[Kabar-indonesia] AT: Thailand's man behind the throne

[Joyo at aol.com]

Asia Times
November 1, 2006

Thailand's man behind the throne

By Rodney Tasker

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - In this country's arcane political
system, where coups come and go, there is one constant: His
Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Even though
constitutionally he must remain aloof from politics, the
highly revered monarch is in effect the one leader Thais
turn to for political direction during times of crisis. And
that has brought his right-hand man Prem Tinsulanond into
sharp focus during the country's current period of political
pain.

A former army commander, Prem served as appointed prime
minister from 1980-88. More important, he currently serves
as president of the Privy Council, the palace's top advisory
body, and is widely regarded as Thailand's only real
statesman. Prem has been King Bhumibol's trusted lieutenant
for the past quarter-century, and when he speaks, it is
widely recognized as a message direct from the throne.

Now 86, Prem is by nature a man of few words. As prime
minister, he kept a low profile, though according to his
ministers at the time, he ran the cabinet as a tight ship
and efficiently set the reform course for Thailand's 1990s
economic boom. This year, the soft-spoken Prem has been
brought into the public and political arena as rarely before
- even compared with his time as prime minister.

In the aftermath of last month's coup, Prem was instrumental
in warding off the perceived threat to the monarchy's
exalted status in Thai society posed by former prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Throughout his five-year
tenure, Thaksin was careful to be visibly loyal to the
palace - a politically essential appearance in a country
fiercely loyal to the crown. But through the tough-talking
premier's authoritarian tendencies, he was widely perceived
to be in less than awe of the palace as an institution and
stood accused of usurping certain functions traditionally
reserved for royalty.

For instance, he peeved many palace loyalists when, during a
hospital visit to the ailing monarch, he presented him with
a government medical-care card related to Thaksin's own
policy of cheap universal health care. And he appeared to go
against the palace's wishes when he resumed his role as
caretaker prime minister after stepping down in April after
a closed-door meeting with the monarch, nominally to oversee
preparations for celebrations commemorating King Bhumibol's
60 years on the throne.

Political insiders say that brought him into conflict with
Prem, often in a display of political shadow-boxing. When
Thaksin was besieged by tens of thousands of street
protesters in Bangkok calling for him to resign this year,
he launched a thinly veiled attack on Prem when he spoke of
a "charismatic" figure who was through extra-constitutional
means trying to push him from power. A mild bomb explosion
outside Prem's residence was read by many political
observers as an unprecedented shot across the bows of the
Privy Council and, by association, the palace.

At the height of the crisis, Prem in turn exploited his
position as a respected former army commander and adviser to
King Bhumibol to remind Thai troops on several occasions
that their primary allegiance was to the throne, and not
political leaders. This was a clear reference to Thaksin,
who at the time was drumming up support among senior
officers through his Pre-Cadet Class 10 affiliations, many
of whom he elevated through the ranks on a pure patronage
basis.

Prem is also widely believed to have played a pivotal role
in the September 19 coup that ousted Thaksin while the
latter was in New York attending the opening of the United
Nations General Assembly session. It is not by coincidence
that General Surayud Chulanont, a close aide to Prem during
the early 1980s and a fellow member of the Privy Council,
was chosen as interim prime minister. The military coup-
makers have since frequently consulted Prem concerning their
government policies and appointments, which have been
stacked with known palace loyalists.

Staunch nationalist

Prem has proved himself a staunch nationalist throughout his
public career, which significantly has earned him the
enduring trust of King Bhumibol. Nor is he a stranger to
political power plays. One year after assuming the
premiership, Prem defused a coup attempt in 1981 launched by
ideologically motivated officers against his government by
symbolically joining with King Bhumibol, who had moved to
Nakhon Ratcasima province in the country's central region
soon after the putsch began. Another coup attempt against
Prem's government in 1985 sputtered out 10 hours after it
was launched because it clearly was not endorsed by the
king.

Prem dissolved parliament and resigned in 1988, paving the
way for national democratic elections. He was thereafter
quickly drafted onto King Bhumibol's Privy Council, where he
has remained ever since. Over the years Prem has come to be
regarded as the semi-reclusive king's public face; when he
makes a public pronouncement, it is widely heard as a
message from the palace. And Prem's Privy Council is
expected to play a pivotal role in managing the eventual
succession to the throne and maintain the monarchy's exalted
position in Thai society after King Bhumibol eventually
passes.

That's why all eyes in Thailand are now on the senior
statesman's next moves. The local press recently made much
of last week's private 15-minute visit with Prem by
Thaksin's wife Pojaman Shinawatra, where she reportedly
asked when her husband would be allowed to re-enter the
country from self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom. The
newly established, military-led Council for National
Security has maintained martial law and discouraged Thaksin
from re-entering the country over concerns that supporters
of the deposed premier might stir trouble.

During the meeting with Pojaman, Prem characteristically
said it wasn't his decision to make - though some critics
interpreted the closed-door meeting as the possible
beginnings of an elite settlement that would free Thaksin
from corruption charges if he agreed to stay out of
politics. Yet corruption investigations into the business
dealings of Thaksin, Pojaman and their former government
allies are firmly under way, including a probe into a
seemingly dodgy land deal that Pojaman concluded with a
state-run financial-rescue agency.

Significantly, Pojaman sought a meeting with Prem rather
than with interim Prime Minister Surayud, demonstrating by
proxy that Thaksin is cognizant of Prem's primary, albeit
behind-the-scenes, role in the establishment of the
country's new political order. With Thaksin's perceived
threat to the throne apparently safely removed, Prem's
polite demurral to his wife also sends a strong signal that
the palace, ever influential, intends quickly to resume its
traditional position above the cut and thrust of the
country's day-to-day politics.

Rodney Tasker was a longtime correspondent for the Far
Eastern Economic Review, where he covered the ins and outs
of the Thai military throughout the 1980s and 1990s and
famously predicted the 1991 coup. He is semi-retired in the
northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

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