September 21, 2024: Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s latest transactions involving Alpine stocks were meant to guard against a lethal constitutional ambush, but they could be used against her still.
All of her Alpine shares have been transferred to her mother, meaning that, legally, the prime minister does not have anything to do with the controversial golf club. But the activity also confirmed the fact that she did, for a long time and up until very recently. This, coupled with some more crucial facts, can be a political bomb.
The first fact has to do with a court ruling sentencing a former Pheu Thai leader, Yongyuth Wichaidit, to jail. He was accused of malfeasance while serving as acting permanent secretary for interior regarding a ministerial order facilitating a highly-controversial ownership transfer.
The land on which the golf course is situated had been donated to a southern temple, but thanks largely to Yongyuth, it was taken over by private developers and the property ended up in the hands of the Shinawatras at the height of their political powers. (One key explanation for the transformation of the property was that the donated land and the southern temple were too far apart.)
The second fact is what the Constitutional Court said regarding ex-prime minister Srettha Thavisin’s appointment of Pichit Chuenban to his Cabinet. “Integrity”, albeit ethics, was outstanding in that verdict, paving the way for future harsh action against politicians who may not have directly violated the law but can be perceived as having acted unethically.
The third fact is the Shinawatras holding firmly onto the property despite major legal as well as ethical questions and what happened to Yongyuth. This can be interpreted two ways. It can be perceived as “in defiance of the law”, or the Shinawatras can argue that they have the right to protect their investment until the very end.
The fourth fact concerns Yongyuth’s political career path, what happened while Paetongtarn’s father Thaksin was prime minister, and recent written evidence of the Shinawatras as Alpine owners acknowledging potential legal hiccups due to the ownership questions.
All these can be used against Paetongtarn in a possible Constitutional Court battle.
As far as the conservatives are concerned, the Alpine case has a “Thaksin signature”, in that controversial ownerships are transferred to those who were less likely to have legal problems while in practice nothing significantly changes. Also, an infamous characteristic of Thaksin’s reign, the issue of conflict of interest, can flare up again once the Paetongtarn government is pressured to take a serious look at the Alpine ownership question.
Daily updates of local and global developments by Tulsathit Taptim
