Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is expected to be arrested upon his return as he ends almost two decades of self-imposed exile, walks at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok, Thailand August 22, 2023. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Thailand’s billionaire former premier Thaksin Shinawatra was still being treated in hospital on Friday and his condition remained a concern, a senior doctor said, three days after his historic return from self-exile.
Thaksin, 74, was hospitalised after suffering chest tightness and high blood pressure on the first night in prison, where he has been ordered to serve eight years for conflicts of interest and abuse of power.
“He is coughing … and from the lung X-rays, heart and lung specialists are still worried,” Soponrat Singhajaru, a senior doctor at Bangkok’s police hospital, told reporters, declining to elaborate because of patient confidentiality.
Thailand’s most famous politician arrived on a private jet to cheering crowds on Tuesday before being taken to a court, a prison and then hours later, a hospital, in dramatic events that overshadowed political ally Srettha Thavisin taking over as prime minister that same day.
The Pheu Thai Party that Thaksin founded will lead the next government. Rumours have swirled that his return could be part of a secret agreement with his rivals, which he denies.
His critics have complained he has been given special treatment, which the hospital has rejected.
Anti-Thaksin activist Tul Sittisomwong on Friday lodged a complaint with the hospital questioning whether the tycoon was really sick, or just dodging prison. Tul has asked for physicians from outside of the hospital to examine Thaksin also.
Thailand’s fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra made a historic homecoming on Tuesday and was escorted to jail after years in exile, on a day when an ally and fellow tycoon was elected prime minister after winning a parliamentary vote.
The 74-year-old Thaksin, the billionaire founder of the electoral juggernaut Pheu Thai, finally made good on promises to go back to Thailand after a run of 15 years in self-exile, stealing the limelight from real estate mogul Srettha Thavisin as he prevailed for their party in parliament.
The return of Thailand’s most famous politician was met with hysteria. Thaksin was given a rapturous welcome after arriving in Bangkok on his private jet before being escorted by police to the Supreme Court, then to a prison to serve eight years for abuse of power and conflicts of interest.
Srettha’s victory paves the way for the populist Pheu Thai to form a new coalition government, ending weeks of uncertainty and stalemate in parliament after an election 100 days ago that threatened to weaken the political clout of the Southeast Asian country’s powerful military.
Srettha, 60, a political neophyte and former president of luxury property developer Sansiri (SIRI.BK), was thrust into the spotlight just a few months ago and won the backing of two-thirds of parliament, an outcome that had been far from certain given the military’s influence among hundreds of lawmakers.
“I will perform my duties to the best of my ability. I will work tirelessly to improve the livelihood of all Thais,” the 6-foot-3-inch (1.92-metre) Srettha told reporters at Pheu Thai’s headquarters, his voice drowned out by supporters chanting “Srettha, Srettha”.
Thailand gets a new PM
Srettha will be tasked with forming and holding together a potentially fragile coalition that includes parties created by the ultra-royalist army, which overthrew Pheu Thai governments in coups in 2006 and 2014.
Among those ousted was Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon and owner of Premier League football club Manchester City, who was accused by the military of corruption, cronyism and disloyalty to the monarchy.
He fled abroad and was sentenced to jail in absentia in 2008. His sister Yingluck Shinawatra suffered an almost identical fate as prime minister a few years later. Both say the allegations against them were politically motivated.
POLITICAL DEAL?
Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidate, Srettha Thavisin who is the sole candidate nominated for a parliamentary vote, reacts while speaking to media at the party headquarters, in Bangkok, Thailand, August 22, 2023. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa Acquire Licensing Rights
Thaksin’s return and Srettha’s surprisingly smooth ascent to the top job will add to speculation that the influential Thaksin had struck a deal with his foes in the military and political establishment for his safe return and, possibly, an early release from jail.
Thaksin and Pheu Thai have rejected such notions.
Tuesday’s events were the latest twist in a nearly two-decade power struggle between the Shinawatra family and its business allies on one side, and a nexus of royalists, generals and old money families that have long wielded influence over Thai governments and institutions.
As he emerged from the airport wearing a black suit, red tie and yellow lapel pin bearing the royal insignia, Thaksin clasped his hands in a traditional “wai” greeting to the crowd before kneeling and bowing in respect in front of a portrait of the king and queen.
Thaksin is still loved and loathed in equal measure in Thailand and hashtags about his return trended top on social media, with the country gripped by blow-by-blow coverage of his celebrated arrival and his prompt imprisonment.
Hundreds of red-shirted supporters carrying banners gathered at the airport, the court and outside the prison to greet him, many chanting “PM Thaksin”.
Thailand’s Pheu Thai party will now form a new coalition without the election-winning Move Forward party and nominate its candidate, real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin, as prime minister.
Supporters of the Move Forward Party hold a portrait of Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of Move Forward Party, during a protest in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, July 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Thailand could be in for a prolonged period of political unrest even if a new coalition is in power and the country’s next leader is chosen, after the election-winning Move Forward Party was sidelined from forming the next government, said observers.
Dr Kevin Hewison, the Weldon E Thornton emeritus distinguished professor of Asian Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, believes more twists and turns will come.
“So we’re in very murky and uncharted waters for Thailand, and there’s a lot of closed door dealings going on where the public is left aside,” he told CNA’s Asia First.
“I think that’s a potentially dangerous position for the electorate to be put in and for Thai democracy, because if the election doesn’t matter and all of the decisions on who’s going to be in government are done behind closed doors and through a small elite, it leaves the way open for more radical politics emerging.”
WHEN WILL POLITICAL DEADLOCK END?
A parliamentary vote to pick Thailand’s new prime minister on Friday (Aug 4) was delayed again, after the Constitutional Court deferred a decision in a case involving the progressive Move Forward Party that won May’s election.
The court on Thursday said it needed more time to review whether it was constitutional for parliament to bar Move Forward party leader Pita Limjaroenrat from being nominated as a prime ministerial candidate a second time.
Meanwhile, Pheu Thai, the second biggest party in an initially agreed eight-party alliance, has since taken over the lead role in forming a government.
It will now form a new coalition without Move Forward and nominate its candidate, real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin, as prime minister.
“It’s very difficult to see what the new coalition is going to look like or what the vote for Pheu Thai’s prime minister might look like at the moment,” said Dr Hewison, whose research interests include social change in Southeast Asia, especially Thailand.
“There’s considerable dissatisfaction amongst Move Forward party supporters, (and) amongst other observers about whether the Pheu Thai party will align with the pro-military parties of the previous regime. If it does that, my prediction would be that there would be considerable unrest.”
Move Forward Party Leader Pita Limjaroenrat attends a voting session on the day of the second vote for a new prime minister, at the parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, July 19, 2023.REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa
After winning the election three months ago, Move Forward had put together an eight-party coalition with 312 seats in the 500-member lower house.
However, parliament has struggled to name a new prime minister, which requires a majority vote together with the conservative 250-member appointed Senate.
Mr Pita’s initial attempt to become prime minister last month fell short by more than 50 votes, largely because just 13 senators backed him. He was blocked from another try when parliament voted that he could not submit his name again.
Many senators, appointed by a previous military government, would not vote for Mr Pita because of his calls to make it illegal to defame Thailand’s royal family.
“There are plenty of countries where the party that comes first in the election doesn’t necessarily lead the coalition governments. So that’s not unusual,” said Dr Hewison.
Many Thai voters feel they “have been somehow deceived and that their vote doesn’t matter”, he added.
“And I think this is a problem for political parties going forward… But it’s pretty clear that there was not much choice for Pheu Thai. They had to separate from Move Forward if they were going to be able to establish a government again, only because the unelected senators stood in the way.”
HOW POWERFUL IS THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT?
Democracy in Thailand is now at a difficult point, “but it’s a point that was somehow designed by the previous regime”, said Dr Hewison.
“This, in some ways, was meant to happen to stop a progressive party coming to power, even if it was popular.”
House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said the vote for a prime minister would be delayed pending the court’s decision.
The postponement shows how “incredibly powerful” the Constitutional Court has become in Thailand, said Dr Hewison.
“The court has put off a decision, which most pundits thought would be reasonably easy for them to make, to decide on whether there should be a second vote,” he added.
“So what we’re set with now over the next couple of weeks at least, is more backroom dealing, more and probably some increased dissatisfaction with the way that the process is going and a muddle along until something becomes clear. At the moment, almost nothing is clear on where Thailand’s politics is going.”
At least nine people have been killed, including three children, in a blast at a fireworks warehouse in a market in southern Thailand on Saturday.
The explosion in Sungai Kolok, on the Malaysian border, seriously injured at least 115 people and is thought to have been caused by construction work.
Residents described hearing a huge explosion at around 15:00 (09:00 BST).
The force shook buildings, shattered windows and collapsed rooves, sending a massive plume of smoke into the air.
The explosion has also destroyed a large part of the town in Narathiwat province.
The market fire has been brought under control and a preliminary investigation indicates a “technical error” in steel welding during construction work on the building was responsible, local governor Sanon Pongaksorn said.
Seksan Taesen, an eyewitness who lives 100m (330 ft) from the market, said he was at home when he heard a “loud, thunderous noise and my whole house shook”.
“Then I saw my roof was wide open. I looked outside and I saw house collapsing and people lying on the ground everywhere. It was chaos,” he told AFP.
Accidents involving fireworks in South East Asia, which are commonly used in the region to commemorate big events, are not unusual.
One in a factory in Indonesia six years ago killed 49 people. Another five days ago killed one woman and injured 10 more in northern Thailand.
Despite public pressure to improve safety, Thailand still has a poor record of accidents on its roads, construction sites and in the work place.
Rukchanok “Ice” Srinork is on the campaign trail for the general election on 14 May
In a cramped shophouse in one of Bangkok’s nondescript outer suburbs, a small group of volunteers feverishly pack leaflets in preparation for the daily ritual of canvassing for votes.
This is the decidedly low-rent campaign headquarters in Bang Bon for Move Forward, the most radical party contesting this month’s general election in Thailand.
Pacing among them is the parliamentary candidate, Rukchanok “Ice” Srinork, a 28-year-old woman brimming with energy, who constantly flicks through her social media pages. Ice’s team have bought cheap bicycles, and for weeks now they have been using them, in brutally hot weather, to reach out to residents in the smallest alleys of Bang Bon.
Ice is one of a slate of young, idealistic candidates for Move Forward who have joined mainstream politics in the hope that this election allows Thailand to break the cycle of military coups, street protests and broken democratic promises in which the country has been trapped for two decades.
Move Forward is the successor party to Future Forward, which exploded onto the political stage in Thailand five years ago.
It contested the first election permitted since a coup in 2014 deposed the then-elected government. Future Forward was something new, promising sweeping changes to Thailand’s political structures, including limiting the power of the armed forces, and, more quietly, suggesting changes to the monarchy, then a strictly taboo topic.
“Their agenda was basically about taking Thailand’s future back from the powers-that-be,” says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, from the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University. “In this century young people have had to live in a country that has been lost to an endless cycle – we had two coups, two new constitutions, a series of judicial dissolutions of parties. I think the younger demographic got sick and tired of it. And Future Forward tapped into that sentiment.”
It stunned conservatives by winning the third largest share of seats in the 2019 election. Thailand’s royalist establishment, a network of military officers, senior bureaucrats and judges, responded as it has to similar threats in the past – it had Future Forward dissolved by the Constitutional Court, and banned its leaders from politics. The party lost about one-third of its MPs, and its replacement, Move Forward, became a lonely opposition voice in parliament.
Move Forward’s Pita Limjaroenrat, 42, with supporters in Chiang Mai
Yet in recent weeks the party’s popularity in opinion polls has been surging again, alarming rivals. Many polls put its leader, the telegenic and articulate Pita Limjaroenrat, as the preferred candidate for prime minister.
That popularity is changing the reception Ice and her bicycling volunteers are getting in Bang Bon, traditionally the fiefdom of a powerful family from a rival party. People are genuinely interested in what these youngsters have to offer. Even older residents talk about the need for big changes in Thailand.
Ice herself epitomises this shifting political landscape. She admits she used to be a die-hard royalist, who cheered on the military coup and admired the man who led it, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who is still prime minister today.
“I think that I’m doing this partly out of feeling guilty that I was part of a movement that encouraged the coup, a crime against 70 million people,” she says. “At that time, I agreed with it and thought it was the right answer for the country. But later I asked myself, how could that happen? How could this nation support a freaking coup? And that’s when I became taa sawang.”
“Taa Sawang” – literally, “bright eyes” – is the phrase adopted by younger Thais to describe their being enlightened about previously taboo topics, in particular the monarchy. It was a watchword of the mass protest movement that erupted after Future Forward was banned in 2020, at a stroke disenfranchising millions of younger voters who were hungry for change.
And that movement, while it was eventually crushed through the extensive use of the draconian lese majeste law, shattered the taboo, by calling openly, for the first time, for the powers and financing of the monarchy to be accountable. Three years later, Move Forward’s support for royal reform no longer seems so shocking. And more Thais seem willing to back the party’s broader agenda for change.
Chonticha “Kate” Jangrew’s journey has been from the opposite direction. Her “taa sawang” moment was much earlier, when she still a student.
She was among a very small group of dissidents willing to risk arrest by protesting against the 2014 coup that Ice was still cheering. She also joined the much bigger, monarchy-focused protests of 2020. But now she has decided to give up her activist life, and run as a candidate for parliament, also for Move Forward. “I believe to achieve the changes we want we have to work in parliament as well as on the streets,” she says.
Her pitch to voters in Pathum Thani, another district outside Bangkok, is unusual. “I have 28 criminal charges against me,” she tells them – two are under the lese majeste law, which carries a penalty of 15 years in prison for each. “But that shows you I am brave enough to speak out when I see something that needs to happen for our country.”
Even older voters seem charmed by her youthful sincerity. Almost everyone at the market where she appeared said they liked Move Forward, because they represented change, and would stick to their promises.
Burmese refugees have fled across to border to Thailand
Some 10,000 Burmese people have fled to Thailand to escape fierce fighting between the military and units of a powerful ethnic armed group since Wednesday, Thai authorities said.
They are fleeing from Shwe Kokko town, controlled by a pro-military militia and home to Chinese-owned casinos.
This is one of the largest cross-border movements of people since a military coup two years ago.
The military has not released a statement yet about the fighting.
It is the latest in a civil war that has been raging since the coup in February 2021. Two years on, the military government has failed to impose its authority on large areas of the country. It is battling established ethnic armed groups in border areas that have been at war with the military for decades, and recently-formed anti-coup militias that call themselves People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) in much of the rest of the country.
Many thousands of people have been killed and some 1.4 million have been displaced since the coup. Nearly one third of the country’s population is in need of aid, according to the United Nations.
The latest fighting broke out after the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and its allies launched attacks on military outposts and a gate camp near Shwe Kokko on Wednesday. More than 80 people have been killed on both sides, KNLA told BBC Thai.
Aid workers in the border regions – Thailand’s Mae Sot and Mae Ramat areas – have called for urgent humanitarian assistance as refugees seek shelter in schools, monasteries and rubber farms.
“In the long run, we need more donors,” said Kay Thi Htwe, a Burmese volunteer at a monastery in Mae Sot, which is hosting 500 refugees.
The KNLA has also closed the Myawaddy-Kawkareik Asia highway – one of the main roads to the border – for two weeks starting Friday.
Back in Shwe Kokko, the military-aligned Border Guard Forces which controls the enclave is protecting the casinos and warning residents to stay indoors.
This comes as the military continues to crush civilian resistance, targeting schools, clinics and villages.
Earlier this week, the military said it had arrested 15 teachers who had been giving online classes for a school backed by the exiled National Unity Government (NUG).
The teachers were taken from their homes in Mandalay, Saigang and Magway, a member of the General Strike Committee of Basic Education Workers told the BBC. In July, about 30 teachers were reportedly arrested because they worked for an NUG-recognised online school.
From the start, education has been a battleground in Myanmar. Teachers were among the first, along with health-workers, to walk out in protest against the coup, and were in the front line of the huge protests called by the Civil Disobedience Movement in the first weeks after the military takeover.
