BANGKOK – A Thai court has ruled that Prime Minister Surendra Thavisin violated ethical standards by appointing a convicted felon to his cabinet, ousting the embattled premier from power less than a year after taking office and plunging Thai politics back into relative chaos.
The Constitutional Court ruled that despite Pichet's immediate resignation, Suretta's appointment of Phichit Chumbang as prime minister justified the dismissal of the former prime minister, who was jailed for trying to bribe a judge with cash in a bag in an earlier case against Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister and protégé of the ruling People's Party.
Mr Suretta did not attend the court hearing, instead visiting a Bangkok food market. Local media had widely reported that he would avoid the sentence, but the prime minister's leading legal adviser and constitutional expert suggested on Tuesday that the ruling might go against him.
It is unclear what role Thaksin played in the now-fateful decision to send Phichit to reshuffle Suretta's cabinet — perhaps as a deliberate attack on a conservative rival — but most of the aides, advisers and appointees surrounding the political novice are known longtime Thaksin servants and loyalists and are largely unknown to Suretta.
Deputy Prime Minister and Puea Thai Party stalwart Pumtam Vechayachai is expected to serve as caretaker prime minister until parliament can vote for a new prime minister. Under election rules, the Puea Thai Party can nominate either Thaksin Shinawatra's daughter, Paethontar Shinawatra, or the ailing former law minister, Chaikasem Nittisiri.
But Thaksin and his ex-wife were notoriously reluctant to target their daughter, who is pregnant during the 2023 election campaign and was only recently appointed leader of the Puea Thai party, so early in her political career. That is likely to be even more true now as politics in the kingdom become more volatile and uncertain.
What is less known is whether Thaksin and Thai National Party leaders view the court's ruling against Surettha as a royal warning against Thaksin's overt political activism following his royal pardon for criminal convictions, which allowed him to avoid spending a day in formal prison on the grounds of frail health.
Mr. Suretta, who often wears a royalist yellow tie, led a coalition government formed in a pact made by Mr. Thaksin and royal family members ahead of last year's elections in the name of national unity. The pact was, in effect, a politically expedient attempt to bring together pro-Thai forces and the military, turn political opponents into allies, and bring Mr. Thaksin home from 15 years in exile, resulting in a partial rather than full royal pardon.
Thaksin recently requested to be deported to Dubai for medical treatment, but a court rejected the request. He is awaiting trial on a new charge of lèse majesté over comments he made to the media in 2016. Thaksin appeared to believe the pardon had wiped the slate clean. A conviction under Thailand's Royal Shield Law could carry a 15-year prison sentence.
As a result, early predictions are that Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, current interior minister and leader of the second-largest coalition party, the Bhumjaithai Party, will likely become the next prime minister. Anutin served as health minister under former military leader Prayut Chan-o-cha and views himself as having personal ties to King Vajiralongkorn.
Anutin, the scion of a construction conglomerate, is widely seen as the face of Thailand's reckless experiment with marijuana legalization, his Buriram province-based party has a large and shady promoter of the marijuana trade and has come under fire for what was seen as his clumsy handling of Thailand's vaccine procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although his Bhumjaithai Party projects more yellow-clad conservative stances than it actually embodies, Anutin is currently seen as the candidate of choice for Bangkok's conservative elites, who lack an effective tool for seizing power in the elections following the disastrous performances of the military-backed Palang Pracharat Party and the Thai Unity Party in the 2023 elections.
Thaksin's meeting with Anutin at a local golf course in July, as revealed by local newspaper reports, may have already brokered a backroom deal that would allow Anutin to become prime minister, despite Bhumjaithai's No. 2 position in the coalition government and the significant political and electoral advantages that would come with leading the government.
Speaking to the Asia Times newspaper on condition of anonymity, Thaksin expressed dissatisfaction with Sretta's performance and suggested he was unnecessary ahead of today's verdict.
Meanwhile, the palace's unusual awarding of a royal medal to King Vajiralongkorn at Suretha last month to mark his 72nd birthday was seen by some as a tacit endorsement by the king of the prime minister's calm and submissive rule ahead of the expected Constitutional Court ruling.
The mild-mannered Sletta's short tenure will be remembered as ineffective, mainly due to bureaucratic resistance that blocked the implementation of a digital wallet cash transfer scheme, and his failure to interest major new foreign investors in the kingdom's struggling economy (though he didn't try).
Since Suretta took office last September, Thailand's growth rate for 2023 has slowed from 2.5 percent in 2022, lagging far behind regional peers such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, which have enjoyed recent economic booms and are benefiting from decoupling from China to Southeast Asia.
The economic downturn has tarnished Puea Thai's brand as a pro-business party committed to economic growth and recovery — a reputation it built under Thaksin's party of choice, dating back to his first Thai Rak Thai party, which was elected in 2001 on the motto “think anew, act anew.” But that value now seems long gone, given its poor showing in the polls.
The ruling against Sletta's party follows a ruling last week by the Constitutional Court to ban the electoral victorious Move Forward party on the grounds that its campaign to reform defamation laws against the king was tantamount to plotting to overthrow the constitutional monarchy with the king as head of state.
The next day, Move Forward was re-formed with new leadership under the new People's Power banner, but without 11 senior party officials, including prime ministerial candidate and former party leader Pita Limyaroenrat, all of whom were banned from politics for 10 years.
The People's Party, named after the military party that overthrew the absolute monarchy in 1932, has vowed to continue to push for strong reform of the monarchy, the military and corporate monopolies — a stark contrast to Sletta's status quo policies, which were clearly insufficient for the kingdom's conservative royalist elite.
