Thailand Loses Its PM Again

The premature exit of Paetongtarn from high office has sparked fresh political uncertainty in Thailand.

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Where the courts and the military in Southeast Asia's 2nd largest economy amuse themselves in a perennial game of musical chairs, the country's premiers merely rise and fall. The dismissal of Thailand's youngest prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, on Friday has kept the scoreboard ticking for nearly 2 decades on the nation's leaders deposed by the Constitutional Court. The daughter and protégée of billionaire former business tycoon and ex-premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, Ms Paetongtarn was removed in connection with a leaked telephone conversation she had had with Phnom Penh's former leader and current president of the senate, Hun Sen, in June. The adverse verdict against her on Friday comes almost within a year of the court's termination from office of her predecessor for appointing a tainted politician as justice minister.