Groundhog day as Thai court sacks PM Paetongtarn and Shinawatra clan runs out of options
Last Updated on August 29, 2025 9:54 pm
By Aidan Jones
Thailand’s constitutional court dismissed Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister on Friday for breaching ethics in a call with Cambodia’s former leader, a ruling that tips the country into uncertainty and lands a hammer blow to the ambitions of her political dynasty.
Paetongtarn, 39, the daughter of divisive but influential billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, becomes the second leader in two years from the Pheu Thai-led coalition to be removed for an ethics breach by the same bench.
The nine-judge bench dismissed Paetongtarn and her cabinet in a 6-3 ruling, saying she had failed to meet the ethical standards in a leaked June 15 call with Cambodia’s ex-leader Hun Sen over border tensions.
In it, she repeatedly called Hun Sen “uncle” and denigrated a Thai army commander on the border as an “opponent” – a red line to the court, which said it went against national interests.
Paetongtarn said the call was a genuine private effort to defuse tensions, which a few weeks later escalated into a brief conflict that killed dozens on both sides.
But ending her short-lived time in office, the court said Paetongtarn had “lacked demonstrable honesty and integrity and seriously violated or failed to comply with ethical standards”.
Source : SCMP