Thai PM faces growing calls to quit in Cambodia phone row
BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra faced mounting calls to resign on Thursday (Jun 19) after a leaked phone call she had with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen provoked widespread anger and a key coalition partner to quit.
The coalition government led by Shinawatra's Pheu Thai party is on the brink of collapse, throwing the kingdom into a fresh round of political instability as it seeks to boost its spluttering economy and avoid US President Donald Trump's swingeing trade tariffs.
The conservative Bhumjaithai Party, the second largest in the alliance with 69 active members of parliament, pulled out of the coalition on Wednesday, saying the phone call had "damaged the sovereignty and well-being of the country and Thai Army".
“Bhumjaithai party calls on Paetongtarn to show responsibility for her actions that have made the country, people and army lose dignity,” the party said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Paetongtarn's government did not answer calls seeking comment on the withdrawal.
The phone call, in which Paetongtarn referred to Hun Sen as "uncle" and voiced concern about the political backlash she faced over a tense border standoff with Cambodia, was widely circulated online. One Cambodian soldier was killed in the clashes last month.
The fallout comes amid growing friction within the coalition. Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai Party had recently sought to unseat Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul from the post of interior minister, straining ties between the former rivals turned uneasy allies.
Bhumjaithai’s departure leaves the ruling bloc with only a few seats above the 248 needed for a parliamentary majority, and a snap election looks a clear possibility - barely two years after the last one in May 2023.
Two coalition parties, the United Thai Nation and Democrat Party, will hold urgent meetings to discuss the situation later on Thursday.
Losing either would likely mean the end of Paetongtarn's government and either an election or a bid by other parties to stitch together a new coalition.
RESIGNATION CALLS
The Palang Pracharath party, which led the government up to 2023 and is headed by General Prawit Wongsuwan - who supported a coup against Paetongtarn's aunt Yingluck - called for the premier to resign.
The party's statement said the leaked recording showed Paetongtarn was weak and inexperienced, and incapable of managing the country's security.
"This already has proved that Thailand has a leader who will lead the country to a bad situation and weakness," the statement said.
Another opposition party, Thai Sang Thai, also called for Paethongtarn to step down, saying her conversation with Hun Sen had damaged the kingdom's sovereignty and the army.
In the leaked phone call dated Jun 15, Paetongtarn is heard discussing an ongoing border dispute with Hun Sen - who stepped down as Cambodian prime minister in 2023 after four decades but still wields considerable influence.
Paetongtarn said she was facing domestic pressure and urged Hun Sen not to listen to “the other side” in Thailand, which she said included an outspoken Thai general who oversees the army in the border area.
She refers to the Thai army commander in the country's northeast as her opponent, a remark that sparked fierce criticism on social media, particularly on Pheu Thai page and Royal Thai Army page.
Thailand's armed forces have a long played a powerful role in the kingdom's politics, and politicians are usually careful not to antagonise them.
The kingdom has had a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and the current crisis has inevitably triggered rumours that another may be in the offing.
If she is ousted she would be the third member of her family, after her aunt Yingluck and father Thaksin Shinawatra, to be kicked out of office by the army.
Michael Montesano, an associate senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, told CNA's Asia First that the focus should be on whether the ruling coalition's remaining partners can withstand pressure from three sectors: the Thai public, military, and the palace.
Thaksin will also be "working in overdrive to try to hold the coalition together", said Montesano.
The former coordinator of the institute's Thailand Studies Programme and co-coordinator of the Myanmar Studies Programme noted that Bhumjaithai has "very shrewdly" positioned itself as the bearer of Thailand's conservative cause.
"In that sense, putting pressure on (Paetongtarn) to resign, taking out a position as a defender of Thai nationalism, is very much consistent with the way that the Bhumjaithai Party has very deftly positioned itself in recent years," he added.
AWKWARD COALITION
Paetongtarn, 38, came to power in August 2024 at the head of an uneasy coalition between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties whose members have spent much of the last 20 years battling against her father.
The battle between the conservative pro-royal establishment and Thaksin's political movement has dominated Thai politics for more than 20 years.
Former Manchester City owner Thaksin, 75, still enjoys huge support from the rural base whose lives he transformed with populist policies in the early 2000s.
But he is despised by Thailand's powerful elites, who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilising.
Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2023 as Pheu Thai took power, after 15 years in self-exile overseas.
The current Pheu Thai-led government has already lost one prime minister, former businessman Srettha Thavisin, who was kicked out by a court order last year, bringing Paetongtarn - Thailand's youngest prime minister - to office.
Her position looks increasingly fragile and attention will now shift to whether her remaining 10 coalition members will follow Bhumjaithai.
The row with Cambodia over disputed border areas has prompted fears of a confrontation after the mobilisation of troops on both sides, with Paetongtarn facing public criticism over her diplomatic response in contrast to the military's tougher rhetoric.
Paetongtarn has insisted she is committed to a peaceful resolution but would do what is required to defend Thailand's sovereignty.
Montesano said the situation in Thailand since Paetongtarn took office has been "farcical", and that she came to power "with no political qualifications" and under her father's shadow.
"Basically, what we've had in Thailand since she took the premiership has been an essentially vacant premiership," he added.
"And now that the country needs leadership and a premier who is actually in place rather than leaving a vacancy, we've got a big problem."
