Thamanat Prompow

Thamanat Prompow, is the current Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand since 1 September 2023. He formerly served as the Deputy Minister of the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry of Thailand under second Prayut cabinet. He also served as chairman of the National Water Resources Committee (NWRC). He has long served as a political "fixer" for the military junta that assumed power in the 2014 Thai coup d'état. Thamanat has described himself as "the main artery" in Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's 17-party government coalition which Thamanat helped forge in the 2019 Thai general election. He was born on 18 August 1965. Education Thamanat holds a bachelor's degree from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy, a master's degree in Buddhism from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University and a master's in political science from Ramkhamhaeng University. He has a PhD in public administration from Calamus International University and California University FCE (CUFCE). His dissertation, The forms of the local performance development and promotion with image and identity in order to increase the value-added and value-creation: a case study of Phayao Province was "posted" in the European Journal according to Thamanat. Some have suggested that the doctoral degree might be bogus. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam says it does not matter if the doctoral degree is fake as it is irrelevant. Thamanat has vowed to file around 100 lawsuits against those who he believes have lied about his past. Military service Thamanat served in the Royal Thai Army, rising to the rank of captain. He frequently uses his former military rank before his name and is often referred to as "Captain" by the media. Political activists have asked the Election Commission of Thailand (EC) to answer several Thamanat-related questions: how he managed to get reinstated in the army after his long stay in Australia in "state-sponsored accommodation" and then got promoted in 1997 after returning to Thailand, and why he used the military rank of captain in documents he submitted to join the current cabinet even though his title was revoked in a Royal Thai Government Gazette announcement in September 1998.