Papering over cracks

Bangkok Post

02-07-2025

At a time when the country needs a strong, competent government to handle numerous challenges, the new cabinet is just the opposite.
In short, it is not up to expectations, by any standards.
The reshuffle became inevitable after Bhumjaithai, the second largest coalition partner, withdrew from the government and went into the opposition.
Despite calls for Paetongtarn Shinawatra to quit over the controversial telephone conversation with Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, she is still struggling on.
Hours after the cabinet list was announced on Tuesday, she was suspended as prime minister by the charter court over the telephone leak saga, but maintains a place in the cabinet as culture minister.
Evidently, the new cabinet is not based on meritocracy.
The change is to ensure the party's short-term, if not immediate, survival by sharing the political cake among those in its circle -- giving or returning favours so they do not jump ship and will still be around at the next election.
Some appointments are astounding.
Case in point is the appointment of newcomer Jatuporn Buruspat, as commerce minister.
His background as permanent secretary for natural resources and the environment raises the question as to whether he is the right choice at the ministry that is supposed to tackle economic difficulties.
However, he is a key figure in the Group of 18 in the United Thai Nation Party, which otherwise would have left the coalition.
Two other newcomers who made it into the cabinet were Pongkawin Jungrungruangkit, the newly appointed labour minister, and Atthakorn Sirilathayakorn, the agriculture minister -- both of whom are political novices.
More importantly, the decision to leave the defence portfolio completely vacant and to have deputy defence minister Gen Nattphon Narkphanit serve as an acting minister is hard to understand due to the fact that the country is currently having a border dispute with Cambodia and that there is also mounting violence in the deep South.
Leaving such an important position vacant is unprecedented in Thai politics.
At the same time, several under-performing ministers such as Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, who has kept a low profile amid the escalating Thai-Cambodian dispute, remains in the same post.
Perhaps this is because he has proven to be a "yes man'' for the Shinawatra family.
The new political partnership reflects one fact: that the ruling Pheu Thai Party has lost its bargaining power, so it has had to yield to the demands of smaller or micro parties, and even factions, handing them ministerial positions to prevent the government from falling apart.
Yet the new coalition line-up, which now only has a paper thin majority cannot ensure stability.
On the contrary, analysts are already labelling the coalition a lame-duck government which will face an uncertain political future.
These cabinet appointments show Pheu Thai is focused on its own interests instead of thinking about how to move the country forward.
This cabinet cannot win public confidence, nor trust.