Prem Tinsulanonda, one of Thailand's most influential political figures over four decades, has died at age 98.
FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2014 file photo, former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda attends a charity function in Bangkok, Thailand. Prem Tinsulanonda, one of Thailand's most influential political figures over four decades who served as army commander, prime minister and adviser to the royal palace, has died at age 98. Thai media reported he died Sunday morning, May 26, 2019, in a Bangkok hospital, and an official announcement is expected.
Prem is credited by some scholars with establishing the unspoken primacy of the palace in Thailand’s power structure, cementing a mutually beneficial alliance with the military. He denied such allegations, but in the months preceding the military takeover, frequently talked about corruption and greed in government — a major accusation against Thaksin by his critics — and strongly advised in public speeches to army and navy cadets that their loyalty was to king and country, not the government.
Prem retained his role as a behind-the-scenes power broker after the 2006 coup, especially as King Bhumibol was in ill health for much of the decade before his death in 2016. Junior officers pushed a reluctant Prem into taking the prime minister’s job in 1980, when Thailand was facing an ailing economy and perils on the border with Cambodia, which had been occupied by Vietnamese forces who had driven out the communist Khmer Rouge regime but also sent hundreds of thousands of refugees into Thailand. At the same time, Thailand expanded ties with China and allies in the West, Japan and Southeast Asia.
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