Former prime minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh is gravely ill, bedridden and unable to speak, according to a close aide.
Chawalit Wichayasut, deputy leader of the Thai Sang Thai Party and former MP for Nakhon Phanom, disclosed on his Facebook page that the 93-year-old retired general is currently being treated at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.
Mr Chawalit said the former premier’s family expressed deep gratitude to His Majesty the King for placing Gen Chavalit under royal patronage.
‘I visited Gen Chavalit last week. He is bedridden, has undergone a tracheotomy, is on dialysis and is being fed through a feeding tube. He remains under the close care of doctors,’ Mr Chawalit wrote.
Gen Chavalit served as the country’s 22nd prime minister from November 1996 to November 1997.
The former MP also addressed reports in the media about internal disputes within Gen Chavalit’s family, describing them as a ‘sensitive matter.’ He did not elaborate.
Mr Chawalit urged all sides to cease legal confrontations.
‘I would like to appeal to everyone to stop the conflict and show compassion,” Mr Chawalit said.
Mr Chawalit further responded to commentary on social and broadcast media portraying Gen Chavalit as the prime minister responsible for the 1997 Asian financial meltdown, widely known as the ‘Tom Yum Kung crisis’.
He argued the crisis did not originate during Gen Chavalit’s administration but had been building over several years under preceding governments due to financial liberalisation policies, particularly the Bangkok International Banking Facility (BIBF), which lacked sufficient regulatory oversight.