Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala was among a handful of nonparty outsiders in a Cabinet that appears to have been selected to appease all sides in a country that has gone through six years of sometimes bloody political upheaval.
Although the line-up is dominated by members of Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party, which won a landslide election victory on July 3, it includes some ministers seen as moderates close to both her self-exiled brother, former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and his enemies among the military and royalist establishment.
Thirachai, 59, who was head of Thailand’s financial markets watchdog until last week and was also in the running for the central bank governor’s job last year, has a background that should allay some concerns about Thailand’s economic outlook.
“The economic ministers are acceptable to foreign investors, so worries about runaway deficits and inflation are likely to decline,” said Roberto Herrara-Lim, an analyst with Eurasia Group in New York.
Yingluck promised a big increase in the minimum wage and other populist policies that have brought forecasts of a wage-price spiral from economists, plus a warning from the central bank that interest rates might have to be raised even higher than anticipated to combat inflation.
Writing on his Facebook page on Wednesday, Thirachai said he welcomed efforts to raise living standards but his job was to ensure fiscal stability. He noted that he had played no part in drawing up Puea Thai’s policy.
“Truth and political dreams have to deal with the sustainability of the country’s fiscal status - that’s my concern,” he wrote.
One nomination to raise eyebrows was that of Foreign Minister Surapong Towijakchaiku, a politician with no notable diplomatic or foreign policy credentials, but a close ally of Thaksin, a billionaire ousted by the military in 2006 and now living in exile in Dubai.
Thaksin fled Thailand in 2008 to avoid jail for a graft conviction he says was cooked up by powerful conservatives and army-appointed judges to shut him out of politics.
Yingluck has fended off questions about whether she will facilitate his return, knowing any such move would antagonize his opponents.
The 44-year-old businesswoman was elected Thailand’s first female prime minister on Friday in a parliamentary vote just 11 weeks into her political career.
Among other notable appointments to her Cabinet, former stock market president Kittirat Na Ranong becomes commerce minister, which puts him in charge of policy on rice, of which Thailand is the world’s biggest exporter.
One of Yingluck’s main election promises was to effectively double the guaranteed farmgate price for rice as a way of helping the millions of Thais that depend on it for a living.
The defense portfolio went to Yutthasak Sasiprapha, a retired general on good terms with anti-Thaksin military figures seen by many analysts as the biggest threat to Yingluck’s government.
But Yuthasak told Reuters the army leadership was professional and would cooperate. In turn, the government would not meddle in military affairs.
“They understand the situation. Both sides want to serve the country and the people,” Yutthasak said. “I’m ready to be a coordinator between the army and Puea Thai Party. They don’t have any problems with one another.” Yutthasak said he believed Prem Tinsulanonda, a senior royal adviser accused by some of plotting Thaksin’s overthrow, would be willing to meet and offer advice to Yingluck.
Former police chief Kowit Wattana, a staunch royalist and member of the coup council that ousted Thaksin, becomes deputy prime minister in charge of security.
There was no place in Cabinet for any of the leaders of the “red shirt” movement, whose protests against the previous government were crushed by the military in May last year.
It played a big part in mobilizing supporters to get Puea Thai elected and some of its leaders won seats in Parliament, but several have been charged with terrorism offenses in relation to the 2010 protests.
“The new government is trying to avoid an early confrontation with the anti-Thaksin forces,” said Eurasia’s Herrara-Lim. “This is a way for Puea Thai to keep things quiet while it works to consolidate its political position.”
