Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Thursday that no political deal was made with his conservative rivals to allow his return from 15 years of exile last year.
“There is no deal, no one dare do a deal with me,” the father of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and patriarch of the Pheu Thai Party said during an on-stage interview at a forum sponsored by a local media group.
Thaksin was sentenced to eight years in jail — later reduced to one year by a royal pardon — on the day he returned to Thailand last August. He never spent a night behind bars, serving his time at the Police General Hospital before being granted parole in February. A royal pardon last week made him a free man a few days ahead of schedule.
Thaksin also told the forum that the country’s economic malaise would not deepen and that the Pheu Thai government was capable of stopping the decline.
He also indicated that the party’s flagship 450-billion-baht digital wallet handout plan is needed to boost the sluggish economy.
“We need to stimulate the economy as our country has grown slowly for a long time,” he said.
“[The handout] will be an immediate economic boost in September.”
There has been considerable speculation that the handout could be scaled back dramatically and aimed only at the truly needy. In any case, Pheu Thai insists it will go ahead in some form, possibly even as cash instead of digital money.
‘Small steps of protectionism’
In a wide-ranging speech, Thaksin also said Thailand should do more to protect the economy from an influx of low-cost Chinese products, applying “small steps of protectionism”, he said.
“We don’t dislike Chinese products but we have to find equality in competition,” he said.
When it came to interest rates, he said, the government and the Bank of Thailand should be able to talk, without affecting the institution’s independence.
In any case, he said, the country needs to urgently tackle its high levels of household and public debt and focus on policies that can propel its growth rate to match some of its Southeast Asian neighbours.
A debt restructuring initiative to cover the households and businesses should be undertaken as “Thailand and its people are trapped in debt”, the two-time premier said in a talk billed as “Vision for Thailand”.
The finance minister and other ministries should take the lead in addressing the chronic debt burden, Thaksin told a gathering of more than 1,400 bankers, business executives and politicians in Bangkok.
The event marked the first anniversary of Thaksin’s dramatic return to Thailand after he fled corruption charges in 2008.
While Thaksin is unlikely to assume any official or political position in the new government, he is expected to wield considerable influence on the Paetongtarn administration’s policies.
Paetongtarn, who is still in the process of finalising her cabinet, faces the challenge of reviving an economy stifled by a near-record household debt, sluggish exports and the high cost of living.
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