In the continuing onslaught on his former longtime ally, Thaksin Shinawatra, Cambodia’s strongman Hun Sen claims that Thaksin had sought advice and input concerning Thai political affairs nearly every day in the past two decades.
Hun Sen said he was revealing this information because some Thai intellectuals had remarked that he seemed to have an unusually clear understanding of Thailand's political landscape.
“How could I not, when Thaksin has been providing me with updates and soliciting my input nearly every day, every week or every month, depending on his workload? None of this had to do with Cambodian affairs, but his politics in Thailand,” he said, according to the Khmer Times.
His statement came almost a week after Thaksin declared on stage in Bangkok that his decades-long relationship with Hun Sen was over, due to what Hun Sen had done to his daughter, suspended PM Paetongtarn.
Hun Sen said he would need several hours to reveal all the information related to what he claimed were Thaksin’s alleged insults directed at Thailand’s most revered institution.
On the evening of June 15th, Thaksin allegedly conveyed, through Khlang Huot (a translator and Hun Sen’s close aide), that Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul, then deputy prime minister and interior minister, must be removed so that the Pheu Thai could take control of the ministry.
“Remove him, but be ready to be removed,” Hun Sen claims to have responded.
Referring to Thaksin’s claim that Hun Sen had trapped Paetongtarn into a one-on-one conversation, which was to be secretly recorded, Hun Sen said he was not surprised by what he considered a betrayal, adding “He (Thaksin) even betrayed his own nation, so it comes as no shock that he would betray someone of a different nationality like me.”
Thaksin should not forget how much he confided in me, seeking my advice, such as removing a defence minister within 24 hours and his insults about the Thai monarchy, alleged Hun Sen.
