Updated: 112, 3Ps and popularity

A reader points out that Puea Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra’s Article 112 travails may be politically useful for the party. It is a point worth considering.

Thaksin’s recent attack on General Prawit Wongsuwan as the one responsible for Thaksin’s and Puea Thai’s current political problems is a way of reminding the public and Thaksin’s supporters that the previous regime, with which the party is now shacked up in a coalition government, is still an enemy.

Prawit is often considered the main protagonist in the 2014 military coup and the junta that followed. As the linked report notes, Prawit “was the key power centre everyone sought to align with.” It adds that “though Prawit’s influence appears to be waning in the current political climate, he is far from being powerless.”

It is now widely “believed he was the mastermind behind the petition 40 senators filed with the Constitutional Court against Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.”

Thaksin also seems to know that it was Prawit his lese majeste charge being reactivated. He has reminded the public that “the lese majeste charges against him had been fabricated when the ‘3 Ps’ were in power.” He means “brothers in arms, ex-PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha, former deputy PM General Prawit ‘Pom’ and former interior minister General Anupong ‘Pok’ Paochinda.”

At the same time, Thaksin is reminding the voting public that it was the regime led by the three generals that they rejected in the 2023 election, and by implication, the poor performance of the current Puea Thai-led government is due to the old guys and their interfering.

As the story observes, “Thaksin’s aggressive stance may cause turbulence for Srettha’s government as all eyes are on coalition partner Palang Pracharath Party to see if it will lose its grip on power due to the Thaksin-Prawit clash.” It is also an expression of exasperation from Thaksin regarding the party’s declining popularity.

It is a political tightrope.

Our reader also suggests that these machinations also remind members Move Forward that, if the party is dissolved, Puea Thai may be another home for party jumping MPs.

Update: As is often the case, politics is murky at present. Indeed, The Nation newspaper  has two reports today that reflect on the events noted above.

One report states “Old junta power bloc has launched legal assault to regain power.” It adds: “Analysts say rulings in the cases may see power shift decisively back to the “Ban Pa” faction led by General Prawit Wongsuwan.”

A second report argues that General Prawit and his Palang Pracharath Party is is trouble, seemingly predicting that decisions from the Constitutional Court will go against the general and his party.

Such contradictory reports suggest just how much behind the scenes maneuvering is going on.