Former prime minister believes the country is on the right track ten years after the revolution that ended her.
PUBLISHED: 22 May 2024 at 20: 45
Yingluck Shinawatra, the former prime minister, claims that now that the country has reverted to a democratic path ten years after the coup that overthrew her government, there is still hope at the end of the tunnel.
On Wednesday, the tenth anniversary of the military coup led by Gen. Prayut Chan- o cha, Yingluck stated in comments posted on X that she had hope for the future.
” Ten years have passed”, she wrote. Since May 22, 2014, it has been a while, and now my hope for a restored democracy in Thailand is rising.
In a pending outcome of a malfeasance case, the coup toppled a caretaker government led by Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, who was appointed caretaker prime minister after Yingluck was suspended by the Constitutional Court on May 7.
The case was brought on by the Yingluck order that allowed Thawil Pliensri, who then served as the head of the National Security Council ( NSC), to serve as an adviser to the prime minister. He was relaced by Pol Gen Wichean Potephosree, then the national police chief.
The transfer of Pol Gen Wichean in turn created a vacancy in the police chief’s office for Pol Gen Priewphan Damapong, a deputy who happened to be the brother of Potjaman na Pombejra, the ex- wife of Yingluck’s brother Thaksin Shinawatra.
The Supreme Court in December 2023 ultimately acquitted Yingluck of malfeasance , in the case filed by Thawil.
Yingluck fled the country in 2017, just before the Supreme Court handed her a five-year sentence for bringing an end to corruption-stricken rice sales, one of the biggest graft cases in the country, where hundreds of billions of baht were lost.
Yingluck also expressed her confidence that Thailand will have a new constitution mandated by the people in her social media post on Wednesday.
” We are waiting for a new charter that will lead Thailand back towards real democracy”, she wrote.
In a related development, the main opposition group, Move Forward, cautioned the public that Prayut’s remnants are still “roots and branches” spreading.
In a Facebook comment on the party’s Facebook page, the group claimed that despite two general elections held in 2019 and the other last year, many people have not seen a positive development in the nation over the past ten years.
The party claimed that it was because a powerful Prayut system was deeply entrenched and made adaptable to change by a complex web of political elements.
A large network of people and organizations that have benefited from the coup in 2014 are among those elements, according to the party.
These individuals and organizations continue to enjoy privileges brought on by political, economic, and social structures intended to preserve the status quo of the unelected, according to the statement, which appears to be referring in part to the appointed senators ‘ term, which has recently expired, and their right to participate in the selection of a new prime minister.