While Thaksin Shinawatra’s camp has never looked more vulnerable, it used to lose political power from positions of apparent invincibility all the time. In 2005, the Thai Rak Thai Party won 376 out of 500 House of Representatives seats, only for a coup to wipe that out in the following year. Its reincarnation, the People’s Power Party, reclaimed state control and looked comfortable, until a cooking show and parties’ dissolutions changed everything.
A Red Shirt uprising in 2010 would eventually reinstall the camp in the corridors of power. By that time it was “Pheu Thai” and, again, the party seemed to have celestial views of Thai politics while it reigned. Then-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was poised to lead it to another impressive election victory but any grand plan was suddenly in tatters thanks to a controversial “amnesty” bill and Prayuth Chan-o-cha’s…
