By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PRIME MINISTER SRETTHA Thavisin today (Feb.17) remained non-committal over the possibility that he could meet with de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole Thaksin Shinawatra for consultations over his running the country.
The Pheu Thai-endorsed prime minister sidestepped a reporter’s question as to whether he might probably manage to see his predecessor who is scheduled to be released on parole tomorrow and seek his helpful advice about anything.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole is largely expected to be visited by many of his partisan proteges anywhere at all, albeit in surreptitious, hush-hush fashion.
Srettha reaffirmed that he could possibly meet with any of his predecessors including the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole “where appropriate” in anticipation of knowledge and advice from them.
Srettha said he had earlier spent an hour holding an informal talk with former coup leader-turned-former prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and that he would not hesitate to see any of his predecessors for talks pertaining to various government affairs only if given the opportunity.
The prime minister who is paying an official visit to a few upper-northeastern provinces over the weekend declined to confirm or deny that the “sickly” Thaksin will be leaving Police Hospital upon parole scheduled to begin tomorrow.
Srettha, the former real estate mogul who had been quietly pushed to rise to power following last year’s election by Thaksin’s sister/deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, declined to comment whether he might possibly name Thaksin an adviser to him or his Pheu Thai-led government.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole who will likely return to his Chan Song Lah residence on the Thonburi side of Bangkok to stay alongside his daughter/Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra and his grandchildren is largely believed to keep Pheu Thai cabinet members under his control and manipulate things in behind-the-scenes manner, regardless of Srettha who was named prime minister on the same date of his homecoming from self-exile abroad last August.
Thaksin who had allegedly feigned “illnesses” to be granted contentious privileges of special medical care at Police Hospital in lieu of Bangkok Remand Prison had allegedly played a pivotal role in the setup of the Pheu Thai-led government and allocation of cabinet seats among coalition partners literally from his private ward at the hospital via a cellphone and his right-hand-man/Pheu Thai wheeler-dealer Phumtham Wechayachai.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the Office of the Attorney-General will proceed with a lese majeste lawsuit against the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole in court after he has spent half of his curtailed, one-year sentence at the hospital in lieu of the prison for a few counts of misconduct perpetrated during his previous premiership.
He had made verbal statements allegedly tantamount to lese majeste content during an interview with a news agency in South Korea to mark the first anniversary of the 2014 coup orchestrated by the then-army chief Prayut to oust his sister from power.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Both photos: Thai Rath
Insert: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Photo: Thai Rath
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