No Permanent Friends, No Permanent Enemies…

…and so the saying goes. As any long-term observers would know, this is a proven fact in Thai politics. The website 2bangkok.com has dug up an old picture of a Palang Dharma Party newspaper advert, featuring the former party leader Chamlong Srimuang and his replacement, the then fresh-faced Thaksin Shinawatra.

(Source: Full page ad in Bangkok Post, June 1, 1995. Via 2bangkok)

As everyone knows, the mentor and disciple eventually went their separate ways. Thaksin’s tenure as Palang Dharma’s leader was brief but disastrous, as the party failed to replicate the electoral successes it had earlier enjoyed under Chamlong.  Thaksin later co-founded the Thai Rak Thai party and promptly won the 2001 election by a landslide. The rest, as they say, is history.

Meanwhile, Chamlong ran for the Bangkok mayorship in 1996 but lost to Bhichit Rattakul. He subsequently retired from electoral politics but remained semi-active as a political campaigner. In 2006 he joined the PAD and was instrumental in the downfall of Thaksin.

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