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After months of speculation on whether the once powerful Palang Pracharat party (PPRP) would remain in the coalition or not, the axe has finally fallen on the party and its leadership. They are out of the power for the 1st time since 2014 coup that ousted the Yingluck Shinawatra government.
PPRP, the party that was formed after the 2014 coup as the party that would continue the power of the coup makers including the now privy council member – Prayut Chan-o-cha, has finally met its fate of becoming irrelevant in Thailand’s pollical landscape.
The so called 3-Ps (Prayut, Prawit and Anupong) were the leaders of the PPRP that was formed in the aftermath of the 2014 coup and tricked its way into power after the 2019 elections that had seen Pheu Thai party win the elections.
It was Pheu Thai party’s new Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and her father – former Prime Minister – Thaksin Shinawatra, who had declared that they would one day close the lid of the 3-Ps.
Coup leader Prayut managed to escape the various possible cases by exiting politics and being appointed the Privy Councilor, while the other P (Anupong Paochinda, who was the interior minister all the way from 2014 until 2023) managed to exit politics by announcing that he would bid farewell to political life and would not contest the May 2023 elections.
The only P left in the game was Prawit Wongsuwan, who is infamous for borrowing million-dollar watches from ‘friends’ who are all dead.
Prawit had not given up on his dream of one day becoming ‘Prime Minister’. He had an opportunity when General Prayut was asked by the Constitutional Court to stop working in August 2022, while the court deliberated on whether Prayut had breached the 8-year term limit on the position of premiership. In the end the court allowed Prayut to continue until the end of his government’s term in May 2023.
Lust For Power
But the taste of blood by Prawit made him greedy and lust for power had driven the frail 79-year-old former chief of the army to do all in his power to get to the top position at any cost.
While being in the 11-party coalition, Prawit failed to appear on August 22, 2023, when the vote for the Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was taking place. Then again on August 16, 2024, when the vote was taking place for Paetongtarn, he failed to appear at the voting citing the need to greet the Olympic medalists who had returned to Bangkok from the Paris Olympics.
Greeting Olympians could have waited but then why would Prawit be there when it was not him and it was reportedly his people who had petitioned the Constitutional Court on the morality of Srettha for appointing a person of dubious credentials to the Cabinet.
PPRP and its members were the black sheep in the Cabinet for the 358 days that Srettha was the Prime Minister, with many not attending the meetings and not following the orders including not helping in the sorting out of the PM2.5 problems when they were happening in late 2023. No actions were taken despite Prawit’s brother – Patcharawat, who was the Natural Resources & Environment minister along with Deputy Prime Minister.
Thaksin’s Revenge
Reports of a possible exclusion of PPRP and its renegade members were initially reported soon after the fall of Srettha’s government. Thaksin had even before that incident had said that the PPRP was behind the move to petition the court against Srettha.
In later interviews Thaksin explicitly stated that members of PPRP who are loyal to Pheu Thai government would be considered for Cabinet but those on the opposite side would be dealt with.
Then came the issue of split in the PPRP, with the drug dealing convict – Thammanat Prompao, managing to show his strength in the party with as many as 29 and a few other independent MPs with a total of 34.
Then yesterday Prawit had his show of force and as many as 20 of the 40 MPs in the PPRP showed up at his lunch party.
This means both (as of now) Prawit and Thammanat, control 20 MPs each.
Despite having a faction of PPRP support Pheu Thai government from outside, as many as 2-3 people from the faction of Thammanat or its nominees would be appointment Ministers or Deputy Minister as a reward for helping the Pheu Thai government.
End Game for Prawit
It is never good to make a statement of ‘End Game’ in the volatile arena of politics but with the ripe age of 79 and no major successor to play the game of chess like Prawit does, the fact that he is likely to be out of political arena for the next 3-years, can safely make us say that it is the ‘End Game’ for Prawit.
Prawit, who has been masterminding the various moves be it the move to put Abhisit Vejjajiva into Prime Minister in 2008 and taking up the as Minister of Defense, to the coup against Yingluck in 2014, has finally met his match – Thaksin.
Thaksin, who had declared that it was time to finally switch off the 3-Ps power even before he landed back from his 15+ years of self-exile, has finally managed to shut the power off for Prawit, the last of the 3-Ps that had been struggling to rise.
Although, as stated, it is never good to say in politics that it is the ‘End Game’ but with the PPRP, that in 2019 had won 115 seats and then in 2023 won a mere 40 seats, has seen at least 20 of the 40 MPs defect with the convicted drug dealer – Thammanat.
The writing on the wall was very clear for Prawit soon after the elections in 2023 when the party won a mere 40 seats, exit while you can or adapt to the changing environment or else be the dinosaur and become extinct. Well, it looks like the Prawit chose the path to be the modern age dinosaur.