By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PRIME MINISTER PAETONGTARN Shinawatra said today (Jan. 7) whatever her father/de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra may have said in regard to government policy matters might not necessarily happen in response to his word.
The woman prime minister told reporters at Government House today her father was undoubtedly free to make verbal statements in public or make comments on policy matters despite his having no position in government or not being “dutifully involved” in any businesses of the Pheu Thai-led government.
Nevertheless, she remarked, whatever her father, who ran the country over the last couple of decades as elected prime minister, may have said to the public might not consequently take place at all whilst all government policies will legally need prior approval from her cabinet of ministers.
The current prime minister said her working style and working relationship with varied cabinet members may spontaneously differ from that of her father who is one of her predecessors endowed with elected premiership.
Paetongtarn apparently downplayed the sustained criticism that the Pheu Thai-led coalition government would sooner or later take measures in line with “personal” viewpoints earlier expressed by the de facto Pheu Thai boss in regard to varied government policy matters ranging from energy and natural resources management to expensive power rates, among other unresolved issues, in purported effort to alleviate the people’s economic woes.
Touching on the expensive power rates, Thaksin’s daughter-turned-prime minister said the average power rate could possibly be reduced to a range of 3.70 baht per unit as earlier suggested by her father during a heated partisan campaign in the provinces over the last weekend.
Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga had earlier offered to cut it to 4.15 baht, compared to the current rate of 4.42 baht per unit.
Meanwhile, Paetongtarn said she has not yet contemplated reshuffling her cabinet anytime soon amidst sustained speculation that she would likely do so shortly after censure debate has passed in March.
Pirapan, who currently acts as leader of the Ruam Thai Sang Chart, is more or less tipped to be either kicked out of the Pheu Thai-led cabinet or moved from the energy portfolio to another one primarily due to discrepancy which he has raised over the government’s energy and electricity pricing policies with which Thaksin’s largest ruling camp would allegedly look to satisfy energy-related business barons rather than the current energy minister.
Thaksin is largely viewed as personally associated with the likes of Gulf Energy Development CEO Sarath Ratanavadi and PTT CEO Kongkrapan Intarajang, among other energy business moguls.
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Top and Front Page: Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra talking to reporters today, Jan. 7, 2025. Photos: Thai Rath
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