Who is Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thailand's youngest PM? What challenges lie ahead of her?

Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been elected Thailand’s youngest prime minister.

Paetongtarn is the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire and former prime minister of Thailand.

Paetongtarn is the fourth member of her family to serve as prime minister.

The development comes just days after Thailand’s Constitutional Court ousted Srettha Thavisin as prime minister and a week after the same court banned the country’s most popular politician Pita Limjaroenrat and dissolved the Move Forward Party.

But who is Paetongtarn? And what challenges lie ahead of her?

Let’s take a closer look:

Who is Paetongtarn?

As per The Guardian, Paetongtarn is the youngest of Thaksin’s three children.

Paetongtarn in Thailand is known by her nickname Ung Ing.

Thaksin was ousted from the prime minister’s chair by an army coup in 2006 but he remains a strong power-broker and his Pheu Thai Party remains a major force in Thai politics.

He returned to Thailand last year after years in exile in what was interpreted as part of a political bargain between Pheu Thai and their longstanding rivals in the conservative establishment to stop Move Forward Party from forming a government.

Paetongtarn grew up in Bangkok, attending private schools in the centre of the city. She was exposed to politics from a young age, and would follow her father around when he became foreign minister.

As Thai political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak from Chulalongkorn University told CNN: “She was very prominent and was often seen with him.”

She later went to the United Kingdom to get a master’s degree in international hotel management at the University of Surrey.

Paetongtarn helped run the hotel arm of the family’s business empire.

In 2019, she married commercial pilot Pidok Sooksawas.

They have two children.

Paetongtarn entered politics in 2021 when the Pheu Thai party announced she would lead an inclusion advisory committee.

She was appointed as leader of Pheu Thai last year, after she was named one of its three prime ministerial candidates ahead of the polls.

When Paetongtarn was on the campaign trail for Pheu Thai, she acknowledged her family ties but insisted she was not just her father’s proxy.

“It’s not the shadow of my dad. I am my dad’s daughter, always and forever, but I have my own decisions,” she told a reporter.

According to The New York Times, her decision to accept the top job shocked many.

The outlet quoted sources close to Paetongtarn as saying she was hesitant to do so.

What are the challenges she is facing?

Paetongtarn faces challenges on multiple fronts, with the economy floundering and the popularity of her Pheu Thai Party dwindling.

The party is yet to deliver on its flagship cash handout program worth 500 billion baht ($14.25 billion).

The fall of Srettha after less than a year in office will be a stark reminder of the kind of hostility Paetongtarn could face, with Thailand trapped in a tumultuous cycle of coups and court rulings that have disbanded political parties and toppled multiple governments and prime ministers.

The Shinawatras and their business allies have borne the brunt of the crisis, which pits parties with mass appeal against a powerful nexus of conservatives, old money families and royalist generals with deep connections in key institutions.

The legacy and and political future of the billionaire Shinawatra family, whose once unstoppable populist juggernaut suffered its first election defeat in over two decades last year, and had to do a deal with its bitter enemies in the military to form a government, is also on the line.

Paetongtarn’s popularity too remains under the scanner.

According to The New York Times, Paetongtarn, who has never served in government, was the choice of just six per cent of voters in a recent poll as the preferred prime minister.

Paetongtarn trailed both Pita and Srettha .

Paetongtarn has urged the public to be patient and let Pheu Thai’s economic policies bear fruit.

“It has only been one year … I will push all the Pheu Thai policies for success,” she said.

“We are determined and ready to push the country forward.”

Recent events in Thailand are also a reminder of how the dangers and perils of the country’s politics, according to The New York Times.

As per The Guardian, the turn of events also display the tenuousness of the arrangement made to keep Move Forward Party out of power.

Nine days ago, the same court that dismissed Srettha over a cabinet appointment also dissolved the anti-establishment Move Forward Party – the 2023 election winner – over a campaign to amend a law against insulting the crown, which it said risked undermining the constitutional monarchy.

It has since formed a new Opposition party.

“In the span of one week, the court has disfranchised more than 14 million voters by dissolving their party of choice, and unseated a democratically elected prime minister,” Napon Jatusripitak, visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told The Guardian.

He described the development as essentially a ‘judicial coup.’

The upheaval in the past few days also indicates a breakdown in a fragile truce struck between Thaksin and his rivals in the establishment and military old guard, which had enabled the tycoon’s dramatic return from 15 years of self-exile in 2023 and ally Srettha to become premier the same day.

The decision to put Paetongtarn in play at such a critical juncture has surprised many analysts, who had expected Thaksin to delay his dynasty and avoid exposing Paetongtarn to the type of battles that led to the downfall of himself and sister Yingluck, who both fled overseas to avoid jail after their governments were ousted by the military.

Paetongtarn also faces a tough time as Thaksin continues to call political shots for Pheu Thai, said Petra Alderman, a political research fellow at England’s University of Birmingham.

“Thaksin was a political force to reckon with, but he was also a liability,” she said, “He has a tendency to overplay his political hand, so serving in his shadow has never been easy.”

Researcher Ken Lohatepanont told The Guardian it is likely that the coalition government remains.

“But Thaksin’s freedom of navigation is being increasingly limited,” he added.

However, others contend that the coalition under the leadership of Paetongtarn could strengthen their unity.

This is because Paetongtarn possesses something that Srettha does not — a direct line to her powerful father who has the final say — said Napon Jatusripitak, a political science researcher at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“In a strange way, it creates a clear chain of command and curbs factionalism,” he said. “Paetongtarn will be given clear jurisdictions on where she can exercise her own agency and where it is a matter between her father and the coalition members.”

With inputs from agencies