THAILAND Judicial warnings from the military establishment to Pheu Thai

First, a trial against Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin for the appointment of a minister, then the accusations of “lese majeste” directly against Thaksin Shinawatra, who regains prominence on the political scene. The alliance between the archenemies that a year ago prevented the electoral victory of Move Forward is shaking in Bangkok.

Bangkok () – Two judicial processes are shaking Thai politics and risk damaging the fragile relations between the two “souls” of the majority in power for less than a year. The first is against Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, a member of Pheu Thai, a party whose historical reference is former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has also historically been the archrival of his current partner in the government, the military leader Palang Pracharath. A week ago the Constitutional Court accepted the request of some forty senators to open a case against the head of the Executive for alleged irregularities in the appointment of members of his cabinet.

If the accusation is proven, it would mean his dismissal. This is based on the appointment as head of the Prime Minister’s Office of Pichit Chuenban, who was involved in 2008 in an attempted bribery of a member of the Court who was judging the purchase of land by then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Pichit submitted his resignation last Tuesday to avoid Srettha being involved. In the same government reorganization that led to Pichit’s appointment on April 23, the current heads of Finance and Foreign Relations were appointed.

This is another legal measure by a Senate appointed exclusively by the military and pro-monarchist establishment, despite the fact that new elections are approaching with different rules and composition. The Senate played a decisive role in preventing the party that won in the May 2023 elections, the progressive Move Forward, from having a chance to lead the country. That is why many observers believe that the court case against Thavisin would be a warning for Thaksin’s renewed activism.

The latter – who returned from voluntary exile in August 2023 and served in a hospital, in conditions of semi-freedom, the remainder of a sentence after his departure from the country in 2008 following the military coup of September 2006 – is in freedom, but he could return to prison because yesterday the Attorney General accused him again of treason. It is one of the most serious and controversial charges in the Thai legal system. The measure – aggravated in this case by complaints from groups opposed to Thaksin’s return to the political scene and his return to activism in the “strongholds” of the north and east of the country and in conversations with representatives of ethnic groups who fight in Myanmar against the military junta – refers to an interview he gave on May 21, 2015 to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.

On that occasion, the former prime minister in exile would have stated that some members of the King’s Privy Council were involved in the May 2014 coup d’état with which the armed forces put an end to the Government headed by Thaksin’s younger sister, Yingluck. Shinawatra.

The lese majeste law has been used in dozens of cases. The last one, from a few days ago, to persecute Chonthicha Jangrew, Move Forward deputy, and Chaiamorn Kaewwiboonpan, a well-known dissident musician. Both were granted bail pending trial.