By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DE FACTO PHEU THAI BOSS Thaksin Shinawatra has been given sort of a lesson to not “overplay” his political powers behind the scenes, according to a former executive official of the largest ruling party.
Former National Security Council secretary-general Paradorn Pattanatabut, who had previously worked as an executive official of the Pheu Thai, commented that unnamed elements of the powers-that-be had virtually given the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole a lesson to not “overplay” his powers behind the scenes and to learn to never “cross the line” only to overlap with those of others, albeit in very discreet, clandestine fashion.
Paradorn apparently made his comments in the face of a fresh petition lodged by 40 senators for the Constitutional Court to consider impeaching Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, quietly pushed to power by Thaksin’s sister/deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, and former Prime Minister’s Office minister Pichit Chuenban, who has resigned under pressure today (May 21).
Pichit is a former lawyer whom the de facto Pheu Thai boss had allegedly manipulated to name as portfolioless minister in Apr. 30’s cabinet lineup.
If the impeachment-seeking petition is accepted by the Constitutional Court on upcoming Thursday, Srettha might probably be spared a court-ordered, immediate suspension of his official duties, otherwise pending a court ruling on it.
In the eye of the powers-that-be, Thaksin was held entirely accountable for the impeachment-inducing violation of the constitution and Code of Political Ethics allegedly perpetrated by the Pheu Thai-attached Srettha and Pichit, according to the former Pheu Thai executive official.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen on May 29 whether the Office of the Attorney-General will proceed with a long-delayed lese majeste lawsuit against the billionaire, politically powerful Thaksin or drop it.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss had allegedly mentioned the monarchy, tantamount to a verbal breach to the lese majeste law also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code, during his interview with a Seoul news agency in 2015, marking the first anniversary of the coup orchestrated by army chief-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to oust his sister Yingluck from power.
Thaksin had been allegedly instrumental behind the scenes in last year’s jaw-dropping setup of the Pheu Thai-led coalition government, allocation of cabinet portfolios among coalition partners and naming of Pheu Thai-attached cabinet members.
Paradorn confirmed that the de facto Pheu Thai boss had struck a “secret deal” with unnamed elements of the powers-that-be before he returned home from 17 years of self-exile abroad last August.
As part of the “secret deal”, Thaksin had never spent a single day behind bars to otherwise serve his curtailed, one-year jail sentence on misconduct charges perpetrated during his previous premiership. Instead, he had been given contentious, double-standard privileges at Police Hospital for medical treatment of his “illnesses”, the details and symptoms of which had remained a mystery to the public at the pretext of individual privacy of the patient.
Upon the end of a six-month period at the hospital, Thaksin was released on parole without an EM ankle bracelet and returned to his Chan Song Lah residence on the Thonburi side of the capital where he has allegedly continued to play pivotal part in the power play to the chagrin of the powers-that-be.
That the de facto Pheu Thai boss had received former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen as his first guest at home, managed to engage in unanticipated, informal talks in Chiang Mai with representatives of armed ethnic rebel groups fighting Myanmar government troops and held hush-hush talks on matters related to chronic unrest in southernmost Thailand with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in Phuket had been viewed more or less as purposeful challenge to the powers-that-be in addition to his behind-the-scenes juggling of cabinet portfolios among coalition partners and contentious naming of cabinet members.
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Top and Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Photos: Thai Rath
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