Thaksin’s Heiress - 31st PM of Thailand
Thailand is set to have a new Prime Minister - less than one year after the general election.
On Thursday (15 August 2024), the coalition parties came to an agreement that Ms Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, would assume the position. Her premiership was sealed by a royal endorsement on Sunday, 18 August.
Paetongtarn is the second female prime minister of Thailand and the third from the direct line of the Shinawatra clan. She is also the youngest PM in the country’s history.
This major development came only one day after Mr Srettha Thavisin was ousted from office (Wednesday, 14 August 2024), making him the 4th PM to be dismissed by the Constitutional Court within 16 years.
Claiming the violation of the ethics, the ruling was a result of his decision to appoint Mr Pichit Chuenban, a former lawyer of Mr Thaksin Shinawatra who was involved in a bribery scandal in favour of the allegation against Thaksin’s land ownership. Srettha is known as a real estate developer tycoon, closely associated with Thaksin who was ousted in 2006 by the military coup.
While the premiership remains in the hands of Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai Party, this will put Thaksin back more closer to politics.
Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of former-PM Thaksin who was ousted by the coup d’etat in 2006. Thaksin finally returned from 17-year exile and eventually survived the jail sentence at the beginning of Srettha’s administration last year.
The recent dismissal of ex-PM Srettha may signal a crack in the royalist-military peace terms believed to be made with Thaksin.
A week before, the Move Forward Party was disbanded. Move Forward is a rising youth-led progressive party who won last year’s majority vote, but was blocked from forming a government by the previous junta-favoured Senate. The party swiftly regrouped as People’s Party.
Criticisms were sparked as many saw the verdicts as undermining the country’s democratic rule, and the supremacy of the judiciary - an invisible hand in Thai politics - over the executive and legislative arms of democracy. Some also sees this as a sign of warning to keep the royalist-military opponents in check.
Once again the Shinawatra political dynasty is put to the test. Businesses and individuals are hoping for an era of economic prosperity similar to the time during Thaksin’s administration 20 years ago.
It remains to be seen whether Srettha’s flagship projects and policies will be discontinued under Paetongtarn’s rule, such as reintroduction of the Gulf of Thailand-Andaman Economic Bridge (“Land Bridge”) linking the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, and the controversial THB 10,000 digital cash handout or “digital wallet”.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra is a business woman turned politician serving as the leader of Pheu Thai Party. She is the youngest daughter of the PM Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted by the 2006 coup d’etat, and a niece of Yingluck Shinawatra who was also removed by the Constitutional Court in 2014. Paetongtarn is the biggest shareholder of SC Asset Corporation, along with over 20 other companies valued over USD 2 billion.
During political rally for the recent 2023 general election, she vowed to break with the junta’s legacy. Pheu Thai Party nevertheless formed a coalition with junta-led Palang Pracharath and United Thai Nation parties disappointing many Pheu Thai fans. The Democrats, Pheu Thai’s long-term enemy, also agreed to join the coalition.
Prior to her premiership, she led the soft power policy leveraging Thai cultural assets to promote the social and economic prosperity, as well as to extend cultural diplomacy to other countries.
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