Prime Minister-elect Yingluck Shinawatra of
the Pheu Thai Party reacts during an interview with foreign journalists
at the party’s headquarters in Bangkok. Yingluck’s said Friday she would
try to benefit from her exiled brother’s ideas to help the country but
insisted she will make her own decisions as leader and not be his
puppet. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
Grant Peck
Bangkok (AP) - Thailand’s prime minister-to-be
said Friday she would try to benefit from her exiled brother’s ideas to
help the country but insisted she will make her own decisions as leader
and not be his puppet.
Yingluck Shinawatra said she couldn’t avoid being the
sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006
military coup and still loathed by much of the Thai establishment.
In a news conference with foreign journalists,
Yingluck she said she would make decisions for the country
“independently.” She parried many questions about her planned policies,
preferring to wait until her election victory was officially certified
and she takes office.
She said her 20 years of business experience has
shown she can make her own decisions but she will consult with the Pheu
Thai Party management team that helped her to victory and the Cabinet
she will appoint.
Yingluck has worked at several of her family’s
businesses, starting with Thailand’s Yellow Pages publisher, then moving
to a cell phone service provider that earned Thaksin the bulk of his
fortune, and most recently as chief executive of the property
development company SC Asset.
In last Sunday’s election, the opposition Pheu Thai
party won 265 of 500 parliamentary seats and agreed on a six-party
ruling coalition that will hold 300 seats in total. The outgoing ruling
Democrats of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva won 159 seats.
Yingluck is set to officially become prime minister
after she is elected by the members of Parliament when they convene
later this month, though some last-ditch legal efforts are challenging
her election victory.
On Friday, one of the main lawyers for the Democrat
Party said he has asked the Election Commission to act against Pheu Thai
for violating electoral and political party laws.
Wirat Kalayasiri alleges in his complaint that
Thaksin and a deputy Chaturon Chaiseng were involved in Pheu Thai’s
electoral affairs despite being under a five-year ban on political
activities.
The law is not crystal-clear, but a judgment against
Pheu Thai could conceivably result in its dissolution, as has happened
to two previous pro-Thaksin parties. However, a new ban apparently would
not affect either Yingluck or most of her party’s lawmakers, who could
carry on their duties under another party name.
Wirat was elected as a Democrat lawmaker but said he
acted on his own and not for his party.
Thailand’s powerful military ousted Thaksin. He is
generally credited for engineering the comeback of his political
machine, despite being in exile to avoid a jail term on a corruption
charge. His remarks during the campaign that his sister was his “clone”
reinforced suspicions that he would be pulling the strings behind
Yingluck and perhaps manipulating the new government to give him an
amnesty.
Other Thaksin foes are trying to force out Yingluck
by tying her to her brother’s complicated and questionable financial
dealings. Another case accuses her of bribing voters because in one
campaign photo opportunity, she helped fry noodles that were then
distributed to onlookers.
Yingluck said she was comfortable in politics because
her father and siblings have been involved but decided to take part only
after her brother’s supporters came to ask her help in trying to bring
back his policies. She said she was moved by what she saw in their “eyes
and faces.”
Senior military figures are among the Thai
establishment that despise Thaksin, and the military has repeatedly
denied it would stage another coup if Yingluck tried to rehabilitate her
brother.
She has said only that a commission will investigate
matters of justice starting with the coup against Thaksin, and
presumably including other political activities since then, including
the aggressive street protests of Thaksin’s supporters and opponents and
the suppression of those protests.
Yingluck was optimistic that the military would not
stage another coup, citing their recent promises to stay out of
politics. She said the army was aware that for the past five years, “the
country has been moving backward. ... and people do not want to hurt
Thailand again.”
She also asked the world community to “help Thailand
reinstall democracy, and trust and respect the people’s decision.”
