As Covid-19 surges in Thailand, Prayuth faces crisis of confidence stoked by Thaksin, Clubhouse and ‘fed-up doctors’

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is to meet industry and tourism leaders on Wednesday to discuss how the country, in the thick of a coronavirus flare-up and a month-long lockdown of Bangkok, can ramp up its vaccination drive as it seeks to welcome foreign travellers to Phuket by July 1.

Vaccinations are key to Thailand’s reopening to boost its decimated tourism sector, which contributed close to 15 per cent of its GDP before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. But a delay in procuring vaccine supplies has put its plans at risk and sparked a crisis of confidence among the public.

Thailand has received 2.5 million Sinovac doses and expects a further one million in May. Sixty-one million locally produced AstraZeneca doses are set to be delivered between June and December.  Prayuth said last week that Russia and Pfizer had each promised between five and 10 million doses but offered no delivery timeline.

With only about one per cent of the 66 million population – mostly health workers and those at higher risk of infection – inoculated so far, the private sector has ramped up pressure on the government to procure more vaccines. The Thai Chamber of Commerce on Monday began taking vaccine orders from members, at their own expense, as a step toward speeding the recovery, Bloomberg reported.

Russ Jalichandra, a retired Thai diplomat, said the government had focused too much on producing the AstraZeneca vaccine locally as a means of securing a supply of doses, pointing out that trials of domestically-produced vaccines were now under way. Russ said Thailand should have joined the global vaccine scheme Covax and focused on domestic production at the same time.

At a briefing on Tuesday, Prayuth said: “Both the government and the private sector are trying to find more vaccines. We’ll find a way to work together, with the government being responsible for any adverse effects that may happen from vaccinations.”

Prayuth’s comments followed heavy criticism of his government by Thai doctors and businesses.

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On social media, people have documented the difficulties in finding hospital beds for Covid-19 patients while over the weekend a group called Mor Mai Ton (“fed-up doctors”) called on Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to step down. More than 100,000 people signed the petition on Change.org in a matter of hours on Sunday.

In the first 25 days of April Thailand reported more than 26,000 Covid-19 infections – compared to less than 7,000 cases detected throughout all of 2020. 

The emergence of the doctors group follows that of a movement known as Thai Mai Ton (“fed-up Thais”), which was recently formed by supporters of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was deposed in a military coup in 2006 and has been in self-exile since 2008.

A police officer turned telecoms billionaire before he became prime minister, Thaksin himself has been active on the social media platform Clubhouse using the nickname Tony Woodsome, with some 200,000 people following him and being alerted to discussions involving him. In a session on April 20, thousands of Clubhouse users tuned in as he suggested he could bank on his ties with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to help Thailand procure its Sputnik V vaccine.

Included in the proposal, apart from holding a private talk with Putin, was that Thai billionaires like Dhanin Chearavanont, of Charoen Pokphand Group, and Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, the founder of Singapore Exchange-listed company ThaiBev, could use their connections in China and Singapore respectively to source vaccines for Thailand.

Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a self-exiled academic and prominent long-time critic of the Thai monarchy now based at Kyoto University and active on Clubhouse, said Thaksin’s “outward-looking focus and confidence in business” was in stark contrast to Prayuth’s military background.

According to Pavin, Thaksin’s remarks would be of interest to Thais as he came to power through elections, unlike Prayuth, who came to power initially through a coup that ousted Thaksin’s sister Yingluck from the top job in 2014. Prayuth was elected in the 2019 general election but observers largely regarded the poll as a skewed race.

Prommin Lertsuridej, Thaksin’s secretary while in office, said he could not confirm whether Thaksin would reach out to Moscow eventually but said the relationship between Thaksin and Putin, and other international leaders, extended long after Thaksin was out of power. 

“Thaksin is known to develop a person-to-person relationship with world leaders outside the usual protocol,” he said. “I accompanied Thaksin to Moscow on an official trip and remembered Putin personally drove him on the way to boarding the helicopter.”

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But Termsak Chalermpalanupap, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s Thailand Studies Programme, said Thaksin’s efforts were part of a move to remain relevant.

“I suspect he is afraid Thais are beginning to forget and ignore him. Hence he needs to reassert himself, at least on social media,” Termsak said. “Thaksin is very clever in claiming to have friends in high places [especially when] General Prayuth’s credibility is certainly diminishing in this third wave of Covid-19 infections.”

Other analysts said it was unclear whether there would be any threats to Prayuth staying in power, despite public anger. Prayuth earlier this month assigned party members of his Palang Pracharath coalition to oversee development projects, which observers interpreted as a move to strengthen his voter base. He also pledged to inject an additional US$12 billion of fiscal stimulus into the economy, though this raised alarm about Thailand’s swelling government debt.

There is also scepticism toward the “fed-up Thais” group led by former red shirt Jatuporn Prompan. While Jatuporn led anti-military demonstrations in 2010, his current demonstrations are seen as a move to capitalise on the momentum of young Thais lobbying for an overhaul of the monarchy and political change.

Paul Chambers, an academic on defence and security at Thailand’s Naresuan University, said it was impossible to confirm if Jatuporn’s moves were backed by Thaksin and pointed out that Prayuth could use the outbreak as a reason for clamping down on demonstrations.

Said Pavin from Kyoto University said: “Prayuth is a failure when it comes to managing the pandemic. But the Prayuth regime has continued to enjoy good backing from the military, the palace and the middle class in Bangkok. They all have vested interests in Prayuth.”