The youngest daughter of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra won a parliamentary vote to become the Southeast Asian nation’s next leader, capping a tumultuous period that saw a court oust her predecessor and dissolve the top opposition party.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, secured the support of 319 lawmakers in the 500-member Thai House of Representatives, making her Thailand’s youngest prime minister ever. Her elevation keeps intact an unwieldy alliance between the Shinawatra-controlled Pheu Thai Party and a number of royalist conservative and military-backed parties that joined together following an election last year.
Paetongtarn appeared nervous when addressing reporters for the first time after the parliamentary vote. She declined to answer any questions about her government’s policies, saying she would wait until her appointment is endorsed by Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
Photo: AFP
“I never thought I’m the smartest person in the room, but I have clear motivations and I have a strong team with me,” Paetongtarn said with a shaky voice. “My father Facetimed me and told me to do my best. He said he was happy to see his daughter in this post before he gets Alzheimer’s.”
Paetongtarn becomes the third member of the influential Shinawatra clan to lead the country. Her father was removed in a 2006 coup, while her aunt, Yingluck Shinawatra, was disqualified by a court shortly before a 2014 takeover by the military.
She was picked for the top job after the Thai Constitutional Court dismissed former prime minister Srettha Thavisin as leader in an ethics violation case. His 11-month-old tenure saw his party’s popularity slide as the now-disbanded Move Forward — winner of the most seats in last year’s election and now the principal opponent of the pro-royalist establishment — steadily climbed.
While Paetongtarn might continue much of the policies pursued by Srettha’s administration, she might abandon a plan to distribute 10,000 baht (US$286) each to an estimated 50 million adults to stimulate the economy, local media reported yesterday.
Besides keeping the coalition together, Paetongtarn would need to find ways to lift sluggish economic growth, attract foreign investment into high-tech industries and stem the exodus of foreign funds from the nation’s stocks.
The support of conservative groups for a Pheu Thai-led government is a sign that a deal between the pro-royalist establishment which allowed Thaksin to return from a 15-year exile was still intact.
Although her victory ended a brief period of political uncertainty, it is far from certain that her government would be stable.
“She will be her father’s puppet and won’t likely be able to do much,” said Punchada Sirivunnabood, an associate professor at Mahidol University in Thailand. “Questions remain how she’ll be able to solve economic issues which even Srettha couldn’t.”
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats