In bringing in its longtime nemesis the Democrat Party to the fold as a coalition partner of the new government, PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Thursday calls for people to look into the future and put the bitter past behind.
The new PM also argues that the old guards of the Democrat Party are no longer in power and people, particularly her supporters and pro-Thaksin redshirts should move on despite the fact that many of the 99 people who were killed during the massive crackdown on redshirt demonstrators occurred in 2010 when they seek to oust the Democrat government under then PM Abhisit Vejjajiva. The argument was this the current Democrat Party is different from the past. This is partly true.
Abhisit has since resigned from not just Democrat Party leadership but from the conservative-royalist party itself after his party lost in the general election in 2019 and other leaders inside his party decided to join the coalition government led by then former junta-leader Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha despite Abhisit pledging to the public just before the election day his party would never join the pro-military parties in a coalition government.
As much as this writer wishes to see bygone be bygone and Thailand stepping out of the two-decade old political division and hatred where Thaksin Shinawatra and ultra-royalist forces clash against one another time and again, it is unlikely to happen soon for the following reasons.
First, some relatives of those who were killed or imprisoned on both sides of the political conflicts as a result of demonstrating on the streets are still waiting for justice or closure and no one, no big player, has been held responsible.
Second, for those who want to move on, do consider that although at the surface level, this could be seen as a major step, a reconciliation between who arch political enemies, the Pheu Thai and the Democrat, but in reality, the move was actually a very public punishment and humiliation against the old guards of the Democrat Party and its die-hard anti-Thaksin supporters, mostly from the southern region but also in Bangkok.
Chuan Leekpai, the former PM, ex House Speaker and former Democrat Party leader and arguably the patriarch on the Democrat Party, was publicly dressed down humiliated and literally discarded by the current party leadership led by Chalermchai Sri-on as the party went ahead to join the Pheu Thai-led coalition despite Chuan warning that the party is literally abandoning its pledge and its longtime supporters as people who voted for party voted for a party that is supposedly and unmistakably against the Pheu Thai Party and the Shinawatra clan.
In this sense, the move can be seen not as reconciliation or a move towards national unity as a ploy used by Paetongtarn and her father, Thaksin, to punish and humiliate the old guards and their long-time enemies particularly Chuan Leekpai and Abhisit, and destroy the party by literally turning the Democrat Party into a servile party under a new Pheu Thai-led coalition in exchanged of two Cabinet seats for the current DP leaders.
The future of the Democrat Party looks more uncertain than ever. It’s unclear what they now stand for and current MPs might even run under the Pheu Thai banner in future elections. Thailand’s oldest party in existence could be left to disintegrate.
Third, political division is far from healed but the bogeyman of the Pheu Thai Party, the royalist conservatives and the Paetongtarn/Thaksin government is now the opposition People’s Party. A prominent pro-Thaksin propagandist has even declared earlier this week that People’s Party, which is the avatar of the now-disbanded Move Forward Party, is now the “new” Democrat Party, the enemy of Thaksin and Pheu Thai Party supporters.
Also, there’s always the army waiting around the corner to exploit the new tensions as even Abhisit himself said today the past could repeat itself if Thaksin doesn’t learn from the past.
