By Devjyot Ghoshal and Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) -It was a Thai court decision last year that swept Paetongtarn Shinawatra into the prime minister’s office and now, once again, the fate of the 38-year-old novice politician lies in the hands of the judiciary.
The Constitutional Court suspended Paetongtarn – Thailand’s youngest prime minister – from office on Tuesday, pending a case that seeks her dismissal over a controversial phone call last month with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.
“I want to apologize to people who are upset by all of this,” Paetongtarn told reporters on the steps of Government House in Bangkok, where she only took office last August after the shock dismissal of her predecessor by a court order.
“I will continue to work for the country as a Thai citizen,” she said, “I don’t have any bad intentions.”
The suspension order capped two tumultuous weeks in Thai politics, triggered by the leak of the call between Hun Sen and Paetongtarn, in which she appears to pander to the Cambodian strongman and then denigrate a Thai military commander.
Criticism of the military, which holds an outsized influence over domestic affairs, including politics, crossed a red line for many in Thailand and instantly drew a backlash, particularly from the conservative-royalist camp.
The June 15 leak, and the subsequently release of the entire call by Hun Sen, came at a delicate time for Paetongtarn and her ruling Pheu Thai party, already struggling with a floundering economy and a shaky coalition as well as a festering border dispute with Cambodia.
Although Paetongtarn apologised for the call and described its contents as a negotiation tactic, a major coalition partner, the Bhumjaithai party, walked out of the government just hours after the leak, leaving her alliance’s parliamentary majority hanging by a thread.
Still, Paetongtarn – the daughter of Thailand’s influential but divisive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – dug in, and managed to hold together the remainder of her coalition.
“The country must move forward,” she said on June 22. “Thailand must unite and push policies to solve problems for the people.”
By then, a group of 36 senators had already submitted a petition to the Constitutional Court seeking the premier’s dismissal.
The judicial push coincided with growing public discontent against the prime minister, which culminated in a massive anti-government rally on Saturday.
Several thousand people gathered in the heart of the Thai capital, braving intensive monsoon rains, to rally for hours.
“Ung Ing, get out,” they chanted occasionally in unison, calling the prime minister by a nickname.
In an opinion poll released on Sunday, Paetongtarn’s approval stood at 9.2% in June, sharply down from 30.9% in March.
‘DADDY’S GIRL’
The youngest of Thaksin’s three children, Paetongtarn has spent much of her life in the shadow of the father’s political career, which began in 1994 and led to him becoming prime minister in 2001.
Thaksin was ousted in a coup five years later, but went on to push his younger sister, Yingluck into the premiership in 2011. But she was forced out of office by a court ruling.
The decades-long power struggle between Thailand’s conservative-royalist camp and the Shinawatra clan featured in Paetongtarn’s campaign to help her family win back power in the 2023 general election, where Pheu Thai only came second.
After the election-winning Move Forward party was blocked by military-appointed lawmakers from taking power, Pheu Thai engineered a parliamentary majority to form a government led initially by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
It was Srettha’s dismissal last August that allowed Paetongtarn to take his place – although she had never held any government position before becoming prime minister.
Educated at Chulalongkorn University and Britain’s University of Surrey, she was primarily involved in the Shinawatra family businesses.
Much of her 10-month premiership has also been overshadowed by the looming presence of Thaksin, who returned to Thailand in 2023 after over a decade-and-a-half in self-exile to avoid a prison term – and now potentially again faces jail time.
For Paetongtarn, however, that appeared to be of little concern.
“I’m a daddy’s girl,” she told parliament in March, referring to Thaksin. “I am like that completely. I am a daddy’s girl, 100%.”
(Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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