PM in a dicey position

A leaked audio clip of a phone call between Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Cambodia's Senate President Hun Sen has put the Thai premier in a very vulnerable position.

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In the clip, which was publicly released by Hun Sen, Ms Paetongtarn refers to Second Region Army Commander Lt Gen Boonsin Padklang — who is busy defending the Thai-Cambodian border while the two nations are locked in conflict — as “the opposition”.

During the call that is believed to have been made on June 15, she also promised to do her best to cater to “whatever Cambodia wants” — a diplomatic concession that has left the Thai public shellshocked.

Her opponents quickly lambasted the move as an act of treason. Some see it as political suicide for the 38-year-old who was ushered into politics by her father Thaksin, a former fugitive prime minister himself, who recently returned from self-imposed exile overseas.

As a political novice, Ms Paetongtarn has already made a number of political blunders, but this telephone gaffe is the most egregious.