On Tuesday Thailand’s Constitutional Court suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office, pending an enquiry into a leaked phone call between her and former Cambodian leader Hun Sen. In the conversation, she referred to Hun Sen as “uncle” and made derogatory remarks about a top Thai army commander, words which in the context of heightened tensions in the Emerald Triangle border area between the two countries triggered mass protests in Thailand and the exit of the Bhumjaithai Party, her governing coalition’s second-largest member.
This could bring to a premature end Ms Paetongtarn’s short-lived political career – she only became prime minister last August. But the bigger question is: does this herald the beginning of the end for the whole Shinawatra dynasty?
For the last 25 years, the family, headed by Thaksin Shinawatra, who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, has almost completely dominated electoral politics in the country. He was ousted in a coup backed by Thailand’s powerful army, and his sister Yingluck was also forced from office in 2014 after three years as prime minister.
But time after time, when elections were held, Thaksin-backed parties kept on winning. In 2023, Mr Thaksin returned from self-imposed exile, on the same day a new government led by his supporters’ party, Pheu Thai, was formed. Since the new coalition included parties aligned with the royalist-military establishment previously deeply opposed to Mr Thaksin – whose critics have accused him of irresponsible populism and corruption – it seemed that an accommodation had finally been reached between the country’s two most important blocs.
On his arrival in Thailand, Mr Thaksin was arrested and taken into custody, but the convictions to which he had been sentenced in absentia were reduced days later to just one year in jail, and after spending six months in a luxury hospital he was released on parole. Appearances were satisfied. Mr Thaksin was home. And months later, his youngest daughter Paetongtarn became prime minister.
The rapprochement between Mr Thaksin’s supporters and the country’s conservative institutions may have been a shaky alliance of convenience. But it could not last after details of Ms Paetongtarn’s call with Hun Sen came out. In the conversation, which both sides have confirmed as authentic, Ms Paetongtarn referred to her country’s military as “the opposite side” and accused a general at the border of just wanting “to look cool and saying things that are not useful”. Cambodia’s longtime former prime minister, whose son Hun Manet succeeded him in 2023, has since gone further.
According to the Khmer Times, this week Hun Sen accused the Thaksins of insulting their country’s king in private conversations with him and said Ms Paetongtarn “conspiring with foreigners to denigrate one’s own military”, as he put it, was tantamount to treason.
For the last 25 years, the family headed by Thaksin Shinawatra has almost completely dominated electoral politics
Why did Hun Sen make such incendiary comments and release a full recording of the phone call, especially since he had been close to Mr Thaksin for decades? The border issue is highly sensitive – a Cambodian soldier was killed in clashes with Thai forces in May – and some speculate it was an attempt to rally patriotic sentiment around Hun Manet. The former Cambodian leader also accused the Thaksins of having a history of saying one thing to him about the border disputes and then another in public.
Either way, the damage has been done. And it’s not just Ms Paetongtarn who’s in trouble. On the same day that she was suspended from office, her father was in a Bangkok court to hear prosecution testimony over a lese-majeste charge he faces relating to an interview he gave in South Korea in 2015. Mr Thaksin may have thought this would just be a formality, given the understanding he believed had been reached with the royalist-military forces.
But as the Thai academic Pavin Chachavalpongpun wrote in a prescient analysis published on Monday: “The lese majeste case against Thaksin, or [the] Constitutional Court case against Paetongtarn, could be strategically used to neutralise their influence, putting them in jail or (more likely) letting them flee.”
In that event, could the Thaksins still make another comeback in the future? It can’t be completely ruled out, and it may be just possible that the current governing coalition holds on, as it still has a majority in Parliament. But many believe that the Thaksin coalition – low-income workers in the country’s north and north-east, plus progressive-minded urban middle classes – has been irretrievably weakened.
Pheu Thai has been outflanked by the social democratic Move Forward Party, which beat them into second place in the 2023 election, and severely disillusioned their progressive supporters by allying with the conservative forces who kept ousting Mr Thaksin and his successors from power. Younger voters don’t remember Mr Thaksin’s glory years, when he instituted universal health care and a raft of polices that helped rural voters. Paetongtarn Shinawatra is a novice who plainly owed her job solely to her surname. Her approval rating was at a meagre 9.2 per cent in March.
Mr Thaksin is still a giant of Thai politics. But he’s not the figure he once was, and he has run out of family proxies to take the country’s top job while he remains a power behind the curtain. No one would accept one of his other two – politically inexperienced – children as prime minister. And, in any case, it’s not clear they, or Pheu Thai, could command a majority in Parliament.
So, is this the end for the Shinawatra dynasty? Thai politics is too unpredictable to tell. If it is the beginning of the end, however, Thailand’s perennial problem will remain: how to square the views of the royalist-military establishment, who see themselves as guardians of the country, with populist or left-leaning parties that keep topping the polls. That’s the democratic conundrum that has been both the blessing, and the misfortune, of the Shinawatra family.
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Fixtures and results:
Wed, Aug 29:
- Malaysia bt Hong Kong by 3 wickets
- Oman bt Nepal by 7 wickets
- UAE bt Singapore by 215 runs
Thu, Aug 30: UAE v Nepal; Hong Kong v Singapore; Malaysia v Oman
Sat, Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong; Oman v Singapore; Malaysia v Nepal
Sun, Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman; Malaysia v UAE; Nepal v Singapore
Tue, Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore; UAE v Oman; Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu, Sep 6: Final
Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
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The specs: 2018 Jaguar F-Type Convertible
Price, base / as tested: Dh283,080 / Dh318,465
Engine: 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 295hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.2L / 100km
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
more from Janine di Giovanni
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Fireball
Moscow claimed it hit the largest military fuel storage facility in Ukraine, triggering a huge fireball at the site.
A plume of black smoke rose from a fuel storage facility in the village of Kalynivka outside Kyiv on Friday after Russia said it had destroyed the military site with Kalibr cruise missiles.
"On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine confirmed the strike, saying the village some 40 kilometres south-west of Kyiv was targeted.
How to keep control of your emotions
If your investment decisions are being dictated by emotions such as fear, greed, hope, frustration and boredom, it is time for a rethink, Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG, says.
Greed
Greedy investors trade beyond their means, open more positions than usual or hold on to positions too long to chase an even greater gain. “All too often, they incur a heavy loss and may even wipe out the profit already made.
Tip: Ignore the short-term hype, noise and froth and invest for the long-term plan, based on sound fundamentals.
Fear
The risk of making a loss can cloud decision-making. “This can cause you to close out a position too early, or miss out on a profit by being too afraid to open a trade,” he says.
Tip: Start with a plan, and stick to it. For added security, consider placing stops to reduce any losses and limits to lock in profits.
Hope
While all traders need hope to start trading, excessive optimism can backfire. Too many traders hold on to a losing trade because they believe that it will reverse its trend and become profitable.
Tip: Set realistic goals. Be happy with what you have earned, rather than frustrated by what you could have earned.
Frustration
Traders can get annoyed when the markets have behaved in unexpected ways and generates losses or fails to deliver anticipated gains.
Tip: Accept in advance that asset price movements are completely unpredictable and you will suffer losses at some point. These can be managed, say, by attaching stops and limits to your trades.
Boredom
Too many investors buy and sell because they want something to do. They are trading as entertainment, rather than in the hope of making money. As well as making bad decisions, the extra dealing charges eat into returns.
Tip: Open an online demo account and get your thrills without risking real money.
