Thailand’s New Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra Shares Initial Reaction to Being Elected
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, is the second woman to serve as Thailand’s Prime Minister and she follows two former Prime Ministers from her family. Former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, her billionaire father who was in the post from 2001 to 2006 before being pushed out in a military coup, returned to Thailand from 15 years of self-imposed exile last year and is expected now to play a bigger role in Thai politics.
Transcript
00:00I'm so excited today because I can't really like hold my breath at all, like I don't know why.
00:05Normally I get on stage very often and I don't get excited at all, but today it's like my hands
00:10are shaking. So yes, that's what I'm trying to tell you guys that how I feel right now. And then
00:18I think my words are like mumbling a lot. Sorry about that. There's a lot going through my mind,
00:23especially right now. That's why I said that I'm so excited right now. Like I don't really feel
00:29this feeling for a long, long time. So yes, I was very confused and I didn't know what to do
00:37when the result come up and I felt very bad because I didn't expect the result to be like
00:44that at all. No, no. The Wednesday that you asked. So yes, on Wednesday I heard the result because
00:52I was on a plane flying back from China. So when I turn on my phone and then I read the news,
01:00I felt that almost like I didn't know that it's going to happen like this. So yes, I was very sad
01:09and I got back up again and then I talked to Khun Setha and I talked to my family and I talked to
01:18a lot of people from my party and I decided that it's about time to do something for the country
01:27and for the party as well. And I just, I hope that I can do my best to make the country go forward.
01:39That's what I try to do. And right now, of course, today I feel very honored and I feel
01:49very happy to do my best in every day and in every opportunities that I have.
01:56That's, I think that's make me feel like, of course, like, you know, there's a lot of
02:03things going on around me, but if I always do my best and always think about
02:10what is happening right now, right here in front of my face, I would, I will be fine.