BANGKOK: Newly elected Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra outlined her government’s policies on Tuesday in a parliamentary debate that may show whether she can escape the long shadow of her self-exiled brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thailand’s first female prime minister and her government will face tough questions during two days of debate over its populist programmes and ties to Thaksin, a billionaire former telecommunications tycoon overthrown in a 2006 military coup who lives in Dubai to escape a jail term for corruption.
Yingluck, a 44-year-old political novice barely known to the public four months ago, said her priority was to stabilise the economy and boost incomes with policies ranging from corporate tax cuts to debt relief for farmers, village development funds and lower fuel prices.
”We will administrate the country with honesty and efficiency to bring the country toward prosperity, reconciliation and justice,” she said during an address.
That may be easier said than done. She has faced a turbulent two weeks in office, bombarded by questions about a possible amnesty or constitutional amendments that would help Thaksin return home without going to jail — a prospect that could trigger legal challenges and revive an anti-Thaksin protest movement.
The debate offers her a chance to assert her independence and shake criticisms she is a mere stand-in for her brother, who transformed Thai politics by courting the poor and scoring landslide election wins in 2001 and 2005 before he was felled by corruption charges he says were politically motivated.
Speaking in Tokyo on Tuesday, Thaksin dismissed assertions his sister was his proxy and said he wouldn’t meddle in her government.
”She has her own right and leadership to run the country … Whenever she needs advice, she calls me, I give her advice, that’s all,” Thaksin said. ”I act like an encyclopaedia… she can feel free to open it she can close it any time. That’s it.”
Asked about his possible return, he said he would hold off until Thailand’s rival political factions find peace. ”I don’t want to fuel any more conflict. I just want to be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.”
That, too, looks difficult. Thaksin is at the heart of a sometimes violent five-year political conflict that broadly pits his business allies and his mostly lower-class ”red shirt” supporters against the army’s top brass, a conservative elite and a royalist, urban middle-class.
About 400 red shirts massed outside parliament in support of Yingluck as some 100 rival anti-Thaksin protesters gathered to submit a letter to the house chairman urging him to ensure the government does not amend the constitution or craft policies that benefit the Shinawatra family.
The government took the unusual step of asking the opposition not to refer to Thaksin during the two-day debate, saying it would be irrelevant.
Thaksin’s decision to visit Japan this week, and the government’s alleged role in securing a visa for him, have put Yingluck in a tight spot. (UNI)
Opposition politicians sharply criticised the visa, calling Thaksin a fugitive from justice.
Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party swept to power in a landslide election win on July 3 with a programmes that tapped her brother’s support among the rural and urban poor, offering for instance wage increases and better rice prices for farmers.
Thaksin promoted a similar brand of populism in what became known as ”Thaksinomics”, pumping billions of dollars into Thailand’s rural economy to stimulate consumption.
Under Thaksin, money funnelled into villages through a debt moratorium for farmers and cheap loans had a knock-on effect on the whole economy, fuelling a boom in household spending.
Policies outlined on Tuesday matched most of Yingluck’s campaign promises, although no timeframe was given for when a fixed daily minimum wage of 300 baht (10 dollar), the most popular and controversial of the pledges, would come into play. That wage would be about a 40 per cent rise from the national average.
Yingluck had previously said it would be implemented at the start of the new year.
Also notable was a change to the previous government’s plan to build a high-speed rail line connecting Bangkok with Thailand’s northeastern border with Laos. Yingluck announced three lines would be constructed linking Bangkok with population centres in the north, northeast and the upper south.
That is likely to raise questions about whether a 400 million dollar loan to build a high-speed rail line, agreed in principle with China in March, would still go ahead. China is pushing an ambitious connectivity plan with Southeast Asia and has provided funding, materials, labour and expertise for rail projects already underway in Laos and Myanmar.
Thailand’s economy is the most urgent matter for Yingluck. Data on Monday showed Thai GDP contracted in the second quarter from the first, buttressing her government’s argument for aggressive stimulus spending and income support.
Even so, some economists say a huge, abrupt increase in the minimum wage and other aspects of the programme could accelerate inflation and put small firms out of business.
There are also concerns that Thailand’s ratio of debt as a proportion of total economic output could exceed 60 per cent, generally regarded as the safe limit for developed economies, although the current level of 42 per cent gives the government some leeway on spending.