Political corruption: Rising political party dissolved by rival, well-established political party

Thailand has a complicated political system that is filled with deeply entrenched parties, primarily two of them in a similar way to Democrats and Republicans. They end up having similar results that we have in the USA where the people feel as though regardless of who gets elected that things never change. I am sure that a lot of countries feel this way about their leaders and while I don't exactly stay on top of Thai politics because of the fact that my voice in the matter doesn't count for anything, I do read a bit about it. Just like anywhere else, the people who have held power for a long time will do anything they can to keep it, and in this instance the recent dissolving of a party that made headlines including winning the Prime Minister position that was taken away after the popular vote, really makes me think that Thailand is just as corrupt, if not more corrupt, than other countries.

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In last year's general election the country was shocked and it left many people very hopeful when the Move Forward party won big including winning the popular vote to have a new Prime Minister of the country. His name is Pita Limjaroenrat. He is foreign educated, younger, and had some very progressive ideas about how the country could move in a new direction instead of, at least to me and many other expats, having the two long-standing parties squabble over things that seem to never really result in any change happening.

This party was wildly popular after the unrest that was cause by Covid lockdowns that lead to massive protests in Bangkok primarily among students, and when Pita won the popular vote for Prime Minister, everyone seemed quite hopeful for the future.

After that election I learned a bit more about Thai politics because even though he won the vote, something happened in the courts and inside of Parliament to deny Pita the role that he had won via election, fair and square. I was unaware prior to that point that winning an election here doesn't necessarily mean that you get the job. Pita's win was denied and I don't know the details about how that is possible.

It does seem very shady though that someone can win a hard-fought election and then is still denied the position.

Apparently, even if you win the popular vote of the people, you still need at least half of Parliament's approval to take the position. There are 749 MP's and he got the approval of only 324. It seems as though the two large and long-established parties worked together to squash this "uprising" of a new party that threatened to take away the power that they have had for a long time. They apparently worked together in order to insure that he would not take the position that he rightfully won in the election.

They weren't done with him and his party yet though and in the past week a court ruled that his party is now dissolved and no longer allowed to be a political party. To make matters worse, Pita and 10 other members of the Move Forward party have been banned from politics for the next 10 years.

This isn't just some freak accident by a party that only has a few members. They hold 142 seats of the 749 in Parliament but because of the court ruling, those remaining members have to either leave Parliament or find a new party to affiliate with.

Amnesty International has spoken out against this decision

“The Constitutional Court’s ruling in favour of dissolving the Move Forward Party is an untenable decision that reveals the authorities’ complete disregard for Thailand’s international human rights obligations."

So what was the basis for kicking this popular and rising party out? It was because one of the notions that they were running on was to reform the Monarchy's role in the direction of Thailand. Thailand is a Constitutional Monarchy and while the Royals play no official role in the direction of the country, they are subsidized heavily by the country and while the Royals cannot demand anything as far as the direction of the country is concerned it is well-known that if the King says something must be done, it gets done.

I am not sure exactly what it is that the Move Forward Party (MFP) wanted to change about this but it was enough for the other two large parties to latch onto it as a reason to have them eliminated from the political scene. Although people did it quietly because of the existing lese majeste punishments that exist for ever speaking out against the royals, in secret, a ton of people supported this notion and this is largely driven by how unpopular the new King of Thailand is.

To me, this is merely an excuse being made by the parties that have held power for ages and since they cannot beat MFP in terms of rising popularity, the easiest thing for them to do was to apparently use their political influence over the courts to have them deemed illegal.

Even if you don't live in Thailand or are not Thai, this should make your blood boil whenever you see this in any country that is claiming to be a democracy. The people spoke, the people wanted change - REAL change and MFP stepped up and was willing to take on that role. But the powers that be used the corrupt system to make that impossible. With this sort of structure in place, the power dynamics of this country are incapable of change but rather maintained as a constantly failing two-party system.