By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THAI-CAMBODIAN border conflict could be peacefully, agreeably resolved if Thailand was run by any head of government other than the court-suspended, overly-naive Paetongtarn Shinawatra, said a former senior government official today (Aug.25).
Thailand’s military missions and foreign policy toward Cambodia would be administered more effectively and sustainably to some extent if Paetongtarn, daughter of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, was replaced sooner than later by anyone currently available in the legislative or executive branch, said former National Security Council secretary-general Paradorn Patanathabut.
Paetongtarn who has been suspended by the Constitutional Court from performing as head of government pending a court verdict on an impeachment lawsuit scheduled for the upcoming Friday (Aug.29) had poorly handled the unresolved Thai-Cambodian conflict and allegedly rendered threats to Thailand’s territorial integrity, national interests and prestige despite a close, personal relationship between the Shinawatra and Hun families which had apparently prevailed until it was broken at the height of last month’s tensions which resulted in five-day clashes along the disputed border.
Thaksin’s daughter was invariably viewed as an overly-submissive, unscrupulous Thai leader who had been evidently outwitted and pulled around by the senior Cambodian leader.
The historic impeachment case filed by a group of 36 senators has accused Paetongtarn of perpetrating overly-submissive conduct in severe breach of ethics and in lack of evident honesty whilst handling Thai-Cambodian border conflict, which was allegedly tantamount to an act of treason at the cost of Thailand’s national interests and of the honour and prestige of the Thai armed services and her own.
Nevertheless, Paradorn remarked that attempted payoffs might probably be the only way to save Paetongtarn from being ousted by court since his power-playing father’s all-in efforts and hush-hush lobbyism may have already failed.
He said the beleaguered prime minister cannot make a pivotal decision on her own but helplessly abide by her father’s instructions, particularly when it comes to whether she may call it quits very shortly to preempt Friday’s court ruling whilst Thaksin would almost certainly prefer to keep her fighting the legal battle to the end.
Meanwhile, those potential replacements for Thaksin’s daughter as head of government include Bhumjaithai leader/former deputy prime minister-cum-interior minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, who concurrently acts as leader of the ultra-conservative Ruam Thai Sang Chart, among others, Paradorn said.
Former de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss/former coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha would be unlikely to leave the current position of a privy councillor for prime minister, though he was one of a couple of contestants of the pro-military camp contesting for prime minister in addition to Pirapan in the 2023 general election.
Though the de facto boss of the neo-conservative Pheu Thai would hardly agree to leaving the helm of government to the ultra-conservative Bhumjaithai under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob by having his Pheu Thai MPs cast yea votes for Anutin as a new prime minister if his daughter was deprived of her elected premiership at the order of the Constitutional Court on the upcoming Friday, the superelite powers-that-be would likely persist that a change of the prime minister was about time, according to the ex-NSC chief.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: Suspended prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Insert: Former National Security Council secretary-general Paradorn Patanathabut. All photos: Thai Rath
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