PM denies Bantoon forced out; cites health concerns
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday that her secretary-general, Bantoon Supakvanit, resigned for health reasons, not political pressure.
“His workload was rather heavy. I sympathise with him,” she said.
Bantoon would become her new adviser, she said after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
One of Bantoon’s deputies, Thawat Boonfuang, will act as PM’s secretary-general pending the appointment of Bantoon’s replacement.
“I will make the selection myself,” she said.
However, she would not wait for one of the banned politicians to complete his or her five-year ban to serve in the post, she said.
Pol Maj-General Thawat, the third-ranking deputy PM’s secretary-general, was a classmate of Yingluck’s brother, ex-premier Thaksin, at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School.
A source said Prommin Lertsuridej would likely become the new PM secretary-general when his five-year ban from politics ends in May.
The Cabinet approved Bantoon’s transfer and Thawat’s temporary appointment, said Anusorn Iamsa-ard, a deputy government spokesman who was also appointed by the Cabinet as the acting government spokesman.
He was proposed by outgoing acting government spokeswoman Thitima Chaisang, who is becoming a secretary to Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong, who is also the finance minister.
