to unresolved, inter-party conflict and sustained legal battles which might probably last until the end of their four-year term in the next couple of years, according to partisan sources.
The billionaire power player who has literally found his way to retaining power by pulling the strings behind his youngest daughter/”puppet” Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra would undoubtedly not prefer keeping the Pheu Thai, core of the current coalition government, in virtual status as a strange bedfellow with the Bhumjaithai, the second largest coalition partner steered by de facto party boss Newin Chidchob, given the unresolved conflict of interest between both ruling parties.
Given circumstances under which as many as 140-plus out of a total 200 senators who invariably remain under tacit control of Newin have a final say to the naming of new members of varied “independent” agencies such as the Constitutional Court, National Anti-Corruption Commission and Election Commission, Thaksin has been desperately seeking ways and means to share the decisive powers on discreet, hush-hush basis with the senior lawmakers, most of whom have been accused of involvement in unprecedented electoral rigging, vote-buying, bloc-voting shenanigans in last year’s complicated, triple-tiered senatorial elections to the extent that all difficulties and predicaments of the legal battles besieging his daughter/”puppet” prime minister and himself in court be more or less delayed and alleviated, if not completely ridden of, according to the partisan sources.
The Supreme Court’s judges in charge of criminal lawsuits against persons in political positions are yet to determine whether Paetongtarn could probably be held accountable for allegedly neglecting her prime-ministerial duty and evident failure to see to it that no legal loopholes be applied to grant undue privileges to her father during his six-month stay at Police Hospital after he had returned from a 17-year, self-exile abroad in 2023.
Following last month’s censure debate solely held against Paetongtarn, legal action will be shortly proceeded against the “puppet” prime minister on power-abuse, duty-negligence charges pertaining to bones of contention such as a legal cover-up allegedly designed for her to evade 218 million baht in recipient tax in regard to promissory notes which she had issued to her mother, brother, sister and other close relatives in return for some 4.4 billion baht in value of corporate shares which she had obtained from them, the alleged irregularities over the issuance of a land title deed for a picturesque Khao Yai tourist resort for her previous possession in addition to the alleged fake-out staged by her father who had turned himself from a convict at large to a “critically sickening patient” and contentiously enjoyed the privileges granted him at Police Hospital in lieu of Bangkok Remand prison where he would have otherwise served a curtailed, one-year jail sentence for court-convicted, power-abuse charges perpetrated during his previous premiership a couple of decades ago.
Last but not least remains the sustained conflict between Thaksin and Newin over legislation to open casinos under the name of entertainment complexes in certain tourist spots for which the former has vigorously pushed and to which the latter has opposed as unambiguously expressed in the middle of the House chamber by his son/Bhumjaithai Secretary-General/MP Chaichanok Chidchob.
Though Thaksin who may understandably contemplate kicking Newin’s camp out of the coalition government simply because they are standing in his way, such attempts would probably fizzle out, forcing him to think twice as long as the unnamed powers-that-be who had quietly struck a secret deal with him to the extent that the de facto Pheu Thai boss, given a cellphone available in his private ward at the hospital, manipulate the jaw-dropping setup of the Pheu Thai-led government are concerned, according to the partisan sources. The renegade Thai Sang Thai MPs and probably the Palang Pracharath MPs could be realigned to join the Pheu Thai-led government and make a meagre majority of coalition lawmakers at parliament if the Bhumjaithai were ousted.
Nevertheless, in the eye of the super-elite/powers-that-be, the Bhumjaithai as well as the Ruam Thai Sang Chart, the third largest coalition partner under tacit dominance of de facto party boss/former coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, are undeniably deemed as ultra-conservative camps whilst the Pheu Thai is roughly viewed as a combination between neo-conservatism and liberalism as ultimately opposed to the reformist People’s, a resurrection of the court-dissolved Future Forward and Move Forward.
For that reason, both the Bhumjaithai and Ruam Thai Sang Chart where Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga concurrently act as party leaders only in name respectively are simply bound to remain in government no matter how embarrassed and displeased the de facto Pheu Thai boss could be.
That Thaksin would as well contemplate having his daughter/”puppet” prime minister dissolve the House of Representatives and call a general election in a 60-day period would be definitely out of the question, let alone the unlikely whims of forcing her to step down and hand over the helm of government to Newin’s protege, namely Anutin, who would look to openly butter up Paetongtarn every once in a while.
Neither the Pheu Thai nor the Bhumjaithai would be well-prepared to contest a general election at any given time later this year or early next for fear of the probability that the People’s might effortlessly score a sweeping victory for a handsome majority of MP seats nationwide.
Given Thaksin’s ultimate challenge of bringing his sister/fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra back home has not yet been over with, the de facto Pheu Thai boss would have to be more patient and tolerant to Newin’s camp which may act either deliberately or inadvertently as a thorn in the side of government.
“An effective way for Thaksin to bring Yingluck back home sooner or later is to make sure that the Pheu Thai remain in power, thus obliging himself to sail the coalition government through until then,” one partisan source put it.
Yingluck who had been convicted guilty of duty-negligence charges pertaining to a previous Pheu Thai government’s loss-ridden rice subsidy scheme and sentenced to five years in prison but had chosen to flee the country in 2017 and remained in self-exile since is more or less speculated to return without literally spending a single day behind bars as had been the case of her billionaire brother.
Given such an impasse in power play, the de facto Pheu Thai boss could not do anything other than literally buy his time to run the country simply by continuing to pull the strings behind his “puppet” prime minister until the shared term of the legislative and executive branches ends in 2027 and the possibility of a House dissolution would not become probable, let alone likely, until early that year.
CAPTIONS:
Top: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra.
First insert: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra with his daughter/Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in Chiang Mai during Songkran Festival.
Second insert: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra with de facto Bhumjaithai boss Newin Chidchob.
Third insert: Deputy Prime Minister/Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.
Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra speaking to reporters during Songkran Festival. All photos: Thai Rath
Also read: Analysis: Yingluck’s scot-free homecoming Thaksin’s ultimate challenge
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