This week’s protest against the so-called “daddy-daughter” running of Thailand was small, but the names of those who led it shall not go unnoticed. It’s not every day that Warong Dechkitvikrom and Jatuporn Prompan were in the same demonstration fighting for the same cause.
It’s a no-brainer who are uniting the two, or trio if we add Sondhi Limthongkul. Thaksin Shinawatra is taking his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra by the hand to walk on the same tight rope. Everyone knew from Day One he would be helping her, but nobody expected things to be this outrageous.
A cynical analysis has it that, with each passing day, Thaksin is trying his best to make the Orange movement look adorable as a rebellious child who might not be as frightening as first feared. A conventional analysis will have it that the father-daughter combination must have the conservatives ask themselves: What on earth are we doing here?
Politics aside, it’s bad for Thailand. Thaksin may beg to differ, but what he is doing is undermining the very person that he loves and tries to protect. Paetongtarn is being overshadowed, and the more Thaksin speaks off the cuff drawing loud cheers, the more her reliance on a computer tablet while speaking about an important issue becomes glaring.
She will not get respect, one utmost important thing for leadership. And respect is a lot more crucial in today’s world, which requires the fledging prime minister to meet international leaders and be written about by foreign journalists on a regular basis.
She, not him, needs to defend the planned Entertainment Complex. It’s a very controversial project that the prime minister has to advocate aggressively, thoroughly and personally. She has to sacrifice herself at the frontline like when Srettha Thavisin was fighting tooth and nail for digital wallet.
Srettha made a mistake of sharing a VIP meal with Thaksin last year, but the latter is not the former’s father. Paetongtarn and Thaksin have been and will be a lot more at the same table than Srettha and Thaksin, a fact that does not escape anyone, particularly those flipping through legal restrictions books hell-bent on filing petitions.
If she is forced out of office because of Thaksin, the “persecution” rallying cry that drummed up sympathy for him would not work as well for her. Paetongtarn’s “maturity” has been questioned and so have her abilities to serve in the highest office. Her father is making things worse.
In the most recent interview, Jatuporn said the Entertainment Complex plan was being eyed with great suspicion already even without Thaksin. With Thaksin, Jatuporn charged, the scheme is a lot more suspicious, because it can realistically become a stepping stone for online gambling, which could become uncontrollable, destroy Thai human resources and benefit only businessmen and politicians with business connections.
A Sondhi clip was shown during the Jatuporn media interview. In it, the media mogul who led massive protests against Thaksin in mid 2000s confirmed that he and Jatuporn now shared an anti-Thaksin willpower and would work together to bring the man down.
Jatuporn led a world-renowned Red Shirt uprising in 2010 in downtown Bangkok. It was a pro-Thaksin fight but Jatuporn said he got to know “real” Thaksin ever since and mutual respect grew between him and Sondhi later. Today, Jatuporn talks more like a conservative than many conservatives themselves.
According to Jatuporn, the more afraid Thaksin is, the more aggressive Paetongtarn’s father will look or sound. The activist said Thais are having a front-row view of Thaksin’s defensive mechanism, shown amid a series of accumulating doubts involving the Thai-Cambodian disputed island, the digital wallet and the Entertainment Complex.
All of the aforementioned issues are reviving debate on the Shinawatras’ honesty, their alleged mixing up of business and political interests and even claims about downright corruption. Thaksin’s “Corruption my a**” remark at a Pheu Thai rally indicated paranoia, not belligerence, said Jatuporn.
Thailand’s parliamentary politics exists on a very fragile equilibrium, with the Pheu Thai Red forming a reluctant and begrudged alliance with the Yellow conservatives. It will not take much for the equilibrium to collapse, and at the epicenter of current tremors is Thaksin, one of the most sure-fire chaos agents.
Apart from controversial government projects that apparently carry his signature like the Entertainment Complex, Thaksin’s public remarks are very unpleasant to the conservative ears. In addition to the “Corruption, my a**” and “Sh**house committees” set up to investigate his alleged graft, Thaksin had boldly asked any unhappy government coalition partners to leave the Pheu Thai-led administration.
If Jatuporn was right, the Pheu Thai-led government will collapse soon, through a combination of legal crackdowns and public revolt. If Thaksin and Pheu Thai heavyweights were right, current disagreement among coalition partners was a normal thing, the People’s Party would not be able to repeat the amazing election feat of Move Forward, and Pheu Thai would remain the core of Thailand’s political power for a long, long time.
In other words, one side is saying that the tremors will just fade away, but the other is saying that a big earthquake is coming.
