Sawt Falasteen - Thai PM to meet army commander to defuse political crisis

The 38-year-old leader, in office for less than a year, was forced to make a public apology on Thursday as anger flared over the call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen that appeared online.

Her main coalition partner, the conservative Bhumjaithai party, pulled out on Wednesday saying she had insulted the country and the army, putting her government on the point of collapse.

There was better news for Paetongtarn, daughter of controversial billionaire ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, on Friday as another important coalition partner, the conservative Democrat Party, pledged to stay.

"The Democrat Party will remain in the government to help resolve the challenges the country is currently facing," the party said in a statement.

Another coalition party, Chartthaipattana, said late on Thursday that it would not withdraw, after urgent talks on the crisis with the Democrats and the United Thai Nation (UTN) party.

With the departure of Bhumjaithai, the government led by Paetongtarn's Pheu Thai party now holds a razor-thin majority in parliament.

Losing another major partner would likely see the government collapse, plunging the kindgom into fresh political instability as it grapples with a stuttering economy and US President Donald Trump's threatened trade tariffs.

- Apology -

Paetongtarn will travel to Thailand's northeast on Friday to patch things up with Lieutenant General Boonsin Padklang, the commander of the forces in northeast Thailand, where the border clashes took place.

She referred to Boonsin as her "opponent" in the leaked call with Hun Sen, in which the two leaders discussed the ongoing border dispute.

Thailand has formally protested to Cambodia about the leak, calling it a breach of diplomatic protocol that had damaged trust between the two sides.

Paetongtarn was criticised as being weak and deferential in the call with Hun Sen, a veteran politician known as a wily operator, but her comments about the army commander were potentially the most damaging to her.

Thailand's armed forces have long played a powerful role in the kingdom's politics and politicians are usually careful not to antagonise them.

When she made her public apology for the leaked call on Thursday, Paetongtarn did so standing in front of army and police chiefs, in a show of unity.

There were small street protests on Thursday and calls from across the political spectrum for her to quit or announce an election, but her apology and backing from some of her coalition partners appear to have shored up her position for now.

But with a tiny majority she remains vulnerable, not least because of the awkward nature of her coalition.

Paetongtarn took office in August last year at the head of an uneasy alliance between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties whose members have spent much of the past 20 years battling against her father.

Thaksin, twice elected PM, was thrown out in a military coup in 2006, and the bitter tussle between the conservative, royalist establishment and the political movement he founded has dominated Thai politics throughout that time.

Former Manchester City owner Thaksin, 75, still enjoys huge support from the rural base whose lives he transformed with populist policies in the early 2000s.

But he is despised by Thailand's powerful elites, who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilising.

R.Halabi--SF-PST