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  • To Thailand where Paton Shinawat has become the country's youngest ever prime minister The 37 year old says she's very honored and happy to take up the post Her selection by Thailand's Parliament marks the return of the Shinawat dynasty She's the daughter of the billionaire tycoon and former leader Thaksin The former prime minister Setawee Sin was seen was dismissed earlier this week by the Constitutional Court Well Paton Tan Shinawat has been speaking in the past hour I talked to my family and I talked to a lot of people from my party and I decided that It's about time to do something for the country and for the party as well and I just I hope that I can do my best to you know Make the country go forward but that's what I That's what I try I try to do and right now of course today's I feel very honored and I feel very happy Let's go live now to Bangkok and our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head and Jonathan so she's a new face but familiar family Familiar family and in some ways a familiar face because she did lead the campaign of the party last year She's a good campaigner.

  • I mean as you have seen from that clip She comes across as quite natural and young and excited by the job.

  • And I think a lot of ties will like that But the Shinawat family are controversial There are many conservative ties who don't trust her father Thaksin Shinawat That is the reason almost certainly why the court ruled against his previous nominee former Prime Minister Seta So, you know for somebody who's inexperienced like Paton Tan, she's got a tough job to do She's got to watch out for the courts moving against her she has to hold together a very uneasy coalition including a lot of conservative parties that still don't like her father and She has the promise that her party's given to revive an economy in Thailand Which has been stuck with low growth for many many years now They've they've kind of run out of options And so, you know, it's it's quite a lot for a person that young and inexperienced to be taking on Yes, because you mentioned the the court intervention, but there's a recent history of Thailand is court interventions and military coups It's quite a it's quite a lot to be contending with and aside from the economy.

  • What will the big challenges be for her?

  • Well, that's the biggest one it's surviving I mean three other members of her family have been prime ministers before all of them were ousted by the coups or court rulings Thailand's courts are incredibly powerful.

  • They're very conservative along with other institutions They impose very very tight rules on elected politicians and you can break those rules quite easily for quite small infractions They have the power to dissolve your party to sack you as a prime minister even to file criminal charges So I think that's what will be most on her mind at the moment.

  • Just trying to avoid that fate

To Thailand where Paton Shinawat has become the country's youngest ever prime minister The 37 year old says she's very honored and happy to take up the post Her selection by Thailand's Parliament marks the return of the Shinawat dynasty She's the daughter of the billionaire tycoon and former leader Thaksin The former prime minister Setawee Sin was seen was dismissed earlier this week by the Constitutional Court Well Paton Tan Shinawat has been speaking in the past hour I talked to my family and I talked to a lot of people from my party and I decided that It's about time to do something for the country and for the party as well and I just I hope that I can do my best to you know Make the country go forward but that's what I That's what I try I try to do and right now of course today's I feel very honored and I feel very happy Let's go live now to Bangkok and our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head and Jonathan so she's a new face but familiar family Familiar family and in some ways a familiar face because she did lead the campaign of the party last year She's a good campaigner.

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