In a phone conversation, Shinawatra called the former Cambodian leader ”uncle” and criticized the Thai military commander as a ”rival”, which led to a court case demanding that he should be dismissed from the post of prime minister.
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Thailand's Constitutional Court suspended Prime Minister Petongtarn Shinawatra on Tuesday. The court has suspended Shinawatra at a time when he is under intense pressure to resign after his phone conversation with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen was 'leaked'.
Shinawatra claimed that the purpose of the phone conversation was "for the good of the country" and apologized to the public on Tuesday. "I had no intention of calling for my own interests," she said, "I was only thinking about how to avoid chaos, how to avoid fighting and how to save more people's lives. If you listen carefully to that phone conversation, you can understand that I had no bad intentions." A Cambodian soldier was killed in border clashes last May. In the "leaked" phone conversation, Shinawatra called the former Cambodian leader "uncle" and criticized the Thai military commander as his "rival", causing public outrage. After that, there was a case in the court saying that he should be dismissed from the post of Prime Minister .
Conservative MPs have accused him of bowing to Cambodia and weakening the military, saying he violated constitutional provisions requiring ministers to have "obvious integrity" and "ethical standards". The constitutional court has ordered the suspension of the prime minister until the issue is resolved, as the issue of whether or not Shinawatra violated the ethics of the council of ministers during the border dispute is under consideration. Seven judges voted against two in favor of suspending him in that case .
Shinawatra has been given 15 days to present his defence. Meanwhile, the Deputy Prime Minister will act as the Acting Prime Minister of the country . After the latest phone conversation was "leaked", thousands of people protested against his leadership in Bangkok. After his aides resigned, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn approved Shinawatra's cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday. Shinawatra has been made Minister of Culture in the reshuffled cabinet a few hours before his suspension. It is said that he will be sworn in on Thursday. But it is unclear whether she can take that role or not when the case is going on in the Constitutional Court.
When 38-year-old Shinawatra took power in August 2024, she became Thailand's youngest and second female prime minister. The Shinawatra family has been dominating Thailand's politics for the past two decades. But if he loses power before completing his term during this period, Petongtarn is more likely to become the third member of the Shinawatra family . Just two weeks ago, Shinawatra's ruling coalition's majority was weakened after a key conservative ally left the government after Shinawatra's Phew Thai party was embroiled in a scandal.
The country's politics has for years been dominated by the struggle between the conservative, pro-military, pro-royalist elite and the Shinawatra family. The Shinawatra family is viewed by conservative, pro-military and pro-royalist elites as a threat to Thailand's traditional social order. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is on trial for violating the sedition law for insulting the monarchy in an interview given to a South Korean newspaper nine years ago, appeared in a criminal court in Bangkok on the same day that his daughter Shinawatra was also suspended from her position by the court.
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with the help of agency
