By Thai Newsroom Reporters
ENERGY MINISTER PIRAPAN Salirathavibhaga would probably be kicked out of the Pheu Thai-led government for good rather than be reshuffled to any other portfolio in cabinet, forecast a noted academic today (Jan.9).
According to Pichai Ratanadilok na Phuket, director of NIDA’s Political & Development Strategies Project, de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra would prefer to have his daughter/Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra oust the energy minister who concurrently acts as leader of the Ruam Thai Sang Chart rather than keep him in the Pheu Thai-led cabinet with another portfolio to take charge of any longer after censure debate has passed in March.
Without any other ministerial seat to be allocated by the de facto Pheu Thai boss, Pirapan would concurrently continue to perform as MP and leader of the third largest coalition partner after he has been deposed as energy minister.
Clash of opinions and differences in working style have apparently prevailed between the prime minister’s father and the energy minister who is practically viewed as leader in name only of the military-installed party under veiled patronage of former coup leader-turned-prime minister/now privy councilor Prayut Chan-o-cha in regard to government policy matters such as those pertaining to precarious energy security and expensive power rates.
Nevertheless, Pichai said, Thaksin would likely keep the Ruam Thai Sang Chart which currently has a meager army of 36 MPs at their command as part of the Pheu Thai-led coalition government whilst kicking Pirapan out of the Paetongtarn cabinet without any other portfolio to for him to take charge of instead.
The first round of cabinet reshuffle is speculated to take place no later than April, following censure debate in March during which solid support from all coalition MPs for the coalition government’s survival would most certainly be needed at parliament, Pichai said.
“Given Thaksin’s return of favours to the Ruam Thai Sang Chart for more than a year now, he would not hesitate to have that party’s leader ousted from his daughter’s cabinet for good,” the NIDA academic commented.
Meanwhile, Pichai said the much-heralded homecoming of Thaksin’s fugitive sister/former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra ahead of Songkran festival in April would probably need no assistance from Prayut, the de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss, albeit in hidden fashion.
Paetongtarn, niece of the former prime minister ousted from power by Prayut in the 2014 coup, would probably seek royal pardon for her aunt’s five-year jail sentence on duty-negligence and misconduct charges to the extent that she be literally contained in a “house arrest” for a curtailed period of time, Pichai said.
A few days before his nine-year rule ended in 2023, the former coup leader-turned-prime minister successfully put forward royal pardon for Thaksin’s eight-year jail sentence to the extent that it was curtailed to only one year during which the de facto Pheu Thai boss manipulated to literally stay at Police Hospital in lieu of Bangkok Remand prison at the alleged pretext of having “critical illnesses”, the symptoms and medical records of which were practically shrouded in secrecy.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga. Photo: Thai Rath
Insert: Academic Pichai Ratanadilok na Phuket. Photo: Thai Rath
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