Calls are growing louder against Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to resign after a 17-minute phone call with Cambodia's ex-prime minister was leaked amid tensions between the two Southeast Asian nations over a border dispute.
The leak prompted a key coalition partner, Bhumjaithai, to quit 38-year-old Paetongtarn's Peu Thai party on Wednesday, putting her 10-month rule in jeopardy.
In the leaked call, which happened on June 15, Paetongtarn was heard calling former Cambodian strongman Hun Sen “uncle” and appeared to criticise her own army’s actions after the border clashes led to the death of a Cambodian soldier last month.
The outrage was particularly fuelled by Paetontarn referring to Hun Sen as uncle, and promising to 'take care' of his interests on the border issue. Her comments were perceived as undermining the country's security interests by kowtowing to Hun Sen.
After the controversy, Hun Sen said he shared the audio clip with 80 politicians and claimed that one of them leaked it. He later shared the entire 17-minute recording on his Facebook page.
The Shinawatras and the Hun family's friendship goes back decades. Hun Sen and Paetongtarn's father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, consider each other "godbrothers".
The Thai prime minister defended the call, calling it a "negotiation technique", but the opposition has been adamant in seeking her resignation.
While a meeting is said to have been planned to discuss next steps, public outrage in the form of mass anti-government protests, calling for the dissolution of Shinawatra’s parliament, and the PM’s resignation, has spread across the country.
The crisis comes after clashes between Thailand and Cambodia escalated in May when the armed forces of both countries momentarily fired at one another in a border area, which both countries claim to be their sovereign territory.
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