Thailand’s PM-elect names veterans to cabinet in bid to ‘bring confidence’

A former member of the finance, energy, and foreign ministries, Anutin Charnvirakul, the newly elected prime minister of Thailand, has appointed a top oil and gas executive and diplomat.

Anutin made the announcements on Saturday, saying that a nation that is rife with political and economic unrest would gain confidence from his first cabinet picks.

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He described diplomat Sihasak Phuangketkeow, energy executive Auttapol Rerkpiboon, and economist Ekniti Nitithanprapas as “top executives in the organizations they will be responsible for”.

While Auttapol helmed the nation’s largest company, the state-owned energy firm PTT Group, Ekniti is a finance ministry official who was once seen as a potential candidate for governor.

As a fragile truce with neighboring Cambodia is in place, former permanent secretary Sihasak will step down as minister as a result of a five-day conflict that resulted in at least 43 deaths in July.

A day after Anutin was elected as prime minister, outperforming the most successful political party in Thailand’s history, the appointments were made official.

The ruling Pheu Thai party, the populist juggernaut of powerful billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who left Thailand late on Thursday for Dubai, where he spent the majority of his 15 years of self-imposed exile, was humiliated by Anutin’s victory over rival contender Chaikasem Nitisiri on Friday.

Anutin’s withdrawal from Pheu Thai’s alliance in June caused the political crisis, which was followed by last week’s dismissal by a Thai court of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s daughter and protege.

Following Thaksin’s return from exile in August 2023, the Supreme Court will rule on his hospital stay, which some analysts predict will result in his jail sentence. The Constitutional Court last month cleared Thaksin of a royal insult case, promising that he would go back to Thailand for the verdict.

Anutin, a conservative with a power transcending party lines, gained control of parliament after forging an alliance and a pact with the progressive opposition and the People’s Party, the largest force in the chamber, and promising to hold a referendum on constitutional amendment amendment and hold an election in four months.

He urged people to unite late on Friday, saying that the government would “strictly enforce the law” and that all parties needed to “move our country forward in the manner that could compensate the opportunities that were lost.”

There won’t be any offering assistance to anyone, it won’t be used to hurt anyone, and no one will seek retribution for it.