Srettha working on bringing Yingluck back home

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

PRIME MINISTER SRETTHA Thavisin is desperately looking for ways and means to help one of his predecessors, namely self-exiled Yingluck Shinawatra, come home sooner or later without being literally put behind bars, a noted political activist alleged today (Nov.20).

Students’ & People’s Network For Thailand Reform leader Pichit Chaimongkol posted on his Facebook page to allege that Srettha is definitely obliged to return favours to Yingluck by finding legal loopholes, among other means, to help with the planned homecoming of Yingluck following that of her “sickly” brother/de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra a few months earlier.

The “sickly” Thaksin came back from 17 years in self-exile abroad since he was deposed in the 2006 coup and barely spent half a day at a nursing unit in the premises of Bangkok Remand Prison before being transferred to Police Hospital for “illnesses” in the middle of the night of Aug.22, hours after Srettha had been named prime minister by lawmakers at parliament.

The “sickly” de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict had been earlier sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for a few counts of misconduct during his previous premiership. Given royal pardon, his jail sentence was already curtailed to only one year with the probability of his being released on parole as soon as next February.

Yingluck, ousted in the 2014 coup and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for convicted misconduct during her previous premiership pertaining to a scandalous rice price pledging project, has literally followed suit of her brother residing overseas and globetrotting. She is invariably speculated to also return home sooner or later now that Srettha, one of her personal associates whom she had quietly endorsed for elected premiership, has taken the helm of a Pheu Thai-led government, according to the anti-Thaksin activist.

Nevertheless, Pichit forecast a political crisis might possibly occur after Thaksin has been released on parole no matter whether his convict sister Yingluck could possibly return from self-exile abroad without being consequently sent to jail.

The activist commented that people might probably take to Bangkok streets in protest of the “sickly” de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict who, he said, has been practically staying above the law since he returned a few months ago and still managed to keep himself from jail.

The “sickly” Thaksin is invariably viewed by his critics as a Mr. Fix-It who manipulated the setup of the Pheu Thai-led government and allocation of cabinet portfolios literally from his private ward at Police Hospital, giving out orders via a cellphone to Pheu Thai wheeler-dealer Phumtham Wechayachai.

Pichit alleged that Thaksin has already planned to have his daughter/Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra named a deputy prime minister by early next year or after he has been released on parole.

Paetongtarn, who was among a trio of Pheu Thai candidates for prime minister contesting last May’s general election in addition to Pheu Thai MP Chaikasem Nitisiri and Srettha, is more or less speculated to finally become head of government succeeding the current one, given her father’s behind-the-scenes power, according to the activist.

CAPTIONS:

Top: Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra bidding her brother, also a former prime minister and current de facto Pheu Thai boss, Thaksin Shinawatra goodbye when he left Singapore for Bangkok on Aug. 22, 2023. Photo: Thai Rath

Insert: Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Photo: Thai Rath

Front Page: Former premiers Yingluck Shinawatra and Thaksin Shinawatra. Photo: Matichon

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