Thailand could be set for further political upheavals, after royalist activists filed fresh legal petitions against recently appointed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and her party.
Yesterday, Thai media outlets reported that a petition has been filed with the Election Commission (EC), seeking the dissolution of Pheu Thai, alleging that it had allowed Paetongtarn’s father Thaksin Shinawatra, a non-member of Pheu Thai, to control the party. The anonymous petitioner filed the complaint with the EC on August 19, according to a report by Thai PBS.
The petitioner attached the Constitutional Court’s August 14 ruling, which removed Srettha Thavisin as prime minister and led to Paetongtarn’s sudden elevation to the top office. Srettha was unseated for a breach of ethics in appointing Pichit Chuenban, a long-time lawyer for the Shinawatra family, as a member of his cabinet, despite having served time in prison for bribery.
According to local media reports, another petition has also been filed with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), requesting that it investigate Paetongtarn for allegedly receiving financial benefits as a state official during her visit to Khao Yai with her family in July, before she became prime minister. The petition was reportedly filed by the “serial petitioner” Ruangkrai Leekitwattana, a member of the military-backed Palang Pracharath Party.
These two petitions come on the heels of two of the most politically consequential court rulings of the past few years. Aside from the removal of Srettha on August 14, the Constitutional Court, in a ruling on August 7, also ordered the disbanding of the progressive Move Forward Party, over its pledge to amend the country’s severe royal defamation law. (The party quickly regrouped under the banner of the People’s Party.)
These new petitions might just be a case of die-hard anti-Thaksin royalists seeking to press their advantage – but after this month’s rulings, it is hard to dismiss the possibility of further interventions by the courts. It is clear that elements in the conservative establishment are concerned by Thaksin’s return to political prominence. Thaksin returned to Thailand in August of last year after more than 15 years in self-exile, after brokering a political pact that also saw Pheu Thai form a coalition government with conservative and military-adjacent parties – the very forces that it had battled since before Thaksin’s removal in a coup in 2006.
Since returning to Thailand, however, Thaksin has flaunted his newfound freedom, traveling across the country, meeting with local politicians, and even offering his services as a mediator of the conflict next door in Myanmar. His influence has only increased now that his daughter, a 38-year-old with little prior political experience, has been appointed prime minister and it is widely assumed that he will essentially dictate the new government’s policies.
With Thaksin once again ascendant, and moving beyond his previous pledge that he only wanted to return to Thailand to spend time with his grandchildren, the two-decade-long political war between Thaksin and the conservative establishment could be renewed.
For its own part, Pheu Thai officials say they are not concerned about the petitions. Lawmaker Wisuth Chainarun told the Bangkok Post yesterday that he was aware of the petition seeking Pheu Thai’s dissolution, but denied that Thaksin was running the show.
“I do not see former prime minister Thaksin giving any orders to the party,” Wisuth said. “Whenever he sat in on party meetings he has never given any orders. In his interviews he gives his personal opinions, in his capacity as a knowledgeable former prime minister. Whether the party follows what he says is a different matter.”
Prompong Nopparit, former party spokesperson, condemned the petitions against Pheu Thai and Paetongtarn. According to the Thai Enquirer, he criticized those behind the petitions, stating that “these old uncles’ plans are malicious.”
The problem for Pheu Thai is that it is very hard to deny that Thaksin, while claiming to be merely providing “advice” to his daughter, is the real power behind the party, as he has been since its founding in 2007. This is not at all helped by Thaksin’s own activities. Last week, he delivered his first speech since returning to Thailand, in which he laid out an economic vision for Thailand, backing his party’s expensive “digital wallet” stimulus plan and expressing concerns about urgency to deal with Thailand’s ballooning household debt. The speech immediately prompted criticisms from across the Thai political spectrum that Thaksin had exceeded the limits of the political pact that attended his return from self-exile last year.
At the same time, Pheu Thai and the newly formed People’s Party seem set to challenge the power of the courts to discipline and punish opposition parties. Since its founding, the People’s Party has promised to take on the Constitutional Court with the goal of curbing its power to intervene in politics. Meanwhile, Pheu Thai’s Wisut Chainarun, the chief government whip, stated this week that he will meet tomorrow with People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut to discuss a possible amendment to the law governing the dissolution of political parties. He said the law related to ethical conduct, which the Constitutional Court used to eject Srettha from office on August 14, was overly vague and open to abuse.
While this is clearly the case, and there is a pressing need for deep reform, the attempt to amend these legal structures will likely push the two sides closer to political conflict.