Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra suspended over leaked phone call about border dispute

Siem Reap: A Thai court has suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra while it considers whether her handling of a border dispute with Cambodia has been so fawning to the other side as to warrant her sacking.

Thailand’s fractious political scene has been particularly turbulent since a leaked phone conversation in June between Paetongtarn and Cambodia’s de facto ruler, Hun Sen, in which she denigrated a senior Thai commander – a major faux pas in Thailand – while also offering to “take care of” whatever Cambodia wanted.

Hun Sen, who is both the president of the Cambodian senate and the Cambodian People’s Party, admitted to recording the conversation and sending it to about 80 people. When it hit the media, Paetongtarn was not only embarrassed but was left scrambling for her political survival.

“The contempt on a regional army commander is contempt on the Thai monarch,” Hun Sen said in a nearly four-hour speech last week. “Only the king issues the royal decree to appoint an army general.”

The conversation between the pair was supposed to bring their nations together after a May 28 skirmish between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in a contested border zone, which left one of Hun Sen’s soldiers dead and sparked tit-for-tat border closures.

Paetongtarn’s attempts to frame her remarks and the tone of the conversation with Hun Sen as a negotiation strategy did not wash with her Pheu Thai party’s major partner, the Bhumjaithai party, and it promptly withdrew from the coalition, forcing a cabinet reshuffle.

Thousands of Thais protested in Bangkok on Saturday, calling for Paetongtarn’s resignation.

In the cabinet reshuffle, completed only hours before Paetongtarn was suspended on Tuesday, she handed herself the culture ministry, allowing her to stay in the cabinet.

Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit will now serve as acting prime minister.