Move Forward


Thailand
Thai Constitutional Court Decision on Move Forward is Judicial Overreach
Posted On February 9, 2024
Thailand’s nascent semi-democracy suffered a tremendous blow last week (31 January), when the Constitutional Court ruled that the Move Forward Party’s (MFP) campaign to reform Article 112 of the 2017 Constitution was tantamount to treason. The Court has ruled several times, delivering punishing blows to opposition parties, such as the dissolution of the Future Forward Party, But the recent Court decision is among the most consequential and far reaching and pushes the upper limits of judicial overreach. First, a high court exists to serve within the boundaries of the law and produce legal decisions that are in keeping with established jurisprudence and established principles of law.
Continue Reading
No Comment


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Pita Touches the “Third Rail” of Thai Politics
July 21, 2023

If you touch it, you die. That’s the supposed result for politicians who confront highly contentious issues. Likened to grasping the “third rail,” the one that provides the electricity that powers a train or subway, the result is political suicide—at least that was the metaphor attributed to U.S. House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill when discussing the topic of Social Security in the early 1980s, as any politician attempting to reform the largest social safety net for retired American workers would later cost them their political careers at the ballot box. Pita Limjaroenrat, the prime ministerial candidate of the progressive Move Forward Party, which upset Thailand’s conservative military-backed parties in the May 14 election, also touched on a sensitive national issue: lèse-majesté.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Prayut Has Retired, but His Undemocratic Legacy Will Live On
July 13, 2023

In a span of hours yesterday, two events shook Thailand’s political landscape. First, after more than nine years in power, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha formally announced his retirement from politics and resigned as head of the United Thai Nation Party (UTNP), ending an era that began with a military coup against the democratically-elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014. Second, Thailand’s Election Commission (EC) has sought the Constitutional Court’s ruling on whether Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of the Move Forward Party (MFP), is qualified to sit in parliament due to his past ownership of shares in the defunct broadcaster iTV. Until that time, the EC has suspended Pita from his MP duties, even though the vote for prime minister will still occur tomorrow (July 13).