By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A CERTAIN, PROMINENT figure in government has been covertly assigned by de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra to stealthily recruit renegades from among MPs on the opposition bloc, especially those of the Bhumjaithai, to practically side with the Pheu Thai-led government at parliament, according to partisan sources.
On behalf of the court-suspended prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s power-playing father, the unidentified figure in government has so far managed to coerce and persuade nearly a dozen Bhumjaithai MPs to practically turn coat in support of the Pheu Thai-led government at parliament without formally skipping over from their current opposition camp to a coalition one, the partisan sources said.
Those included a trio of Bhumjaithai MPs, namely Prapa Hengpaibul, Orn-uma Boonsiri and Chukan Kulwongsa, all representing northeastern constituencies, who had unexpectedly voted last week in support of the Pheu Thai-led government to indefinitely withdraw legislation on the planned opening of casinos under the name of entertainment complex projects against the partisan resolution which warranted otherwise.
Entrusted by the de facto Pheu Thai boss, the unnamed government figure would almost certainly try to recruit more renegade lawmakers out of a total of 69 Bhumjaithai MPs, steered by de facto party boss Newin Chidchob, plus others on the opposition bloc to the extent that they practically continue to endorse the coalition government’s legislations and motions in the House of Representatives where the Pheu Thai-led government currently has an army of 254 MPs at their command, compared to 239 opposition MPs.
The power-playing Thaksin earlier remarked that he would not be concerned at all over the probability that any government bills could be effortlessly rejected in the House due to a meagre majority of coalition MPs because, he said, others might probably come from the other side of the aisle to their rescue.
Those renegade MPs could probably switch parties from their current opposition camps to the Pheu Thai clandestinely directed by the suspended prime minister’s father or the Klatham under de facto party boss Thammanat Prompao under whose tickets they may seek reelection in a future race to parliament.
Meanwhile, Thaksin was known to have ultimately decided to fight legal battles besieging Paetongtarn and himself until the end with his “last-ditch, lobbyist” approaches to negotiating with unnamed members of the superelite, ultra-conservative powers-that-be in hush-hush fashion to the extent that his daughter/suspended prime minister and he himself be completely exonerated of all charges, the partisan sources said.
Thaksin had been desperately suggested by his supporters and critics alike to tell the embattled prime minister to step down, albeit at a time of being suspended by court from performing her executive duties as head of government, to preempt a verdict of the Constitutional Court anticipated as soon as later this month or early next so that she could practically spare herself a lasting disgrace for being otherwise sentenced by court over an impeachment lawsuit, the sources said.
But the power-playing, de facto Pheu Thai boss has almost immediately rejected the advice and ultimately preoccupied himself with his “lobbyism” to fight the impeachment case filed by senators against his daughter in the Constitutional Court on charges of perpetrating conduct in severe breach of the ethical code and in lack of evident honesty publicly exposed in a leaked telephone talk about Thai-Cambodian border conflict between Cambodian leader Hun Sen and herself.
Paetongtarn’s verbally submissive compromise offered during her chit chat with Hun Sen, father of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, has been deemed tantamount to an act of treason, prompting a group of senators to file the impeachment case in pursuit of a court order to deprive Thaksin’s daughter of her prime-ministerial status.
In the meantime, the National Anti-Corruption Commission has set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the alleged violation of the ethical code and lack of evident honesty on the part of the court-suspended prime minister which could possibly be forwarded to the Supreme Court’s judges in charge of criminal lawsuits against persons in political positions in the future.
On his own part, Thaksin is fighting a sensational lawsuit before the Supreme Court judges in charge of criminal lawsuits against persons in political positions based on allegations that he had staged a six-month-long fakeout at Police Hospital to escape from Bangkok Remand prison where he had been destined to otherwise serve a curtailed, one-year jail term on account of court-indicted misconduct perpetrated during his previous premiership over a couple of decades earlier.
Senior, executive officials of the Department of Corrections, Bangkok Remand prison and Police Hospital have been summoned to testify in court alongside the de facto Pheu Thai boss whom they had allegedly treated as a “critically ill” patient whilst the Medical Council of Thailand officially ruled otherwise.
Those senior officials could possibly be found guilty of misconduct charges and subject to jail sentences whilst their “patient” could possibly be sent back to jail where he had never been literally put behind bars for a single day after he had returned from his 17-year, self-exile overseas.
Besides, the Criminal Court has scheduled for August 22 to deliver a verdict on a lese majeste lawsuit also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code filed against the power-playing Thaksin who had allegedly mentioned the monarchy in relation to the 2006 coup which had deposed him from elected premiership during an interview with a news agency in Seoul, South Korea, in 2015.
However, the defendant would likely fight the lese majeste case in the Appellate Court and finally in the Supreme Court if he was found guilty by the Criminal Court.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Photos: Thai Rath
Insert: Suspended prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. Photo: Thai Rath
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