Thailand: Move Forward Party Banned by the Constitutional Court
By Laurence Humphries, RCIT Britain, 26th August 2024, www.thecommunists.net
On the 7th August 2024 the Move Forward Party which had won the 2023 General Election was dissolved and banned by the Constitutional Court – an institution controlled by the Bonapartist military regime and which decides on how parties should act. Several of their leaders were also prevented from remaining members of the House of Representatives including Pita Limajaroenrat.
The latter was the nominee of the Move Forward Party for Prime Minister after its electoral victory. However, the regime led by Prayut Chan-o-Cha – who was the instigator of the 2014 coup which overthrew the government of Yingluck Shinawtra – did block Limajaroenrat’s candidature. He failed to get a majority in the parliament of which a sizeable part is appointed by the army command.
It is worth noting that the Move Forward Party itself is the successor of Future Forward Party which was also banned and dissolved by the same military dictatorship.
“A court in Thailand has ruled that the biggest party in parliament violated the constitution when it sought to change a strict law against insulting the country’s monarchy. The reformist Move Forward Party (MFP) finished first in last year’s election on a progressive platform that included a proposal to amend the lese majeste law that outraged Thailand’s conservative elite”. [1]
During the Covid Counterrevolution and the lockdown in Thailand many young democratic activists staged demonstrations fighting for change. Many of them were imprisoned for long jail terms for demonstrating against the lese-majeste law when Prayut Chan o cha was Prime Minister. According to this law it is illegal to “defame, insult, or threaten” (i.e. to criticise) the monarch of Thailand and can be punished with three to fifteen years imprisonment.
“On Sunday, 14th May 2023 thousands of voters in Thailand rejected the policies of the Bonapartist clique led by Prayut Chan-o-cha and voted for change. Both the populist forces Move Forward Party and Pheu Thai Party won over 286 seats in the legislature. The masses and oppressed wanted an end of military rule in Thailand and voted for democratic change. The election commission announced that Move Forward had won the election but because of Thailand’s flawed political system no decision will be made without consultation with both the royalty and the military”. [2]
The Peoples Party founded
After the Move Forward Party was banned and dissolved, its leaders formed a new bourgeois democratic party called the Peoples Party. The court allowed it to reform and register with a list of representatives who could still attend the House of Representatives.
“Thailand’s main opposition Move Forward Party (MFP) has relaunched with a new name and leader after being forced to disband by a court this week. The new party will be led by tech entrepreneur Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut and known as Prachachon, party representative Parit Wacharasindhu told journalists in the capital, Bangkok, on Friday. (…) MFP, which won the most seats in last year’s election, was blocked from forming a government and was ordered to dissolve in a unanimous ruling by the constitutional court on Wednesday. Its executive board members were banned from politics for 10 years. While 10 MFP members have been banned, 143 of the party’s politicians who kept their seats in parliament have joined the new party”. [3]
Pheu Thai Party forms coalition with Bhumjaithai
The banning of the Move Forward Party went hand in hand with the dismissal of Prime Minister Sretta Thaivisin from the Pheu Thai party. He had become Prime Minister in 2023 after his party opportunistically broke with Move Forward and agreed to form an alliance with Bhumjaithai – a party favoured and supported by the military. The Senate agreed and the new coalition became the government after agreeing to drop their opposition to changing the Lese Majeste laws.
“The Pheu Thai party, which saw its founder Thaksin Shinawatra, return from exile, has ditched its support for basic democratic demands which would curtail the power and influence of the King. At the moment, any criticism of King Maha Vajiralongkorn will land you in jail. The Pheu Thai party is a bourgeois party which ruled in Thailand in 2006 and 2011 before it was overthrown in two coups. The Pheu Thai party under Thaksin Shinawatra’s leadership instituted several reformist demands like subsidies to poor peasants.
It has now done a 360-degree turn and allied itself with the very forces that overthrew its governments. This has caused a crisis in the Pheu Thai party and the leader of the party, Dr Cholnan Srikaew, has resigned because of its alliance with the Palang Pracharath party. This may cause a split in the party’s ranks since such alliance make Pheu Thai a prisoner of the regime and the army command.
The general election on the 14th May, which promised to be an open democratic contest, has now been proven to be a fraud since the very party that won the election has been prevented from taking power because of Thailand’s constitutional arrangements. It was obvious that the Bonapartist military bureaucracy was never going to allow Move Forward to take power”. [4]
Sretta Thavisin dismissed as Prime Minister
On the 14th August 2024 the Constitutional Court decided by 5-4 majority that Sretta Thavisin would be dismissed from office because he had appointed a minister with criminal convictions for fraud. 40 unelected senators, who are supporters of the army and the reactionary political groups that advocate Bonapartist rule, had reported the matter to the Constitutional Court.
“Thailand’s Constitutional Court has removed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office for appointing a minister with a criminal conviction, throwing the country into renewed political turmoil. Judge Punya Udchachon, reading the ruling on Wednesday, said the court voted 5-4 to remove Srettha, whose appointment of former lawyer Pichit Chuenban, jailed for six months in 2008 after a contempt of court conviction, fell short of official moral and ethical standards. The court ruling follows a petition submitted by 40 senators that called on the court to remove Srettha from office over the appointment. Judges in May accepted the petition but said Srettha could remain in his post while the issue was investigated. Pichit resigned from his role as a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday in a bid to protect Srettha. The real estate tycoon is the fourth Thai prime minister in 16 years to be removed by verdicts of the same court”. [5]
Bourgeois democracy in Thailand has always been controlled by the Bonapartist cliques created by army coups in 2006 and 2014. These coups overthrew directly elected bourgeois governments firstly in 2006 of Thaksin Shinawtra and of his sister in 2014. Both Thaksin and Yingluck fled into exile to escape punishment from the Coup plotters who were determined to control and restrict capitalist governments from exercising any sort of small democratic bourgeois reforms.
Political instability in Thailand
After Sretta Thaivisin’s dismissal as Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawtra’s youngest daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra and leader of the Pheu Thai party was appointed as the new Prime Minister of Thailand.
“Thailand's parliament has picked Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of billionaire tycoon and former leader Thaksin, as prime minister. At 37, she will be the country's youngest PM and the second woman in the post, after her aunt Yingluck. Her selection comes just two days after former PM Srettha Thavisin was dismissed by a constitutional court. Both are from the Pheu Thai Party, which came second at the 2023 election but formed a ruling coalition. Ms Paetongtarn faces the difficult task of reviving Thailand's stalled economy and avoiding the military coups and court interventions which have deposed four previous administrations led by her party. “I really hope that I can make people feel confident that we can build opportunities and to improve the quality of life and to empower all Thais,” Ms Paetongtarn told reporters after the vote on Friday.” [6]
Thaksin who returned to Thailand recently from exile has been pardoned by the King. The Shinawatra clan once again is in control of government, but their party has become very different from the party of 2006 and 2011. It is no longer the bourgeois populist party of the past which reflected the anger and hopes of the poor peasants. It now formally leads a capitalist government which in fact is dominated by the military-bonapartist clique and which increases cooperation with China while keeping relations with U.S. imperialism. As we noted in other documents, inter-imperialist rivalry continues to dominate South-East Asia.
For a workers and poor peasants government!
The RCIT puts forward several transitional demands for the urban masses and poor peasants in this period of capitalist decline and revolutionary upheavals. Thailand is beset with a huge political crisis as the bonapartist military regime fails to provide a way out. The well-meaning bourgeois democratic activists have found out the hard way that this military autocracy will not bend to any change of the reactionary monarchy. Many of them are languishing in jail. A new revolutionary workers revolutionary party must be formed with the best fighters in a struggle for power and insurrection to rid Thailand once and for all of this autocratic system.
* For strikes up to an indefinite general strike organised through action committees and councils of action elected and run by workers, groups of activists and representatives of the urban poor and poor peasantry to fight for democratic rights and the abolishment of all Bonapartist and monarchical rule.
* For a sovereign, revolutionary constituent assembly under the control of the organized popular masses! In such a revolutionary constituent assembly, working-class activists should put forward socialist proposals and argue in favour of a workers and poor-peasant government based on councils of the workers, the rural and urban poor!
* For armed defence guards of the workers and the oppressed masses to protect themselves from provocations and attacks from the police, the military and right-wing forces!
* End imperialist exploitation! Expropriate the multi-national corporations and put them under workers’ control! Abolish all debts without compensation! Summarize all banks into one state bank under control of the workers!
* Only an armed insurrection led by the working class and poor peasantry can end the Pheu Thai capitalist government and imperialist exploitation with a minimum number of lost lives! Only a revolutionary workers and poor peasant government can open the road towards a future of freedom, equality and peace, a future of socialism!
* To fulfil all of these goals, the vanguard of workers and poor peasants in Thailand needs to build a revolutionary workers party. No bourgeois party, not even the most populist ones, could really lead the struggle for true democracy! In every struggle, revolutionaries defend democratic rights and activists fighting for those rights without an ounce of support for bourgeois politics, politicians and parties!
Footnotes
3) Thailand’s disbanded opposition party relaunches under new name, leader | Politics News | Al Jazeera
5) Thai court orders dismissal of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin | Politics News | Al Jazeera
6) Thai parliament picks Thaksin's daughter Paetongtarn as new PM - BBC News