Yingluck Walking Political ‘Tightrope’ in Thailand

Thailand's new Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra made headlines this week by forming a cabinet void of any members tied to the nation's pro-democracy "Red Shirt" movement.

Yingluck is the sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from the prime minister seat in 2006 by a military coup, and it is widely accepted that her election as the first female to hold the office depended heavily on support from the Red Shirts.

But she's taking care now not to identify herself too closely with the movement whose massive demonstrations brought Bangkok to its knees last year. According to Paul Chambers, head of research at the Southeast Asian Institute of Global Studies at Thailand's Payap University, "Yingluck is walking a difficult tightrope between appeasing the Red Shirts and placating the royalists as well as the military."

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