Move Forward Party’s leader Pita Limjaroenrat speaks during the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding among pro-democracy parties to form a coalition government in Bangkok on Monday. Photo by Narong Sangnak/EPA-EFE
May 23 (UPI) — An eight-party coalition led by the progressive Move Forward Party unveiled its platform for forming a Thai government in the wake of a stunning electoral victory, with sweeping plans for rewriting the constitution, legalizing same-sex marriage and ending military conscription, but no mention of reforming the lese-majeste laws that criminalize insulting the monarchy.
The alliance, which includes the second-largest vote-getter in Thailand’s May 14 election, the populist Pheu Thai party, signed a 23-point memorandum on Monday which outlines policies and backs Move Forward’s leader Pita Limjaroenrat to become the next prime minister of Thailand.
“The memorandum of understanding is about shared values, shared commonalities, a shared agenda and also shared accountability,” Pita said at a press conference after the signing.
“Today is a good start in the sense that we have to work together going forward to declare our policies to the parliament before I become prime minister,” he said. “So today is only the first step.”
The agenda includes broad economic and electoral reforms, including a push for a new constitution to replace the post-coup 2017 version, which was written by the military junta under the leadership of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.
The 42-year-old, Harvard-educated Pita noted at the press conference Monday that the memorandum signing was being held on the ninth anniversary of the 2014 coup that brought the military to power.
Move Forward’s stunning electoral victory was a strong repudiation of Prayuth’s military-backed government and the traditional power establishment that has controlled Thai politics for decades.
The party’s most radical agenda item ahead of the election was a pledge to reform the lese-majeste law that makes it a crime to insult the king or members of the royal family — a plan that did not appear on the memorandum.
Pita confirmed on Monday that his party would continue to move ahead with efforts to change the law — which its voters strongly support but its coalition partners oppose — and said for now it would carry the banner alone.
“We’ve been very consistent before the election and after the election,” Pita said. “The Move Forward Party confirmed that the law amendment will be continued, but there’s not going to be a pressure in the sense of whether any other coalition party will have to be part of that.”
The issue of lese-majeste reform highlights the delicate tightrope Move Forward must walk as it attempts to move from an opposition party to a position of leadership in Thailand’s fractious political arena, according to Henning Glaser, director of the German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance at Thammasat University in Bangkok.
“[Move Forward] are the only party really representing a progressive agenda,” Glaser told UPI. “That is the reason why they have to make a compromise. This particular trade-off reflects back to the root of this problem — if they betray their progressive identity, they will be seen as not much different from the other parties. They will lose a lot of support.”
At the same time, the Move Forward-led coalition will need to draw votes from more conservative elements to form a government with Pita as prime minister when the parliament meets in a joint session in July.
The coalition, which includes Pheu Thai and six smaller parties, has a total of 313 of the 500 House of Representative seats.
However, a total of 376 votes will be needed to grab the majority necessary to elect a prime minister, as the parliament includes an unelected 250-member Senate, which the military has firm control over thanks to its 2017 constitution.
Other items on the memorandum signed Monday include strengthening regulations on cannabis after it was legalized last year and replacing compulsory military service with voluntary recruitment.
