Senators to grill Pheu Thai-led govt over Thaksin’s ‘double-standard privileges’

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

SENATORS PLAN TO GRILL the coalition government over alleged double-standard privileges provided for de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole Thaksin Shinawatra, among other bones of contentions, on the upcoming Monday, sources said today (Mar 23).

In Monday’s censure debate on performance of the Pheu Thai-led government without a subsequent vote of confidence, dozens of senators all of whom will have completed their five-year term in the upcoming May, plan to take Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and members of cabinet to task over the alleged double-standard privileges which the authorities had evidently provided for the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole for a six-month period during his extended stay for mystery-shrouded “illnesses” at Police Hospital in lieu of Bangkok Remand Prison where he had been originally destined for a curtailed, one-year jail term on charges of misconduct perpetrated during his previous premiership.

Thaksin who had never spent a single day behind bars had been granted parole only to go places either with or without a soft splint around his neck despite his having been earlier officially reported as being “critically ill” during his six-month admission at the hospital.

In particular, the Corrections Department and executive officials of Police Hospital will likely be singled out as the authorities held accountable for the undue privileges allegedly unprovided for any ordinary convicts other than the politically powerful Thaksin who had earlier allegedly manipulated the setup of the Pheu Thai-led coalition government and allocation of cabinet portfolios among coalition partners literally from his private ward at the hospital via Pheu Thai wheeler-dealer Phumtham Wechayachai.

Meanwhile, the outgoing senators’ censure debate without a subsequent vote of confidence against the Pheu Thai-led government will touch on allegations that the Pheu Thai government might possibly look to compromise Thailand’s potential use of offshore natural resources in this country’s territorial waters in the Gulf of Thailand to contentiously share it with Cambodia.

Former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen appeared to be the first guest to visit the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole at the latter’s residence on the Thonburi side of the Thai capital a few days after he had been granted parole whereas Thaksin’s daughter/Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra recently held an informal meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Phnom Penh.

The senators will likely press the Pheu Thai-led government for commitment to implementing the ruling party’s flagship populist policy pledged during last year’s electoral campaigns by handing out the people nationwide a 10,000-baht digital wallet, among other economic recovery plans, the sources said.

A total of 99 senators, many of whom had earlier voted for the Pheu Thai-backed, former real estate mogul Srettha for head of government following last year’s election, had signed up to endorse Monday’s censure motion against the Pheu Thai-led government.

A total of 152 senators, most of whom being loyal to de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss/former prime minister/current privy councillor Prayut Chan-o-cha had earlier joined ranks with Pheu Thai-led alliance lawmakers to vote Srettha for prime minister.

However, it remains to be seen whether the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole might become “untouchable” during the senators’ censure debate as had been the case in a recent House debate on the 2024 budget bill during which a few Pheu Thai MPs had taken turns to interrupt verbal statements of a Palang Pracharath member of the Budget Committee to successfully keep him from involving the de facto Pheu Thai boss in floor debate.

Ruangkrai Leekitwatana was seeking in vain to cut the Revenue Department’sbudget by 45 million baht for the current fiscal year due to the agency’s failure to collect a corresponding amount of personal income tax from Thaksin when those Pheu Thai MPs most of whom being woman legislators immediately rose on their feet to protest.

Thaksin had been earlier virtually viewed as an “untouchable” patient at Police Hospital to whom House Committee on Police Affairs chair Chaichana Dejdecho had been categorically denied a brief visit.

The de facto Pheu Thai boss had allegedly reached a secret deal with the powers-that-be  to the extent that he return home from 17 years of self-exile abroad last August without being literally put behind bars.

He then manipulated to dump the Move Forward out of an alliance of parties following last year’s election and conjured up the jaw-dropping coalition between the Pheu Thai and pro-military, conservative camps under control of his former ultimate enemies, namely Palang Pracharath leader Prawit Wongsuwan and de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss Prayut who had overthrown an elected government under premiership of his sister Yingluck Shinawatra in the 2014 coup which he had staged as army chief.

CAPTION:

Senator Seri Suwanphanon, above, and Senator Somchai Sawaengkarn, Front Page, briefing the press about  Monday’s censure debate. Photos: Thai Rath

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