[BANGKOK] Thaksin Shinawatra, the de facto leader of Thailand’s ruling party, expects a court to ultimately clear allegations of ethical misconduct against his daughter, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was suspended from office last month.
“I’m confident in my daughter’s good intentions, and I trust the court will consider the facts with reason,” Thaksin told local broadcaster Nation TV when asked about the allegations against Paetongtarn. “Everything can be explained.”
Paetongtarn is the youngest of Thaksin’s three children and the third member of the influential Shinawatra clan to become Thailand’s prime minister. She was suspended from office by the country’s Constitutional Court until it ruled on a petition by a group of senators; they alleged that she had violated ethical standards by blaming the Thai army for escalating a border dispute in a leaked phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.
The premier’s suspension was meant to cool the political temperature, Thaksin said, adding that her government had adequate support in parliament to carry on business as usual. In the event that Paetongtarn gets ousted by the court, Thaksin’s family-backed Pheu Thai Party will either nominate its last prime minister candidate Chaikasem Nitisiri for the top job, or dissolve the parliament to call an early election, he said.
The uproar over Paetongtarn’s leaked phone call pushed her government to the brink, with the departure of a key coalition partner leaving the ruling coalition with a narrow parliamentary majority. The political turmoil has raised concerns about government stability and added to investor jitters, while trade-reliant Thailand is in talks to avert a punitive 36 per cent US tariff on its exports.
Thaksin has wielded significant influence over the Thai government since his return to Thailand in 2023 after 15 years of self-imposed exile. The 75-year-old has shuttled from stage to stage, sharing views on how to fix the country’s economy and pitching ideas that would later become government policies.
Thaksin said he was “not worried at all” about the outcome of a royal defamation case that he is currently on trial for. If convicted, he could potentially be jailed for a maximum of 15 years, over comments he made in 2015 shortly after a military coup against his sister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government. Thaksin has denied the charges.
Separately, a court is investigating whether Thaksin had actually served his royally commuted one-year jail sentence for corruption at a police hospital after returning to the country. BLOOMBERG
