During Prem’s tenure as prime minister, he was credited with ending a communist insurgency and presiding over accelerating economic growth.

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,[4] as well as in the appointment of the post-coup legislature and interim government of Surayud Chulanont.

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.

The attempt became violent when rebel soldiers fired at the government's information centres, killing an Australian journalist and his American sound man.

The coup attempt was supported by Ekkayuth Anchanbutr, a businessman who had fled the country after Prem's government issued new legislation against financial crime.

The investigation implicated military officers who were among the 1981 coup's leaders and former communists who opposed Prem's amnesty policy.

Previously Prem sent his men to China, persuading it to stop supporting the Communist Party of Thailand.

[12] On 4 September 1998, Prem was appointed to head King Bhumibol Adulyadej's Privy Council, becoming the successor to Sanya Dharmasakti.

Thaksin and his supporters immediately reacted against what they called an "out of constitutional" individual (Prem) "meddling" in Thai politics.

[citation needed] Amid the tensions between Thaksin and an "unconstitutional figure", on 9 March 2006, a small bomb exploded outside Prem's residence in Bangkok.

Police said the device had been hidden beneath a stone bench near an unoccupied security booth at the entrance to the residence.

In June 2006, Thaksin gave a controversial speech to officials claiming "the intervention of an extra-constitutional power, or figure" was seeking to damage his government.

[15][16][17] In an interview published in early-2006, Prem explained his vision of a distinctive Thai-style democracy in which the monarch remains the ultimate defender of the public interest and retains control of the armed forces.

[19] Thai police Lieutenant-General Theeradech Rodphot-hong, head of the Special Branch, cautioned that any legal proceedings would be improper as these could involve the king in a political conflict.

[20] On 22 July 2007, thousands of protesters, mostly Thaksin supporters, demonstrated in front of Prem's house, calling for him to resign.

When the demonstration exploded into violence, police cracked down and arrested several protest leaders, including an interim National Human Rights Commissioner and a former judge, both being former members of deposed prime minister Thaksin's political party.

[22] Government spokesman Yongyuth Mayalap said Prem categorically denied the protestors' allegations that he was behind the military coup.

[23] Prem considered taking legal action against the pro-Thai Rak Thai United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship for defamation.

A source close to him said Gen Prem compiled evidence and might file defamation charges against nine key anti-coup figures.

Interior Minister Aree Wongarya and his deputy, Banyat Chansena, held talks with Prem at his residence on 1 August 2007.

UDD leaders harshly blasted Prem for meddling in politics, calling him an ammatya, or 'royal puppet', or 'aristocrat', and a threat to democracy as he had never been democratically elected but had been appointed by the king.

[39] On 9 December 2019, King Vajiralongkorn sent the acting President of the Privy Council, Surayud Chulanont, as a royal representative to collect the crematory relics at Wat Debsirindrawas.