Opinion

New Defense Minister Suthin Klangsaeng from the ruling Pheu Thai Party has the unenviable job of reining in the armed forces – or keeping them happy.

The Srettha Administration starts on a very fetid note – literally.

The new Cabinet has not been officially announced yet, but the ruling Pheu Thai Party has released an incomplete unofficial list and we can now do a preliminary assessment. So, what can we and cannot, or even should not, expect from the new Srettha Thavisin administration?

Ousted and fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinwatra’s scheduled return to Thailand on Tuesday, Aug. 22, the same day for the bicameral vote for PM, after a decade and a half in exile means he is now confident the Pheu Thai Party will be back in power.

Many Thais expressed pride when a travel website, Travelness.com, recently reported that Bangkok was the most visited city on earth in the first half of 2023 – 22.78 million foreign visitors compared to 19.1 of Paris and London’s 19.09 (Dubai clocked in the fourth place at 15.93 followed by Singapore at 14.67).

A “political marriage” between the Move Forward and Pheu Thai Party gone wrong leading to a divorce? Unfortunately for many Thais, this is how they perceive the current acrimonious political situation – and they could not have chosen a worse analogy because the political alliance has very little, if nothing to do with romantic love and matrimonial union.

After the Pheu Thai Party failed to win the most seats, beaten by the new kid on the pro-democratic bloc, the Move Forward Party, it vowed to “rebrand” the party. Two months and a half on and we are seeing Pheu Thai shifting towards the conservative pole of the political spectrum.

What happened on July 13, and again on the past Wednesday, July 19, was nothing short of a silent semi-military coup which succeeded in twice rejecting and removing Move Forward Party PM candidate Pita Limjaroenrat from the PM race. It now will most likely succeed in pushing the party, which won the most seats in the general election, into the opposition camp and possibly more.

Short of a miracle, the prospect of Pita Limjaroenrat becoming Thailand’s 30th Prime Minister is now nil. Although his name will most likely be nominated again for a second bicameral vote this coming Wednesday, the fact that only 13 out of the 250 junta-appointed senators voted for him when he needs 55 or so votes from them means it is unofficially over even before the second vote.

On Thursday morning at 9am to be exact, parliamentarians will vote to select the new prime minister and Move Forward Party PM candidate Pita Limjaroenrat’s future will become clear, if not clearer.