Thailand's Constitutional Court strikes again, removing yet another prime minister from office.
The country's notoriously interventionist panel of nine appointed judges has ruled that Paetongtarn Shinawatra violated ethical standards in a phone call she had in June with the veteran Cambodian leader Hun Sen, which he then leaked.
In it, Paetongtarn could be heard being conciliatory towards Hun Sen over their countries' border dispute and criticizing one of her own army commanders.
She defended her conversation, saying she had been trying to make a diplomatic breakthrough with Hun Sen, an old friend of her father Thaksin Shinawatra, and insisted that the conversation should have remained confidential.
The leak was damaging and deeply embarrassing for her and her Pheu Thai party. It ignited calls for her to resign as her biggest coalition partner walked out of the government, leaving her with a slim majority.
In July, seven out of the nine judges on the court voted to suspend Paetongtarn, a margin that suggested she would suffer the same fate as her four predecessors. So Friday's decision was not a surprise.
Paetongtarn is the fifth Thai prime minister to be removed from office by this court, all from administrations backed by her father. This has raised a widespread belief in Thailand that it nearly always rules against those perceived as a threat by conservative, royalist forces.
The court has also banned 112 political parties, including two previous incarnations of Thaksin's Pheu Thai party and Move Forward, the reformist movement that won the last election in 2023.
The leak of the phone conversation essentially sealed Paetongtarn's fate. The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen reacted angrily to her comments, terming them 'unprofessional' and driving him to expose the truth.
The political crisis in Thailand intensified, with tensions over their border erupting into a deadly five-day war last month that resulted in over 40 fatalities.
In the wake of the suspension, members of parliament must now choose a new prime minister from a restricted list, with Pheu Thai having already exhausted two out of three candidates previously named.
Amidst this unrest, Pheu Thai's attempts to revive the economy and address public sentiment seem stymied by rising nationalist feelings over the ongoing border war, casting doubt on the Shinawatra family's political future.
