Characters | Thailand's youngest prime minister, 37 years old, comes from the Thaksin family
2024-08-16
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After Prime Minister Setha was dismissed because his qualifications for office were ruled unconstitutional, 37-year-old Pheu Thai Party leader Petunthan was elected as Thailand's new prime minister on the 16th, becoming the youngest prime minister in Thai history and the country's second female prime minister.
At only 37 years old, a political novice who had just entered politics a few years ago, how did Petuntan quickly step into the center of the political stage?
Rising to the top
Petunthan was born on August 21, 1986 and is the youngest daughter of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin.
During her high school years, she attended St. Joseph's Convent School in Bangkok and Maet Dei High School, a famous aristocratic girls' school in Thailand.
In 2008, Petunthan graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at Chulalongkorn University with a bachelor's degree in political science, sociology and anthropology.
However, it was revealed that Petunthan might have been admitted to a prestigious Thai university without meeting the required score line, and the incident of Thaksin's daughter allegedly obtaining admission through the "backdoor" caused a sensation.
After graduating from university, Petuntan went to the UK to study at the prestigious University of Surrey, where he obtained a master's degree in international hotel management.
After returning to his country, Petuntan helped manage his family's business empire and managed hotel-related industries.
Thanks to her family's strong business, Petone is a natural in the business world. She is a major shareholder of SC Assets, a Thai real estate giant, and a director of the Thaicom Foundation - her father Thaksin Shinawatra is a "telecom tycoon" with a net worth of billions. As of 2022, Petone holds shares in 21 companies worth about 68 billion baht.
After his father and aunt Yingluck were successively ousted from the prime minister's throne, Petunthan seemed to have become the successor who was favored and carefully cultivated within the family.
Since joining the Pheu Thai Party, which is actually led by his father Thaksin, in 2019, Petunthan has been on a rapid rise.
In 2020, he was elected as a member of the Lower House of the Thai Parliament; in 2021, he became a political adviser to the Pheu Thai Party, including serving as chairman of the Pheu Thai Party's Advisory Committee on Inclusion and Innovation; in March 2022, he was appointed leader of the "Thai Family" - a position specially created for Petunthan by the Pheu Thai Party; in October 2023, he was elected leader of the Pheu Thai Party.
In the 2023 Thai general election, Petunthan was one of the three prime ministerial candidates of the Pheu Thai Party. He once led the polls and was widely believed to be likely to become the prime minister of Thailand.
Petunthan holds liberal positions on social issues, including support for LGBT rights and a bill legalizing same-sex marriage passed in Thailand earlier this year.
She also supports constitutional reform and abolishing conscription. However, she opposes changing the lèse-majesté law. Petuntan also takes a tough stance on the fight against drugs.
Why did it become so popular?
From the business world to the political world, in just a few years, Petuntan's popularity has risen steadily and he has quickly risen to the pinnacle of power. The outside world believes that this is supported by a series of factors such as family strength, his father's political achievements, and personal charm.
Petunthan comes from the famous Thaksin family, which has produced three prime ministers before, namely her father Thaksin, aunt Yingluck, and uncle Somchai.
Although Thaksin's family was "overturned" several times in political turmoil, and Thaksin himself was in exile abroad for 15 years and only returned to the country last year, his political influence has not been diluted.
The Thaksin family still has a large number of die-hard supporters in Thailand, who are mainly from the lower classes in cities and rural areas. This is mainly due to the achievements made by Thaksin when he was in power and the political legacy he left behind.
During his tenure as prime minister, Thaksin led Thailand out of the financial crisis and achieved economic development. His policies such as universal health insurance and public utility subsidies were also widely welcomed by the public.
The reason why Petuntan had a smooth political career can be said to be largely due to his family reputation and his father's political achievements.
However, Petuntan does not rely solely on her family's capital. She is also very hardworking and has a lot of energy and charm.
During last year's general election, Petunthan took part in various political activities and political propaganda rallies, including participating in the Bangkok mayoral election and campaigning for Pheu Thai Party candidates.
At that time, she put forward the Pheu Thai Party's campaign slogan - "Think boldly, act smartly, for all Thais."
Petunthan promised to usher in a new era of social equality and to help Thailand's poor, especially farmers, out of their plight.
It is worth mentioning that when Petuntan "fought" in last year's general election, she was pregnant and gave birth to her second child during that period. She returned to the campaign shortly after giving birth.
With Petunthan's active efforts, the Pheu Thai Party expanded rapidly, with the number of party members increasing from 8 million to 14 million.
As a new generation of politician, Petuntan is not only good-looking and energetic, but also can cleverly use the charm of his father Thaksin to attract fans. On the social media Instagram, Petuntan will share his daily life from time to time, and his father Thaksin's figure is often cleverly included in the photos. These "down-to-earth" interactions have brought Petuntan a large number of fans.
Higher risk?
As the youngest prime minister in Thailand's history and the second female prime minister, Petunthan faces political prospects that may be more challenging than glorious.
With the dissolution of the Far East Party, the largest party in the lower house of parliament, and the dismissal of Prime Minister Setiawan, Thai politics is now sliding into a new period of turbulence.
Public opinion believes that the two surprising rulings of the Constitutional Court mean that after a brief reconciliation, political conservative forces such as the royalists and the military and the populist forces represented by Thaksin may once again engage in fierce struggle and game.
Although Thaksin's family has produced three prime ministers before, from Thaksin to Yingluck, almost all of them could not escape the fate of stepping down.
At the same time, Thailand's economic recovery after the epidemic was slow, far behind many other ASEAN countries. When Setth was in power, he also caused public dissatisfaction due to the slow implementation of economic policies.
After being nominated as the prime ministerial candidate, Petunthan issued a statement saying that the ruling coalition led by the Pheu Thai Party will help Thailand cope with the economic crisis.
Public opinion believes that how to boost the economy and regain public trust will be a major challenge for the new government.
"She may be attacked." Titipol Pakdivani, a political scientist at Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University, said Petunthan faces a higher risk. If the Pheu Thai Party cannot make any contribution, the political career of the Thaksin family may come to an end.
Is the 37-year-old Petuntan ready to take on the heavy responsibility and risks? Can he avoid the "curse" and govern smoothly in the future? We will have to wait and see.
Column Editor: Yang Liqun Text Editor: Yang Liqun Title Image Source: Xinhua News AgencyReproduction of this article without formal authorization is strictly prohibited, and infringement will be prosecuted
