The recent censure debate targeting Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra took a bizarre twist when MPs set aside accusations of tax avoidance and went to war over a word.
The battle diverted public attention from opposition allegations against the prime minister, who was the sole target of the grilling on Monday and Tuesday.
The word in question went viral on social media, leaving many people scratching their heads and searching Google for its meaning.
The heated exchange was triggered when opposition People’s Party MP Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn alleged the PM had avoided over 200 million baht in tax when she received 4.4 billion baht in family stocks in 2016.
Wiroj said Paetongtarn, who assumed office last August, used promissory notes to purchase the shares from five family members – her mother, sister, brother, uncle, and aunt-in-law. However, the absence of a payment date or interest rate in the notes suggested a plot to avoid paying 218.7 million baht in inheritance tax on the share transfer, he asserted.
Paetongtarn denied the allegation, calling Wiroj’s claim that she had exploited a tax loophole “pure imagination”. Although she was rescued by overwhelming support from government coalition MPs in Wednesday’s post-debate vote, many observers were unconvinced by her explanations.
Ambiguous word
Wiroj’s fiery grilling of the prime minister sparked an angry response from ruling Pheu Thai MPs, who rallied in defence of their party leader.
Wiroj contemptuously dismissed their protests, branding the lawmakers “Kiki”, after the evil henchmen in the popular Japanese superhero series “Masked Rider” (Kamen Rider) of the 1970s and 1980s.
He explained that the henchmen made the sound “kiki” when fighting the protagonist to soften him up before their boss arrived. However, these thuggish minions were so weak that the Masked Rider always ended up easily defeating them, the opposition MP added.
Insulted by the term, Pheu Thai MPs rose to protest and demanded that Wiroj retract it. Wiroj demurred, insisting there was nothing wrong with the word.
‘Vulgar and dirty’
However, Deputy PM and Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai challenged that assertion, saying that a quick Google search showed that Tagalog speakers in the Philippines use “kiki” as a slang term for “vagina”.
“This word is vulgar, crude, and dirty,” he said, going further by accusing Wiroj of directing it towards female politicians.
“The focus should be on allegations against the prime minister, not on using a suggestive term to devalue others. I think this was a lack of maturity,” the deputy premier said.
LGBTQ slang
Online dictionary Tagalog.com defines “kiki” as slang for vagina – a meaning echoed in online communities such as Quora and Reddit.
The controversy in Parliament quickly spread to Thai social media, where “Kiki” began trending on sites like X.
Google registered over 1,000 searches for “Kiki” in Thai on Tuesday alone, as the two-day censure debate came to a close. Typical search terms were, “What is kiki?” and “What does kiki mean?”.
Lost in translation?
The confusion likely stems from the fact that the “kiki” Wiroj referred to is a sound, not a word. Additionally, few lawmakers seemed to be familiar with Masked Rider, which was popular in Thailand three decades ago when Wiroj was a teenager.
Even older politicians like Phumtham, 71, and House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, 80, failed to grasp Wiroj’s allusion. The nonplussed House speaker even interrupted the debate to ask him what “kiki” meant.
Some observers have suggested Phumtham deliberately misinterpreted the word as a tactic to deflect attention from attacks on his boss, Paetongtarn. Meanwhile, the debate over “kiki” continues.
