People’s Party Chairman Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut speaks during a press conference to announce a new political party in Bangkok, Thailand, August 9, 2024. | Photo credit: Reuters
Thailand’s dissolved opposition party Move Forward unveiled a new leadership and a new political instrument on Friday (August 9, 2024). It is set to become the largest party in parliament. It is called the People’s Party and promises to continue the progressive program of its predecessor.
The anti-establishment Move Forward party, which won the most seats in the last election but was prevented from forming a government, was dissolved by the Constitutional Court on August 7, 2024. The court ruled that its plan to change a law protecting the royal family from criticism threatened to undermine democracy and the constitutional monarchy.
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All 143 surviving Move Forward MPs have joined the new party, which is led by 37-year-old Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, a former executive director of a cloud software company who joined Move Forward in 2019.
“We will carry forward the ideology of Move Forward. The mission for me and the party is to form a government for change in 2027,” Mr Natthaphong told a press conference.
The dissolution of Thailand’s parliament, which was criticized by the United States, Britain and the European Union, was the latest salvo in a two-decade-long power struggle in Thailand that pits the conservative establishment and the royalist military broadly against popularly elected parties.
The Move Forward party’s liberal agenda has won massive support among young and urban voters, but it has also earned powerful enemies: its plans include military reform and breaking up corporate monopolies worth billions of dollars each year.
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Her attempt to change a law on royal insults proved to be her undoing, pitting her against influential generals and widely connected royalists who viewed the monarchy as sacrosanct.
Although the court ordered Move Forward to abandon its campaign in a January ruling, Natthaphong said the new party would continue to campaign for changes to the law known as Article 112, but with caution.
Thailand’s lese majeste law is one of the strictest of its kind in the world. Any alleged insult to the crown can result in a prison sentence of up to 15 years. The palace does not usually comment on the law.
“We have said we propose to amend Article 112 to ensure that this law is not a political tool used to abuse others, but we will not be negligent,” Mr Natthaphong said. “I think we will continue to push for the improvement and correction of this law, which is still problematic.”
Mr Natthaphong has a degree in computer engineering and was deputy secretary general of Move Forward, working on the party’s digital policy, which was crucial to its election victory.
The People’s Party is the third incarnation of Future Forward, which was dissolved in 2020 over a campaign finance violation that sparked nationwide anti-government protests.
