Two days after her election by parliament, Paetongtarn Shinawatra was endorsed by the Thai king to become the nation’s prime minister.
After taking the oath of office on Sunday, Paetongtarn, 37, became Thailand’s youngest prime minister.
She was appointed only a few days after Srettha Thavisin, the head of Thailand’s political unrest for two decades, was removed from office by the Constitutional Court.on It was a formality that House of Representatives Secretary Apat Sukhanand read out her approval as the new premier of the country by King Maha Vajiralongkorn at a ceremony in Bangkok.
“Following a royal clearance, Paetongtarn Shinawatra became prime minister of Thailand.”
Being the niece of Yingluck Shinawatra, the country’s first female prime minister, and the daughter of the divisive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn won nearly two-thirds of the vote in a House of Representatives vote on Friday.
Tony Cheng of Al Jazeera, reporting from Bangkok, stated that senior party leaders and coalition partners strongly support Thailand’s second female prime minister and leader of the Pheu Thai Party.Cheng stated that Srettha was present at the ceremony because the party wanted to maintain some continuity and not throw him under the bus. “She hasn’t chosen the cabinet yet, but we presume from the people who are with her today that her cabinet will be much the same as it was under her predecessor,” Cheng said.
Paetongtarn made a brief speech while kneeling in front of the king’s portrait as part of the royal endorsement.”I will perform my duties as head of the executive branch and work with the legislators with open hearts,” she declared. “I’ll pay attention to all viewpoints so that we can move the nation forward steadily together.”
Paetongtarn takes over an economically troubled nation where her party’s support is dwindling.
The recently elected leader declared during her first press conference that she would carry out the policies of her ally, her predecessor Srettha, including combating illegal drugs, enhancing the nation’s universal healthcare system, encouraging gender diversity, and implementing “major” economic stimulus and reform.
According to Cheng, a lot of Thai voters are worried about the economy and wonder why her party hasn’t implemented the digital wallet program, which promised to give each voter in Thailand $300.
As per the analysis of Bangkok-based news source Kaisar English columnist Pravit Rojanaphruk, Paetongtarn’s “bread and butter” problem will be the economy.
“The Thai economy has not been doing well over the past 10 years, nine of which have been under military and semi-military rule,” he told Al Jazeera from Singapore. “The public debt is high, and it is lagging behind its neighbour.”The prime minister also stated that she will consult with her father Thaksin rather than appointing him to any official role in the government, a move that is well-received by the government of the nation, the columnist continued.
Srettha’s tenure of less than a year was indicative of Thailand’s ongoing cycle of coups and court decisions that have led to the dissolution of political parties, the overthrow of numerous governments, and the removal of prime ministers.Paetongtarn faces additional challenges from the billionaire Shinawatra family, whose populist party lost its first election in over 20 years last year.
The anti-establishment Move Forward Party, which won the election last year, was dissolved earlier this month by the same court that dismissed Srettha over a cabinet appointment. The court cited the party’s efforts to change a royal insult law as a potential threat to the constitutional monarchy.
However, Rojanaphruk stated that there won’t likely be any concerns on that front with the new prime minister’s government.”Under the new prime minister, the government will make every effort to placate the military and royalists, ensuring that the royal defamation law remains unaffected,” he declared.
Since then, Pheu Thai’s main rival, the wildly popular opposition, has reorganised under the newly established People’s Party. Thus, according to Rojanaphruk, the nation is still split between them and the Pheu Thai Party.
(Al Jazeera)
