Thailand politics: What lies ahead for the new govt?

By EMMY SASIPORNKARN

NEW YORK: Thai lawmakers voted in Srettha Thavisin of the populist Pheu Thai party as Thailand’s prime minister on Tuesday, ending months of post-election uncertainty after the winning party, Move Forward, was blocked in parliament from nominating its candidate. Political observers said former property tycoon Srettha’s path to the prime minister’s office was set once Pheu Thai abandoned Move Forward to ally itself with their former military-aligned opponents. This made it easier for military-aligned conservative senators to vote for Srettha.

Some of the coalition parties are linked to Prayuth Chan-ocha and Prawit Wongsuwan, both retired generals and outgoing prime minister and deputy minister, respectively. “They struck a deal and things went accordingly,” Puangthong Pawakapan, an associate professor of political science at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, told DW. The May 14 election saw Thai voters demanding change after nearly a decade of military rule.

Move Forward had campaigned on bringing radical reforms to Thailand’s power structure, including dismantling monopolies, reforming the military and amending the law against insulting the monarchy.

But after the progressive party was blocked from appointing its leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, Pheu Thai took on the mantle to form a new government. Despite being the largest single party in parliament, Move Forward has said it will work as an opposition party. Move Forward Secretary-General Chaithawat Tulathon told reporters last week that the proposed coalition government “distorts the will of the people in the elections.”

As parliament voted Tuesday, Pheu Thai founder and divisive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand after 15 years in self-imposed exile. Analysts have said his return is linked to Pheu Thai’s coalition with Thaksin’s political opponents in the military.

“Pheu Thai’s coalition partners will easily have things go their way... in return, Thaksin gets to come home,” said Puangthong.

The post-election wrangling is the latest turn in a power struggle between Pheu Thai — which, together with its predecessor parties linked to Thaksin, has won five elections in the past 20 years — and Thailand’s political establishment, a nexus of the monarchy, military and big business. Many Thais were disappointed when Pheu Thai broke the alliance with Move Forward and formed a new coalition with parties linked to Prayuth, who was instrumental in orchestrating a coup ousting the last Pheu Thai government led by Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck, in 2014. Ahead of the election, the two parties had both refused to team up with coup leaders.

“We are living in reality. Many people are waiting for the government and for the policies of the party, which cannot be implemented without a government led by Pheu Thai,” Srettha told the public after his party’s decision. After the 2014 coup, Thailand’s constitution was rewritten to make it nearly impossible for parties not backed by the military and conservative elites to form a government.

Move Forward’s surprise victory was a major blow to the military-royalist conservatives, and in the end, the threat posed by the progressive party’s huge popularity outweighed the establishment’s rivalry with the Shinawatra family.

“Elections [in Thailand] have long been used by the authoritarian regime as a facade. The only difference is that people are no longer willing to put up with a hollow democracy,” said Puangthong.