Ceritalah | Prem Tinsulanonda was a trusted royal aide. So who will be the new Thai King’s counsel?
- Prem, who died earlier this year, was a trusted adviser to the revered King Bhumibol and an influential figure in post-war Thailand
- Together, he and the King formed one of Southeast Asia’s powerful political partnerships. With a new monarch – King Vajiralongkorn – who might emerge to provide wise counsel?
It is one of the most famous images in Southeast Asian history: Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej sitting regally before a group of prostrate, feuding politicians. It was May 20, 1992 and the king had just intervened, demanding an end to bloody riots that had paralysed Bangkok. The protesters dispersed, the junta leader resigned and Thailand gradually returned to civilian rule.
Also kneeling at the king’s side was another remarkable man: his trusted adviser Prem Tinsulanonda, who passed away earlier this year aged 98.
King Bhumibol was undoubtedly the defining figure in post-war Thai history, before his death in 2016 aged 88. The men behind him, though, such as Prem, were also immensely important in their own right.
There have been other intriguing and all-powerful political pairings in Southeast Asia: in Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee (the man behind the island republic’s economic success story); in Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad and Daim Zainuddin.
By comparison, Indonesia’s Suharto – having risen to power in a coup – never trusted his lieutenants sufficiently to allow them the same authority.
