Paetongtarn Shinawatra (Editorial credit: SPhotograph/Shutterstock.com)
In 2006, her father was overthrown in a military coup, and her aunt was forced to relinquish power in 2014. Now the 36-year-old Paetongtarn Shinawatra the latest member of this influential political family to run for Thailand's next leader.
Paetongtarn, also known as Ung Ing, was officially announced some time ago as one of three prime ministers-designate for the verkiezingen in May, on behalf of the Phu Thai-side. This party is associated with her very popular, but controversial father, Thaksin Shinawatra.
“We will help restore democracy, bring a better life to the people and bring back to the country the prosperity that has been lost for almost a decade,” she said in one of her speeches.
Her party has pledged to revitalize and modernize Thailand's economy, which it says has suffered under Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army general who first came to power in a coup. The party has also promised cash benefits and an increase in the minimum wage from between 328 and 354 baht ($9,64 - $10,41) to 600 baht ($17,65) per day.
The election will pit Paetongtarn, who could become Thailand's youngest prime minister, against former military leaders including Prayuth, 68, and Prawit Wongsuwon, 77. Paetongtarn.
“I believe people will trust Pheu Thai to let Pheu Thai take care of you,” she told her supporters.
Parties associated with the billionaire Shinawatra family have won the most seats in every election since 2001 and have been repeatedly ousted from government by coups d'état. Even if Pheu Thai do well in next month's election, they may not get enough votes to overcome the influence of Thailand's 250 unelected military-appointed senators, who play a role in choosing the prime minister.
“You probably remember how our power was stolen by the coup,” Paetongtarn told a crowd. The coup had hurt everyone, she added. “None of us want this again, right? None of us want any more coups, do we?"
Raised in politics Paetongtarn, the youngest of three children of Thaksin and his then-wife Potjaman Damapong, grew up in Bangkok and attended private schools in the city center. She was exposed to politics at an early age and followed her father when he became Secretary of State. A former police officer and telecom tycoon, Thaksin gained a huge loyal following, especially among rural voters in the north, after introducing policies such as affordable health care. However, he was in direct opposition to the Bangkok elite, who accused him of abuse of power and corruption. Human rights groups also criticized his violent anti-drug crackdown, which killed 2.500 people.
If successful, Paetongtarn would be the fourth member of the Shinawatra family to become Prime Minister. Thaksin's brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat served as prime minister briefly in 2008, and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra served as prime minister from 2011 to 2014. Both were removed from office by court rulings. The court ruling against Yingluck, who was Thailand's first female prime minister and the youngest in generations, was followed by a coup that detained her on the orders of General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who is now prime minister. Both Thaksin and Yingluck would now live in Dubai.
Paetongtarn was studying at university when tanks hit the streets and her father was removed from power. While studying at the conservative Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, she later said she encountered hostility from peers who were vehemently against her father. She moved to the UK to pursue a master's degree in international hotel management from the University of Surrey and then went on to work in the family business.
Thaksin left Thailand when faced with criminal cases related to his time in office. He has said repeatedly that he will return and recently stated that he was willing to serve prison time. Paetongtarn has previously denied that if she is in power she would help facilitate his return. “He wants to come back to be with his grandchild and his family. He wants to die in Thailand. His return is not intended to create chaos,” she said in a recent interview with the Standard, a Thai news outlet.
While Paetongtarn could become Thailand's youngest prime minister, it is unclear how much support she will receive from younger voters. In 2020, younger generations took to the streets to demand reforms from Thailand's powerful royal family and its strict lèse-majesté law – a subject it has carefully avoided. The opposition party Move Forward is the only party to have tackled the issue. Asked if she would support amnesty for the more than 200 people, including some children, accused of lèse majesté, Paetongtarn said such issues could be discussed in the future. “We all need to talk,” she said.
In the run-up to the elections, Paetongtarn is committed to giving her party a clear vision and strategy to convince the population. It focuses on improving living standards, tackling social inequalities and promoting economic growth.
Should Paetongtarn win the election and become prime minister, she will face a major challenge. She will not only have to deal with her family's legacy, but also with the current political situation and social unrest. It remains to be seen whether she will be able to tackle Thailand's many problems and unite the country.
Nevertheless, Paetongtarn Shinawatra is determined to do her best for the Thai people. She hopes that her efforts and dedication will lead to a better Thailand, with more opportunities and prosperity for all.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/
Away with the soldiers who promised to tackle the corrupt. But they have not succeeded, on the contrary, they sink deeper.
Undoubtedly, Ung-ing is a nice and wealthy woman, but that doesn't mean she would make a good Prime Minister of Thailand.
Besides 'the daughter of', in my opinion she has not shown enough to be a charismatic leader with sufficient knowledge and management qualities to help the country get on the right track. That really has to come from all kinds of helpers around her, as was the case with Aunt Yingluck. An advantage would be if her father returns to Thailand and during her weekly visits to the prison, the Hilton Bangkok, she receives instructions from her father on what to do and what to say and what not. A clone of her father as Thaksin also called his sister.
All this will arouse the resentment not only of the conservative parties who will lose the elections, but also of coalition partner MFP who would rather lose Thaksin than rich when it comes to political ideas and influence. Ung-ing has shot all sorts of populist blanks about the plans of the Phue Thai, but none are concrete and some others may be doubted whether they are actually feasible. How do you give money to people who don't even have a bank account? In the PT, too, people at the top have no idea how the poor Thai live. I have also heard or read nothing about closing the gap between rich and poor. Where are the plans of this people's party for an increase in income tax for the rich, an import ban on certain luxury items, a law on tax evasion and speculation, confiscation of property that has been unused and empty for years????
In short: Uni-ing as a PM is asking for trouble.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2212707/petition-targets-thaksins-daughter
https://apnews.com/article/asia-poverty-southeast-thailand-bangkok-d2061c99acabb7ebd0bb3b36ee8f162e
How is it possible that there are intelligent people who believe that Thaksin will return voluntarily and then spend 10 years in captivity.
Whatever you think of them, at least he is not stupid, a deal has already been made at the highest level, otherwise he would not have made these statements.
I'm still not a fan of the Shinawat family, but I've heard positive stories about Yingluck as a manager/leader. She would be accessible, open to criticism (which is different with little brother) and be able to discuss the course to be followed. Reactions about her leadership at AIS are therefore mainly positive. For example, Duncan McCargo (asia expert) spoke of her “diplomatic skills and personal charm” and Suphachai Chearavanont (True Corp) that she “showed good leadership and remains calm”.
Although there are also criticisms of her, including Vallop Vitanakorn who gives her a six because she is under the influence of her brother, and that therefore “her leadership is not good as what she is capable of. It's not that she doesn't have leadership skills. She's not doing as badly as we feared, probably because of her background in property management.” Van Hasan Basar (director Bangkok PR agency) reproaches a lack of good leadership: “we need a leader who hits the table with his fist and can get the job done”.
In short: Yingluck was not the type of decisive leader who would come and say how things should be done, she talked to all kinds of people to map out a course together, while Thaksin clearly exerted his influence. I don't really like that man at all, so if Thaksin starts to interfere again with the course of PT and the course of the cabinet or prime minister (if this is going to be led by PT with Ung-ing) I will not be happy. I don't consider PT Ung-ing to be the best potential prime minister, but I still haven't heard enough about Ung-ing to form a well-founded opinion. If she were to compare to Aunt Krab then don't expect a national disaster. Provided PT does not come up with stupid proposals again, such as those tablets for students. Let's see first if she really wants to be prime minister after the elections.
Hopefully by then there will be a decent mini biography to be found (probably not, there is not much to be found about Yingluck either), in order to arrive at a more balanced judgement.
Source: including the Nation
A political leader, a political animal, knows when there is danger and when not.
A political animal in Thailand will never come up with such a broad amnesty law that everyone who has committed a crime in a certain period is pardoned. Yingluck did.
In addition to the extreme injustice, the law was clearly intended to pardon his brother for everything he had done (and for which he was and would be convicted) during that time period. If you submit such a law to parliament (and Yingluck did) you are not a bad but a very bad leader. Now something similar is in the offing when Ung-ing takes office.
Thaksin will and must return according to himself, and only a retirement visa for him as a single resident of Nicaragua and Montenegro (he has no valid Thai passport since 2016) and 10 years in prison is not enough. Work is being done, no pressure. for a solution.
But Chris, broad amnesty schemes so that criminals against the Thai country and people escape the dance and thus do not have to be held accountable is a true tradition that goes back many decades. If we start counting like this, there will be practically no prime minister left since 1932…
Let's hope Ung-ing and those who whisper things to her are wiser this time. But I think the chance that everyone who has done very wrong for many years end up in a regular prison is zero, Thaksin, Aphisit, Prayuth, Prawit and many others will, thanks to the beautiful way in which this country works to date, their deserved fate in this escape life…. Unfortunately.
What BROAD amnesty laws are you talking about here?
including the amnesty schemes of 1973, 1976 and 1992, which granted this to broad groups, under the motto of reconciliation, which amounted to a blank amnesty that avoided accountability. Or take the broad/general pardon in the 80s for those who fled into the jungle. The idea of a broad amnesty scheme did not come out of the blue. In Thailand, amnesty is a well-known way of throwing dust over things, cleaning up one's own and the streets of the hated neighbor so that accountability can be avoided. I am strongly against this, because it seriously damages democracy and the rule of law.
To return to the main topic: I hope that a new government will not opt for such an amnesty scheme. That does not solve the conflict and only makes it worse. Personally, I would rather reverse the amnesty schemes from the past (not going to happen). Let's see what kind of cabinet will emerge, possibly under a Shinawat prime minister. Only after the upcoming elections can we really judge her and, if necessary, punish her for her (mis)actions, leadership and so on. We will see.
In Thailand, a coup is punishable by death. Fortunately, the coup plotters write a new constitution that always ends with a full amnesty for their crimes. Those generals are smart political animals, don't you think Chris?
My comments were not about a coup but about introducing a bill in a regular parliament to grant amnesty to hundreds, if not thousands of Thais (including the ex-prime minister) before they have been charged with anything such as arson and murder, or turning it on. Not even a general pardon, but a blank pardon.
Many reactions to Ung-ing's candidacy for prime minister are (moderately) positive or are given the benefit of the doubt. Zie is an independent woman and makes her own choices.
What would the reaction be here on the blog, but also in Thailand, if Prayut's daughter were to run for prime minister for the PPRP? The same?
No Chris,
The reactions would be very different, all the more so because the Thai mr Prayut puke.
But because she most likely does speak the English language, that will be the only fact to trump her father.
That's measuring with double standards, isn't it?
The father either matters or doesn't matter, and I think that applies to both.
Incidentally, there are still several million Thais who will vote for Prayut or Prawit, so not everyone is tired of them.
Indeed, it shouldn't matter if a daughter of a well-known politician starts making headway and she certainly shouldn't be held accountable for how the father conducted his political dealings, but if such a daughter during her campaign profiles as "father's little girl" and in covert terms it has chosen to bring him back into exile, yes then the reactions quickly go in a different direction. Has all been thought about, with that the minds are ripened, see what it can take.