Bailed ‘Red Shirt’ leader joins Thai cabinet

Thai “Red Shirt” anti-government protest leader Nattawut Saikuar (File photo: May 4, 2010)

A Thai “Red Shirt” leader on terrorism charges became the first from the protest movement to become a minister in the current government under a cabinet reshuffle yesterday.
In the reshuffle, details of which were sent to AFP by a government spokesman, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra promoted senior Red Shirt Nattawut Saikuar to the post of deputy agriculture minister.
Nattawut was released on bail along with others leaders of the movement in February last year, having spent nine months in detention on terrorism charges in relation to their role in mass rallies in Bangkok in 2010, which drew about 100,000 Red Shirts and cost 90 lives.
He was elected in July’s election last year, which propelled the Red Shirt-allied Puea Thai party to victory under the leadership of Yingluck, the sister of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Several Red Shirt leaders elected as lawmakers with the party, were thought to miss out on cabinet appointments because they could have angered Thaksin’s foes in military, government and palace circles.
Other notable changes in the new cabinet line-up were new finance minister Kittirat Na-Ranong, who retains the post of deputy prime minister, and new defence minister Sukumpol Suwanatat, previously transport minister.