Prem Tinsulanonda

Regent of Thailand

26 August 1920 Songkhla, Siam

26 May 2019(2019-05-26) (98) Bangkok, Thailand

13 October 2016 – 1 December 2016

Thai military and political official This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. Please help improve it by rewriting it in a balanced fashion that contextualizes different points of view. (May 2019 ) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Prem Tinsulanonda (Thai: เปรม ติณสูลานนท์ , RTGS: Prem Tinnasulanon , pronounced ; 26 August 1920 – 26 May 2019) was a Thai military officer, politician, and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Thailand from 3 March 1980 to 4 August 1988, during which time he was credited with ending a communist insurgency and presiding over accelerating economic growth. As president of the Privy Council, he served as Regent of Thailand from the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on 13 October 2016, until the 1 December 2016 proclamation of Vajiralongkorn as King. At the age of 98, Prem was the longest-living Thai Prime Minister. During the Thai political crisis of the mid-2000s, he was accused by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his supporters of masterminding the 2006 coup, as well as in the appointment of the post-coup legislature and interim government of Surayud Chulanont. The military junta that ousted Thaksin denied that Prem had any important political role. Prem, as the President of the Privy Council, promoted King Bhumibol's ideologies and royal projects, though he sometimes represented himself as being the voice of the king. He urged Thai society to follow the king's advice and himself founded several welfare projects related to education, drug suppression, poverty, and national unity. A southerner, Prem had also dealt personally with trying to resolve the South Thailand insurgency.