By Ashley Tang and Panu Wongcha-um
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Monday appointed Thailand’s billionaire political heavyweight and former premier Thaksin Shinawatra as his personal adviser for when he becomes chair of Southeast Asia’s regional bloc next year.
Anwar said Thaksin’s role during his leadership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be in an informal capacity, alongside advisors from several of the bloc’s 10 member states.
Anwar made the announcement during a visit to Malaysia by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s youngest daughter and fourth member of their family to hold Thailand’s top political post.
“Thank you for agreeing to this because we need the benefit of the experience of such a statesman,” Anwar said of Thaksin during a joint press conference with Paetongtarn.
Thaksin, 75, has been a towering figure over Thai politics in the past two decades and his influence is widely expected to shape the current government, as it has multiple administrations in the past quarter-century.
Thaksin is barred from office after being found guilty of abuse of power and conflicts of interest, charges that he evaded for 15 years while in self-imposed exile, from which he remained a central player in intermittent turmoil back home.
He made a dramatic return to Thailand in August 2023 and was jailed for eight years, a sentence commuted days later by Thailand’s king to one year. Thaksin spent only a few hours in jail before being transferred to hospital on health grounds, where he spent six months before being paroled in February.
The divisive tycoon has insisted he is retired from politics, but his rivals in the royalist establishment and military are skeptical and believe he is calling the shots in his daughter’s government.
Thaksin has played an active role with the ruling Pheu Thai Party he founded and frequently weighs in with public remarks on government policies. He has met with Cambodia’s influential former premier Hun Sen, whose son is now prime minister, and Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto.
Thaksin has according to Thai media sought a mediation role in the intractable conflict in army-ruled Myanmar, the biggest challenge facing Anwar’s ASEAN chairmanship.
Thailand’s foreign minister confirmed in May that Thaksin, in a personal capacity, had met rivals of Myanmar’s junta in a bid to broker talks.
(Reporting by Ashley Tang in Kuala Lumpur and Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok; Editing by Martin Petty)
