With just one day before the scheduled vote for Thailand’s 32nd Prime Minister, the main opposition People’s Party (PP) was reportedly in disarray as I write these words after some of its MPs feared becoming a tool of the deep state by supporting Bhumjaithai Party PM candidate Anutin Charnveerakul as the next PM.
Some PP MPs are asking party executives to reconsider and allow a free vote to elect the 32nd prime minister, while a number of high-profile friends of the party are vocally calling for the party to withdraw its signed agreement to support Anutin.
They say Anutin is an ultra-conservative politician who would likely further undermine the semi-democratic system, rights and liberty. The PP is desperate and insists this is the best path forward to break the political deadlock, as Anutin promised in the signed agreement to relinquish power after four months and call for a new election, along with pushing for a national referendum for a new charter. They also argue that the ruling Pheu Thai Party, which is under the de facto guidance of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, is even less trustworthy when compared to Anutin.
The biggest irony, however, is that the People’s Party’s policy platform is to reform the monarchy, amend the anachronistic and draconian lese majeste law, and modernise the armed forces into a truly professional force—basically, to curb the influence of the deep state—while Anutin’s stance is probably the opposite.
Yes, Thaksin’s Pheu Thai Party may have most likely made a Faustian agreement with the deep state which eventually enabled him to return from exile two years ago in exchange for forming a government that would keep the progressive Move Forward Party, now known as the People’s Party, out of power.
Now, it appears the deep state has found a new and more compliant agent in Anutin and the Bhumjaithai Party. It would thus be not just myopic but counterproductive to Thai democracy for the People’s Party itself to support Anutin as the new PM.
Anutin may be in power for just four months as he promised, but that’s ample time for a deep state government to lay countless traps to prevent the people from realising true democracy and freedom.
If the People’s Party insists on continuing to support Anutin as the new PM tomorrow, they would be doing a disservice not just to themselves but to Thai democracy, as they would be propelling a right-wing conservative party—who stands opposite People’s Party‘s key policy platforms—into power. The People’s Party would become not part of the solution but part of the problems facing Thailand.
Allowing its MPs to vote freely tomorrow would be the least it can do in an attempt to mitigate the damage the party has already caused through its egregious decision.
Removing Thaksin and the Pheu Thai Party from power while disregarding whose tool you end up becoming in the process reminds me of those who dealt with Thaksin by calling for one military coup after the other and justifying the move by saying the military is less evil.
The People’s Party should know who they are ultimately fighting against and not lose their direction and ideology along the way.
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