BEGINNING OF NEW CHAPTER IN THAILAND'S POLITICS

THAILAND’S just concluded elections have led to an interesting development. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democratic Party has been ousted from power through the battle of the ballot despite the powerful military and the monarchy being its backers. The people’s mandate has gone in favour of the opposition Pheu Thai Party, whose 44-year-old woman leader, Ms Yingluck Shinawatra, has taken oath as the country’s new Prime Minister. Her party won 263 seats in a 500-strong Lower House of parliament, the House of Representatives. That she is the sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a military coup in 2006 and then convicted in a corruption case and sentenced to a jail term, did not deter people from casting their vote in support of her party. Mr Thaksin Shinawatra has been living in self-imposed exile in Dubai since then.

Ms Yingluck Shinawatra could easily form her party’s government as it won a clear majority in parliament. But she has decided to go in for a coalition with the help of a few like-minded parties. She says she has preferred the path of national reconciliation, required in view of last year’s disturbances in which 90 people lost their lives with the ordinary Thais expressing their disenchantment against the ruling dispensation in a strong manner. The voters’ disapproval of the nexus between the Democratic Party, the military and the Thai King can be seen in the election results too.
The military may look for an opportunity to intervene again if Ms Yingluck Shinawatra does not play her cards tactfully. She has been described as a proxy for her brother, whose return to Thailand may be facilitated by the new government. Nothing should be done by ignoring the country’s justice system. It would be better if Mr Thaksin himself remains away from Thailand for some time and plays the role of a mentor from where he is — in Dubai. Even if he is back to Bangkok, he should keep himself away from the corridors of power so that the military does not find a pretext to destabilise the Yingluck government.