Main photo : Thai PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Plaifah Kyoka Shodladd//Reuters, Plaifah
TIME magazine has named Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and gay rights activist Plaifah Kyoka Shodladd on the 2024 TIME100 Next list, which highlights emerging leaders who are shaping the future of the world.
According to TIME, Paetongtarn made history on August 18, just days before her 38th birthday, by becoming the youngest premier of Thailand.
“Her rise wasn’t exactly a shock. Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire media mogul who was elected Prime Minister in 2001, only to be deposed five years later,” wrote TIME.
Paetongtarn’s appointment as prime minister came after Thailand’s Constitutional Court removed Srettha Thavisin from the post.
TIME reported that, if the new Thai prime minister is to avoid her family’s legacy of political banishment, she must find ways to implement new economic policies while pacifying the nation’s power nexus, which loathes the upstart Shinawatra political dynasty.
TIME also reported that, when gay rights activist and author Plaifah spoke in Thailand’s parliament, the weight of a generation was on her shoulders.
“It felt like I was carrying my Gen Z–ness to really show that the parliament actually belongs to the people,” said Plaifah, 19.
She addressed lawmakers as a member of a committee on a landmark marriage equality bill.
Thailand will be the first Southeast Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage, and there’s more ahead, as activists set their sights on same sex reproductive rights and gender-recognition laws.
Plaifah believes that, if communities work in tandem, change is within reach. “The marriage-equality bill really showed us how important it was for intergenerational activism and how we can actually work together,” she said.
“Activism doesn’t happen only with one generation or one group of people.”
On October 9, TIME will host the fourth annual TIME100 Next event in New York, to celebrate the individuals featured on the 2024 list.
Now-defunct Move Forward party leader Pita Limjaroenrat has also been included on the TIME100 Next list of young global leaders to watch in 2023.
In 2019, three Thai individuals were chosen for TIME magazine's TIME100 Next list: Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom, and singer Lalisa "Lisa" Manoban of K-pop band Blackpink.
