Thaksin encourages Prayut to live out House term, then go home for good

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

FORMER PRIME MINISTER Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday (Nov.8) encouraged Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to not dissolve the House of Representatives but to live out the four-year term of the legislative branch.

During a Care Clubhouse live podcast, Thaksin strongly advised Prayut to keep running the country until the end of the House’s four-year term in the upcoming March, then go home to stay with his family.

“Happiness is at home, not at Government House,” said the ex-premier, referring to the current one’s hard times running the country since the 2014 coup which he himself orchestrated as army chief.

Thaksin suggested Prayut give up on his whims to remain in power for two more years after the next general election and insisted that he leave the political arena for good. The current premier has been allowed by court to prolong his rule until 2025.

Thaksin’s comments apparently followed a sustained discrepancy between coalition partners which might possibly prompt Prayut to dissolve the House and call a general election.

That referred to the conflict between the second-largest Bhumjaithai Party and the third-largest coalition Democrat Party over free-marijuana legislation which the former has initiated and the latter has disagreed with.

Thaksin suggested Prayut follow in his footsteps simply by letting the House’s term fully completed by March though the former premier was subsequently reelected with a landslide victory for his Thai Rak Thai Party in 2005 only to be deposed by a coup in the following year.

Thaksin, invariably viewed as “owner” and de facto leader of the opposition Pheu Thai Party, a reincarnation of the dissolved Thai Rak Thai Party and the dissolved People’s Power Party, repeatedly insisted he return home from self-exile in Dubai sooner or later so that, he said, he could babysit his seven grandchildren.

CAPTION:

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, left, and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, right. Top photo: Matichon Weekly, Front Page photo: Matichon

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