Wissanu Krea-ngam: Man of all seasons in Thai politics

Having served up to eight prime ministers in 12 governments, former deputy prime minister Wissanu Krea-ngam is definitely a man of all seasons in Thai politics.

His name reappeared on the Thai political scene last week after Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters he would seek legal advice from Wissanu before defending himself in the Constitutional Court.

It was reported that Srettha appointed Wissanu as legal adviser to the Cabinet Secretariat on Monday. His purported job is to help the secretariat prepare a written defence in Srettha’s case.

The prime minister turned to Wissanu after the Constitutional Court accepted a petition filed by 40 senators asking it to see if Srettha violated a political ethics code and the charter by appointing a person with a questionable background as minister.

In last month’s Cabinet reshuffle, Srettha appointed former lawyer Pichit Chuenban as PM’s Office minister. Pichit had been jailed for six months in 2008 for contempt of court.

Wissanu, meanwhile, is seen as a technocrat with outstanding knowledge who has been a fixture in the Thai political circles for decades.

He became deputy Cabinet secretary-general for the government of then-PM Chatichai Choonhavan in 1991. The following year, he became spokesman for the short-lived Suchinda Kraprayoon government.

Since then, he has been serving all prime ministers regardless of which political side they hail from.

In late 2002, Wissanu became a deputy prime minister for then-PM Thaksin Shinawatra.

During that year, reporters on the Government House beat labelled Thaksin as the “supreme being” for employing absolute PM power, while Wissanu was named “neti borikorn” or “servant serving legal affairs”.

Wissanu earned the moniker because he was seen as using his legal expertise to help the Thaksin government escape political crises and provide advice on enacting or enforcing laws.

Wissanu resigned from the Cabinet on June 24, 2006, after serving Thaksin for three years and nine months.

After the May 22, 2014 coup, Wissanu was appointed as an adviser to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).
Once the NCPO installed a post-coup government, Wissanu was named deputy PM in charge of legal affairs for up to five years.

When junta-leader and post-coup premier, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, became prime minister for a second term after the 2019 general election, Wissanu was appointed deputy prime minister once again.

During Prayut’s tenure, Wissanu won three more nicknames from the press corps.

In 2019, he was labelled “Sri Thanonchai Rod Chong”. Sri Thanonchai is a character in Thai literature known for his cunning and ability to win arguments and disputes. Rod Chong means being able to escape through holes.

The reporters explained that Wissanu was so labelled because he used his legal expertise to help the Prayut government survive all crises.

In 2020, Wissanu was called “Haiter serviceman”.

Haiter is the brand of laundry bleach, and Wissanu was so named because reporters believed he acted like a bleaching agent to clean the government’s “dirty laundry”.

In 2023, Wissanu was named washing machine because he “laundered” all government irregularities. The reporter said any issue handled by Wissanu would come out spotlessly clean.