The ouster of Thailand’s leader less than 12 months after taking office makes one thing clear: The royalist establishment that has engineered long stretches of military-backed rule over the past two decades still holds all the power.
Srettha Thavisin on Wednesday became the fourth prime minister to be ousted by the Constitutional Court in the past two decades, all of them allies of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 military coup. What’s different this time, however, is that Thaksin is now in an alliance with his former conservative adversaries, part of a deal struck last year following an election that ended the nine-year rule of a former army chief.
The question now is whether that unwieldy coalition will stick together when Thai lawmakers meet on Friday to pick another prime minister. So far, it appears that will be the case, with Phumtham Wechayachai — Thailand’s new acting prime minister and a top leader of the Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai party, the second-largest in parliament — saying Wednesday his party would discuss who to nominate to run Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.