Tears in Thailand as Move Forward Party – and hopes for democracy – cancelled by court

Bangkok: They shrieked and jeered and thrust double-barrelled middle fingers at the livestream. A young woman sobbed into a wall of whirring cameras. Few, however, were terribly surprised.

For the hundreds of orange-clad Thais gathered outside the headquarters of the nation’s most popular erstwhile political party, the fix had long been in.

Former leader of Move Forward Party, Pita Limjaroenrat, crying as he meets his supporters.Credit: AP

The big screens had on Wednesday broadcast the ruling of Thailand’s Constitutional Court to dissolve the reformist Move Forward Party.

Top leaders, including the charismatic, young figurehead, Pita Limjaroenrat, were banned from politics for a decade.

Their crime was a policy platform taken through last year’s successful election campaign that included loosening the strict defamation laws that criminalise criticism of the monarchy. The real offence, supporters believe, was to win a popular mandate to overhaul the opaque political webs stitched to keep the military and royalist establishment powerful and rich.

“The system is not the same as it is internationally,” said a motorbike-taxi driver and Move Forward member, who asked to remain nameless. “All the power is in one hand”.

Supporters at the Move Forward Party headquarters in Bangkok on Wednesday.Credit: Bloomberg

Whose hand, “I cannot say.”

The image of King Maha Vajiralongkorn is plastered on the sides of skyscrapers in downtown Bangkok. The nation’s constitution stipulates he “be enthroned in a position of revered worship”. Slights, including on social media, carry jail terms of up to 15 years. Trying to amend these laws, according to the panel of judges on Wednesday, was tantamount to insurrection.

The United States, a strong friend of Thailand, said on Wednesday night it was “deeply concerned” at the verdict.

Despite the long-held taboo, Thailand’s youth-led reform movement has been challenging monarchy’s sway over their lives and its symbiotic relationship with the elite.

In the restive year of 2020, the hashtag #whydoweneedaking was posted more than a million times to twitter. Protests had flared after Move Forward’s predecessor, Future Forward, was dissolved by the same court for campaign funding breaches.

Capitalising on the broad resentment at perceived deep state meddling, Move Forward in 2023 did what Future Forward couldn’t four years earlier: win the vote.

With a coalition of pro-democracy parties, Pita was to become Thailand’s new prime minister but was blocked by the numbers in a joint sitting of parliament by the military-appointed senate. The party’s main political partner, Pheu Thai, which finished with the second most seats, then flipped to form a coalition with pro-military groups and install Srettha Thavisin as prime minister.

“I have my freedom and my rights to insist on our innocence – that we had no intention of separating the monarchy from Thailand,” Pita said on Wednesday in fluent English honed while studying in New Zealand and the US.

Former leader of Move Forward Party Pita Limjaroenrat talks to reporter with lawmakers from Move Forward Party during press conference at the party’s headquarters in Bangkok.Credit: AP

“But if the result of the process is like this, then let it be and we’ll make sure that the project continues in a new vehicle.”

Details of a new party would be announced on Friday, he said, “Although today I have to say goodbye as a politician.”

Since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, Thais have endured more than a dozen coups, two this century – 2006 and 2014. Five popular political parties have been dissolved in the last two decades, usually rebuilt under different names, and then destroyed again.

“I have no answer for you,” said Pita, asked when it will end.

The recent political instability has spooked investors in an already sluggish economy that is failing to grow like its regional neighbours. In what is a turbulent month even for Thai politics standards, Thavisin faces the Constitutional Court next week over alleged ethical breaches and may also lose his job.

Banned former leader of Move Forward Party, Pita Limjaroenrat, talks to his supporters.Credit: AP

Move Forward leaders have urged their supporters to mind their outrage, fearing mass protests and violence on the streets of Bangkok would give the military pretext for another coup. They want people to keep faith in the election process, even if deeply flawed, until the system stacked against them is swept away by the sheer weight of the people’s will.

While the next national elections are not until 2027, the movement expects anger at Wednesday’s outcome to only strengthen its hand in intervening provincial, municipal and gubernatorial races.

Supporters began gathering at the party’s headquarters in the morning.

Street vendors sold Move Forward T-shirts and assorted paraphernalia on the usually quiet street, now clogged with cars, motorbikes and orange. Pinned to a fence, a sign called on the 14 million Thais who voted for Move Forward to “not let the scumbags destroy the political party you chose.”

By the evening, thousands had arrived and listened to rallying speeches well into the night.

“No matter what, we will keep on going,” said one among the throng. “Maybe it won’t happen in our generation, but the next.”

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