With barely more than a month under her belt as a professional politician, Yingluck Shinawatra stood poised Monday to become Thailand’s first woman prime minister after her Pheu Thai party scored a resounding victory in Sunday’s national elections. Riding a well-oiled political machine and benefiting from the popularity of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as prime minister in a 2006 military coup, Yingluck and her party won an apparent majority in parliament according to unofficial election returns. But even with an experienced team behind her, can a novice prime minister succeed where several veterans have failed and end the political strife that has torn Thailand apart for nearly seven years?
“There is a lot more hard work to do… to make reconciliation possible,” Yingluck told a press conference after incumbent Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded on Sunday evening. Abhisit, once regarded as Thailand’s brightest up-and-coming political star, resigned as Democrat Party leader on Monday. The hardest issue of all — and one that is central to reconciliation efforts — will be a possible amnesty Yingluck initially proposed for anyone charged or convicted of “political crimes” since the 2006 coup. A blanket amnesty would cover anti-Thaksin ‘Yellow Shirt’ protesters who took over Bangkok’s airport in 2008, and pro-Thaksin ‘Red Shirt’ protesters whose two-month demonstration in central Bangkok last year ended in a confrontation with the army that resulted in 92 deaths and buildings being burned. Most contentiously, an amnesty would include her brother Thaksin who was convicted of corruption and fled Thailand in 2008 rather than serve a two-year prison sentence. A court later seized nearly $2 billion of his assets.
