By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DE FACTO PHEU THAI BOSS Thaksin Shinawatra has been accused of seeking to take personal revenge on military commanders by beginning with the naming his right-hand man Phumtham Wechayachai for defence minister, according to a retired army general.
Paradorn Pattanathabutr, former secretary-general of the National Security Council who was previously personally associated with Thaksin, alleged that the billionaire power player might probably have a hidden agenda behind the naming of Phumtham for deputy prime minister-cum-defence minister, given his personal woes and grudges sustained over the last couple of decades with certain members of the top brass to blame.
Thaksin was deposed of elected premiership in the 2006 coup staged by the then-army chief Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, followed by the 2014 coup orchestrated by the then-army chief-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to oust his sister/fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Thaksin’s time of personal revenge may now come around with the hidden agenda in the naming of former communist insurgent Phumtham for defence minister, Paradorn said.
The naming of Thaksin’s right-hand man for defence minister has exponentially raised waves of protest and anguish, albeit to no avail, among military officers, mostly retired, particularly those who had previously fought against the now-defunct Communist Party of Thailand in the provinces’ remote areas during the Cold War era, given the fact that Phumtham used to be one of the communist insurgents.
With the use of his entrusted right-hand man as civilian defence minister, the vindictive, coup-deposed Thaksin could possibly manage to overpower all current and future chiefs of the armed forces to the extent that they be manipulated, promoted or dismissed from service at any given time, according to the former NSC chief.
“Thaksin might probably be sooner or later turning professional soldiers into politicised ones only to serve his hidden goals and help him take his personal revenge,” Paradorn commented.
The former NSC chief said military commanders might possibly not abide under political pressure from the billionaire power player who has allegedly manipulated to name his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra for prime minister and finally opt out by staging a coup to overthrow the Pheu Thai-led government again as had been the case with the former prime ministers Thaksin himself and Yingluck.
Paradorn said Thaksin had already manipulated to take revenge on a few parties headed by his political enemies, namely Prawit Wongsuwan who leads the previous coalition partner Palang Pracharath where more than half the total 40 MPs revolted against him, Thai Sang Thai leader Sudarat Keyurapan, a former Pheu Thai executive member who was virtually slapped in the face by all six renegade MPs of her opposition party and former Democrat leaders Chuan Leekpai and Jurin Laksanavisit who had objected in vain to the recent event in which 21 out of the total 25 Democrat MPs eagerly jumped onto the Pheu Thai bandwagon, all evidently resulting in the disintegration of those parties at the hands of the vindictive de facto Pheu Thai boss.
CAPTIONS:
De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, right in above photo and left in Front Page photo, and his right-hand man Phumtham Wechayachai. Both photos: Thai Rath
Insert: Former secretary-general of the National Security Council Paradorn Pattanathabutr. Photo: Matichon Weekly
Also read: Ex-communist insurgent-turned-defence minister Phumtham unwelcomed by military
‘Like father, like daughter and son’ features in Pheu Thai-led Cabinet
MPs of same parties vote differently on budget bill
Chances of Pheu Thai being dissolved by court ‘slim and unlikely’: Academic
Police chase knife-wielding delirious truck driver on Rama IV road
British man held for running illegal beauty clinic on Koh Phangan
