1 week ago
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Thailand’s constitutional court will decide on Friday whether suspended prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra should be removed from office over comments she made in a leaked phone call to the former leader of Cambodia.
Paetongtarn, Thailand’s youngest prime minister, was suspended last month after a recording was leaked of her phone conversation with Hun Sen, in which they discussed a simmering border dispute between the neighbouring countries.
Critics accused her of failing to protect Thailand’s interests during the call, in which she addressed Hun Sen as “uncle”, and told him that if there were anything he wanted, she would “take care of it”. She also made critical remarks about a senior Thai military commander.
Paetongtarn, daughter of the billionaire former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra, apologised for her comments, describing them a negotiating tactic.
However, the leaked conversation has created a major political crisis for her government, just one year after she took office.
A coalition partner quit her government in June, leaving her with only a slim majority, while thousands of protesters took to the streets of Bangkok, demanding her resignation.
Friday’s case stems from a petition filed by a group of senators in June, calling for her to be removed from office, accusing her of lacking integrity and violating ethical standards.
If Paetongtarn is removed, it is expected to usher in a new period of political instability in Thailand, because it is unclear who would replace her.
The call not only plunged Paetongtarn’s government into chaos but also marked a significant deterioration in Thai-Cambodian relations. Weeks after the recording was leaked, the border dispute erupted into a five-day conflict in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Anger over the phone call, and Paetongtarn’s handling of the border crisis, has been exacerbated by a perception that her family’s personal relationship with Hun Sen was undermining and interfering with Thailand’s national interests.
A full version of the recording was published by Hun Sen, who also threatened to release further compromising information about Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin. Hun Sen is known to have been an old friend of Thaskin’s, though, for unknown reasons, they are now locked in a bitter feud.
If removed from office, Paetongtarn will be the fourth member of her family to have their term cut short either by a military coup or court ruling. Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006, while in 2008 Thaksin’s brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat, who was prime minister briefly, was also forced from power by a court ruling. In 2014 Thaksin’s sister Yingluck was ousted by a court decision followed by a military coup.
The embattled family has been locked in a power struggle with Thailand’s military royalist establishment for decades, though its survival is also now threatened by a decline in support among voters.
