Pheu Thai MPs keen to join party patriarch have been warned about skipping House sittings
PUBLISHED : 12 Mar 2024 at 15:07
From the enthusiasm of Pheu Thai politicians to the atmosphere around sites associated with Shinawatra family ancestors, all signs point to high anticipation for Thaksin Shinawatra’s first visit to his home province of Chiang Mai in almost two decades.
Justice Minister Thawee Sodsong said on Tuesday that the head of the Probation Department, Ruangsak Suwaree, had informed him about the former prime minister’s request to visit Chiang Mai from Thursday to Saturday. The reported purpose of the trip is to undergo alternative medical treatments and pay homage to his ancestors.
Thaksin is officially on parole until August. He was released last month from a hospital where he had spent six months of his one-year prison sentence — not a single night of it behind bars.
The minister did not say whether the Probation Department had approved the travel request. There has been no official confirmation about the northern visit from the Thaksin camp.
Thaksin, 74, must obtain approval from the department to leave his Bangkok residence as a condition of his parole. He continues to receive medical treatment for multiple illnesses, according to his family. He is not allowed to go abroad.
Despite the lack of confirmation about the trip, several key Pheu Thai Party politicians never denied it was being planned. Some expressed a wish to travel to Chiang Mai to greet the party founder but Wisut Chainarun, the government whip in Parliament, put the brakes on that idea.
Mr Wisut sought cooperation from Pheu Thai MPs to stay in Bangkok as Parliament has some draft laws to deliberate, said Somkid Chueakong, deputy secretary-general to the prime minister.
Former Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew said Thaksin should have opportunities to travel as long as it was not against doctors’ advice.
Thaksin was suffering from hypertension, narrowed blood vessels and hepatitis B when he arrived in Thailand last August after 15 years in self-exile abroad. Those health concerns were cited when prison officials approved his transfer to Police General Hospital just hours after his sentence officially began.
“If he is sick all year around and is not permitted to travel elsewhere, that is not fair,” Dr Cholnan said.
Thaksin’s planned visit from Thursday to Saturday happens to coincide with a plan by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who will be in the province from Friday to Sunday to monitor the forest fire and air pollution situation there. The prime minister has hinted at the possibility of the two meeting in the northern city.
The trip to Chiang Mai will be Thaksin’s first in 17 years.
Workers have been seen cleaning up the site where the remains of the Shinawatras are kept at Wat Rongtham Samakki in Khamphaeng Saen district, as well as the cemetery where the bodies of his father and mother were kept in Mae On district.
Thaksin is expected to pay homage to his ancestors at the two places on Friday.
The family has said that Thaksin also wants to pay respects to his eldest sister, Yaowaluck Khlongkhamnuankarn (her husband’s family name), who died of kidney disease and diabetes in March 2009 while he was abroad.
Worachai Hema, a red-shirt leader and adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, said last week that red-shirt supporters in Chiang Mai and surrounding provinces remain loyal to and respect Thaksin.
They plan to gather at Wat Rongtham Samakki in the hope of meeting Thaksin on Friday, he said.