Thaksin has role to play in government after prison term, says Thai PM Srettha
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Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin's comments are a sign of how Thaksin continues to loom over the country’s politics.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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BANGKOK - Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said that he sees former leader Thaksin Shinawatra playing a role in government once he is freed from prison.
“I believe he has value to add to the government and to the people of Thailand,” Mr Srettha said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in New York on Wednesday.
The new premier is seeking to revive an economy whose growth has lagged those of its neighbours
His comments are also a sign of how Thaksin continues to loom over the country’s politics.
Forced to flee in 2008 to evade graft charges, Thaksin, 74, returned home in August after 15 years of self-imposed exile.
He arrived hours before Mr Srettha was voted in Parliament as prime minister.
Mr Srettha’s win came with the help of the Senate, in an arrangement widely seen as part of a deal between the royalist pro-military establishment and Thaksin.
Prime minister from 2001 until a coup in 2006, Thaksin still carries sway as the patriarch of a family that has dominated Thai politics for two decades, despite having been found guilty in absentia.
Upon his return, he was sent to jail to serve eight years and moved shortly thereafter to a police hospital after complaining of chest pain and high blood pressure.
Within days, Thaksin petitioned King Maha Vajiralongkorn for a royal pardon and, in turn, got his sentence commuted to one year.
His family is currently looking at the possibility of securing his early release on parole.
“He was, and probably still is, the most popular prime minister in the history of Thai politics,” Mr Srettha said of Thaksin who is considered an influential figure in the Premier’s Pheu Thai Party.
“Obviously, that comes with good reasons and if he becomes free, it would be unwise of me not to seek his opinion and other prime ministers as well,” he said.
Mr Srettha’s attendance at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly marks his first overseas engagement since taking office earlier in September.
He is Thailand’s first new leader in nearly a decade after the military establishment seized power in a 2014 coup that ousted Ms Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s younger sister.
The new prime minister is seen as the more palatable choice for Thailand’s conservative royalist establishment.
The military-appointed Senate blocked Mr Pita Limjaroenrat’s premiership bid when his reformist party pushed to relax the country’s law that penalises insulting the royalty.
After more than 30 years in the private sector, Mr Srettha acknowledged his political inexperience during his interview as he dismissed any concerns over the durability of his ruling coalition.
“I believe it is a very, very stable government,” he said. As to what role Thaksin might play in the new government, that is less clear.
“Let’s play by ear,” Mr Srettha said. BLOOMBERG
