Panadda Discul

Mom Luang Panadda Diskul ( Thai หม่อมหลวง ปนัดดา ดิ ศ กุล , RTGS Panatda Ditsakun ; born October 26, 1956 in Bangkok ) is a Thai civil servant and non-party politician. He was governor of the provinces of Nakhon Pathom and Chiang Mai , Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office . From 2014 to 2016 he was Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, and since 2016 he has been Deputy Minister of Education of Thailand.

Life

Panadda Diskul is the only son of Mom Rajawongse Sangkadis Diskul, a diplomat who represented Thailand as ambassador in various countries, and Mantana Diskul na Ayudhya. He is a great-grandson of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab , Siam's first interior minister. The name 'Panadda' comes from the Pali and means "great grandson"; his nickname is Khun Len ( คุณ เหลน ), which also means "great grandson". The minor nobility title Mom Luang indicates his distant royal ancestry. Panadda is married to Amporn Diskul na Ayudhya and they have one son.

Panadda attended Srinakharinwirot University Laboratory School and King's School in Australia. He then studied at Brigham Young University in the US state of Utah, where he graduated with a master's degree in international relations. Later he completed courses in Thai-Japanese history at the Japanese Sophia University , in higher administration at the College of the Thai Ministry of the Interior and at the College of National Defense (born in 2007).

After graduating from university, Panadda taught law and social sciences at the Chulachomklao Military Academy . Then he became an officer in the Interior Ministry. He first worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Office of the State Secretary. In 1998 he was appointed Director of Political and Administrative Strategy in the Office of Strategy and Planning. The following year he was made office manager of the interior minister. In 2003 Panadda moved to the provincial administration and became Deputy Governor of Samut Prakan Province , a year later he held the same position in Pathum Thani , from 2007 in Buri Ram Province . At the same time he was security advisor in the office of the State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior.

In 2009 he was promoted to provincial governor of Nakhon Pathom, and in 2011 he moved to Chiang Mai Province. In view of his reputation as a staunch royalist and opponent of the disempowered Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , an article in the newspaper The Nation evaluated the appointment of Panadda as governor of Thaksin's home province, a stronghold of the "red shirts ", in a time of extreme political polarization, as a step towards the suppression of the " red influence ”in the northern province. After two years he returned to the headquarters of the Interior Ministry, where he became Deputy State Secretary.

After the coup in 2014, Panadda moved to the office of prime minister, where he was first state secretary in 2015 and a minister in the same year, thus reporting directly to junta leader Prayut Chan-o-cha . In a cabinet reshuffle in December 2016, Panadda moved to the Ministry of Education as deputy minister. According to the information given to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, Panadda was the richest cabinet member at the beginning of 2017 with a fortune of 1.3 billion baht. His fortune consists mainly of valuable properties in the Bangkok districts of Nang Loeng , Dusit and Bang Sue . Among other things, Panadda is the owner and administrator of the Varadis Palace , the residence of his great-grandfather, and at the same time director of the Damrong Rajanubhab library there.

Panadda Diskul holds honorary doctorates in public administration from Chiang Mai Rajabhat University and Maejo University . He carries the special level of the White Elephant Order and the Order of the Crown of Thailand as well as the Order of Chula Chom Klao third class.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} CV on the website of the Ministry of Education , accessed on October 14, 2017.
2. ^ Royalist to Become Governor in Chiang Mai. In: The Nation (online), September 29, 2010. Quoted from Patrick Ziegenhain: Institutional Engineering and Political Accountability in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. ISEAS Publishing, Singapore 2015, p. 131.
3. ↑ About 34 million euros at the rate at that time.
4. ↑ Natthaphat Phromkaew: Panadda tops Cabinet rich list. In: The Nation (online), February 1, 2017.
5. ^ The Tatler List - ML Panadda Diskul. In: Thailand Tatler (online), accessed October 14, 2017.

Note on Thai names : This article addresses people by their first name.