Brand Shinawatra – choice of a new generation?

In today’s Bangkok Post, former senator and member of the National Reform Council Prasarn Marukpitak looks forward to the forthcoming election with still more than six months to go.

According to Prasarn, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, youngest daughter of Thaksin, is increasingly popular, far more so than ageing veterans such as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

Pheu Thai is now loudly protesting that it will win the election by a landslide and party darling Paetongtarn says she plans to bring her father home using judicial procedures.While a win may be on the cards, Prasarn suggests that the party could struggle to form a coalition. As a consequence, its dream of bringing Thaksin back from exile will remain unfulfilled. The Thai Raksa Chart Party once aligned itself with Thaksin and proposed Princess Ubolratana as prime minister, but the stratagem backfired — big time.

Pheu Thai is no longer the fresh and vibrant party it was two decades ago. It has passed its prime. Even veteran politicians and founding members have jumped ship to pursue their own careers.

This week, rumours have been floating that real estate mogul Srettha Thavisin, president and chief executive of developer Sansiri Plc, could be Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidate in the next election. The mogul is an outsider, not a member of the Shinawatra clan. As such, he will not be trusted from within its ranks.

Pheu Thai also faces challenges with the changing political landscape, where new parties are making inroads, namely the Bhumjaithai Party and Move Forward Party. Both are popular in northeastern constituencies, long known as Pheu Thai’s turf.

Bhumjaithai is forecast to win 80-100 seats. It was widely reported that 30 MPs from other parties went to say “happy birthday” to Newin Chidchob, political strategist 0f the Bhumjaithai, on October 4, suggesting another batch of potential ship-jumpers are amassing ahead of the poll.

The Democrat Party will have to fight tooth and nail to retain its stronghold in the southern constituencies, but it’s the up-and-coming parties that could prove the main obstacle to Pheu Thai’s “landslide.”

The question is, which parties want to affiliate with the Shinawatra brand, approving the repatriation and re-empowerment of a fugitive who fled the country to escape jail? It was an attempt to pass an amnesty bill that doomed the Yingluck Shinawatra government (Thaksin’s younger sister), igniting the protests which led to the military coup.

Of course, Thaksin is welcome to come home anytime, but he must face justice, and Thai society will have to answer to the world as well as to itself. His dream will end up costing the country far too much.