Yingluck has considerable say in reshuffle

But it is another matter whether the new line-up would benefit the country or not.

First of all, the speculated line-up served to confirm the saying that Cabinet seats under the Pheu Thai Party’s quota are for its core members to take turn to hold. It appeared that the reshuffles were not aimed at increasing the Cabinet’s performance at all.

Among new faces in the Yingluck 3 Cabinet will be core members of the Thai Rai Thai or the so-called members of House Address 111, who have just exited their five-year political ban.

They include Pongsak Raktapongpaisal, who would become the energy minister, replacing Arak Cholthannon, an outsider who is a minister in the Yingluck 2 Cabinet under the Pheu Thai quota.

Pongthep Thepkanchana, another former Thai Rak Thai executive, would become a deputy prime minister and would concurrently hold the position of education minister, replacing Suchart Thadathamrongvej who has had conflicts with Pheu Thai MPs.

Warathep Ratanakorn, another House 111 member, would also win a Cabinet seat under the quota of Yaowapha Wongsawat, an elder sister of Yingluck.

Another interesting new face in the new Cabinet would be Government Spokeswoman Sansanee Nakpong. She is expected to become a PM’s Office minister. The speculation led to a question why Sansanee would become a minister now that she has been performing her duty as a spokeswoman very well and could coordinate with Yingluck and PM’s Secretary-General Suranan Vejjajiva efficiently. And who would replace Sansanee as the Government spokesman as it is hard for to fine a right person for the job. Will she hold the two positions concurrently?

The rest of reshuffled seats were seen as changes for the sake of political harmony. For example, Transport Minister Jarupong Ruangsuwan, who is tipped to be the next Pheu Thai leader, is expected to become the interior minister, which was held by former Pheu Thai leader Yongyuth Wichaidit.

From the speculated list, nothing would be changed to key economic ministries. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat NaRanong would keep his positions although it has been reported that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been disappointed in Kittirat’s performance. It was reported that Thaksin ordered his sister to remove Kittirat, who is very close to Yingluck, from the Cabinet or at least let him hold just one position.

However, Yingluck refused to comply with the wish of her brother. This seemed to indicate that Yingluck has developed her leadership up to a level and decided to have her own say instead of complying with all wishes of the brother.

Yingluck yesterday confirmed that she has sent her reshuffle list for a royal command and she boasted that her brother had nothing to do with the reshuffle.

In another example that indicated no changes in the economic policies was the speculation that Boonsong Teriyapirom would retain his position of the commerce minister. Boonsong, is close to Yaowapha and is in charge of the controversial rice-pledging scheme.

With Boonsong’s presence in the new Cabinet, it indicated that Yingluck did not worry that the rice-pledging scheme would become a main weak point during the no-confidence showdown with the opposition. On the contrary, it indicated that the government would go ahead with the scheme.

If it goes as speculated, Pongthep would be the third education minister of the Yingluck government after the first one, Worwat Ua-apinyakul, and Suchart.

Another interesting new face would be Doctor Pradit Sinthawanarong, a specialist in the Thai tradition medicine and a member of the National Health Insurance Board. Pradit, the managing director of J&W Development, would become the public health minister. J&W Development is known to be a business ally of Settha Thawesin, the managing director of Saensiri Plc, who is very close to Yingluck.

Another example that showed that Yingluck now had a considerable say was that red-shirt leader Jatuporn Promphan would be left out of the new Cabinet.

It has been reported that Yingluck resisted the order from her brother to appoint Jatuporn to the Cabinet for fear that his presence would affect the government’s image. Yingluck decided to exclude Jatuporn although the red shirts would be dissatisfied. Eventually, Jatuporn went on his TV programme on Asia Update satellite TV Wednesday night to confirm that he would miss a Cabinet seat.

The cases of Kittirat, Pradit and Jatuporn showed that Yingluck dare to stand up against the wish of her brother and would serve to reduce criticism that she was only a puppet of her brother. But it seemed the reshuffle would not increase the working efficiency of the government at all.