Do we like them?

Do we like Srettha Thavisin?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A clear friend to LGBTQ+ Thais with no harmful words found, held back by a court-found ethics breach and a pending anti-corruption probe.

Srettha Thavisin was born in Bangkok in 1962, studied economics in Massachusetts and finance in California, then spent four years at Procter & Gamble. He joined the property developer Sansiri and rose to chief executive. He quit all his Sansiri posts in 2023, after joining the Pheu Thai party in late 2022.

The rise was fast. Pheu Thai made him its chief adviser in March 2023 and its prime ministerial nominee a month later. By late August 2023 he was Thailand's 30th prime minister, leading a Pheu Thai coalition. A property boss who skipped the usual climb through politics, in other words.

The harm check is the good bit. Soon after taking office he posted on X that “everyone should be entitled to equal rights, regardless of their gender.” In November 2023 his cabinet approved a marriage equality bill and sent it to parliament, swapping gendered terms like husband and wife for neutral ones. I found no harmful words about people or the planet, and no dodgy company.

The downfall came on 14 August 2024. The Constitutional Court voted 5-4 to remove him over appointing Pichit Chuenban, who had earlier been jailed over an alleged bribery attempt, to his cabinet. The court found it a serious ethics breach. The case was brought by 40 senators, and Srettha said he accepted the ruling and had tried to lead honestly.

There are other clouds. In 2023 whistleblower Chuwit Kamolvisit alleged that Srettha was complicit in tax evasion over Sansiri land deals. Srettha's lawyer said Srettha only oversaw proceedings and called the land arrangement tax planning. Srettha sued Chuwit for defamation. Separately, in late 2025 Thailand's anti-corruption commission accepted a complaint alleging funds were redirected to his 10,000 baht digital wallet handout. No outcome was reported in what I read.

Nothing new on him lately. In January 2025 he told Nation TV he was surprised by the ruling but accepted it, saying “Politics isn't a personal matter; it's about the country.” In February 2026 he voted in Bangkok as a former prime minister and urged people to turn out. He holds no office that I could find.