This Week in History

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CWA # 1420, 2 August 2024
This Week in History
5 August 2011: Yingluck Shinawatra, becomes the first woman Prime Minister of Thailand

  Siddhima M

On 5 August 2011, Yingluck Shinawatra was elected as the first woman prime minister of Thailand. Hailing from the Pheu Thai Party, the US-educated businesswoman and politician became the youngest prime minister in sixty years, when she had replaced her brother Thaksin Shinawatra. Earlier in 2006 Thaksin was ousted in a coup led by General Sonthi Boonyaratklin, the army chief who accused Thakshin of corruption. 

In the 2011 elections, Shinawatra and the Pheu Thai Party secured 263 out of 500 seats. 

The rise of Yingluck Shinawatra
Educated in the Kentucky State University, Frankfort, Yingluck Shinawatra was into the corporate world as the managing director of her family-led firm SC Assets Company and the AIC Telecommunication. She never held a government office. Largely criticized for her political inexperience, she was deemed to be the puppet of a corrupt brother. 

While strengthening her party with coalitions, Shinawatra faced the challenge of striking a balance between the monarchy and the military. Amidst them stood the Red Shirts, who were the rural workers from outside Bangkok, students and businessmen who believed that the indiscriminate military elite rule was a threat to democracy. The pro- democratic red shirts had been staunch supporters of Yingluck and Thakshin Shinawatra playing an instrumental role in bringing Yingluck into power as the first female prime minister. 

She claimed, “As long as we solve problems, I hope Thai people will give me a chance to prove myself and show my sincerity.”  Three months after swearing in the country faced the burden of severe flood and the government was critiqued for being unprepared. With 377 people dead and 2.2 million affected people raged against the government as the Flood Relief Operation Centers were of minimal help.

In 2012 she hoped to remedy the consequences of the constant military-led political unrest within the country. Having provided compensatory funds for those detained, she strived to create cordial relations between the military and the royal powers. 

The Fall of Yingluck 
First, the rice subsidy program. With the presumption that the 30 per cent rice market share of Thailand was sufficient in affecting world prices, Ms. Yingluck procured rice for above fifty per cent of the world market price to sweep in an election victory. This miscalculated strategy affected Thailand’s exports leaving the nation with unsold stocks of rice and billion-dollar losses.

Second, the Political Amnesty bill in 2013. It proposed amnesty for those convicted in the 2006 coup that ousted her brother. Attracting mass protests in Bangkok, unpopularity towards Shinawatra rose. The opposition claimed that the bill was a play to bring her ousted brother back to Thailand without having to serve jail parole. The bill however failed to pass at the Senate and her attempts to call for snap elections failed. 

Third, developments leading to her fall and the coup in 2014. On 7 May 2014, the court declared her guilty for the abuse of power in the transfer and replacing of the National Security Chief Thawil Pliensri with Wichean Potephosree, the then chief of police. Chief Priewpan Damapong, brother of Thakshin’s ex-wife, was appointed as the new chief of police. The court removed her for abusing her position to appoint her family members. Later on 22 May 2014, the military came back through a coup. 

Yingluck Shinawatra’s tenure as Prime minister represents a significant milestone in the history of women’s political leadership in Thailand. From six per cent women’s leadership in politics over the past two decades to sixteen per cent as of 2021.

About the author
Siddhima M is an undergraduate student at Christ University, Bangalore.

Also during this week published in This Week in History, Vol. 1 Issue #05, 03 August 2024

4 August 2007: The US launches Phoenix, a mission to Mars
29 July 1957: IAEA comes into force
29 July 1958: The US establishes NASA
28 July 1821: Peru declares independence from Spain
28 July 2005: IRA announces the end of its armed campaign
28 July 1914: Austria-Hungary Declares War on Serbia, starting World War-I

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