Thailand’s Move Forward Party, allies agree on coalition platform
Eight-party coalition announces ambitious reform plans but makes no mention of a divisive royal insult bill.
Thailand’s progressive Move Forward Party has signed an agreement with seven other parties to draft a new constitution, end monopolies and allow same-sex marriage if allowed to form government, but made no mention of a controversial proposal to review the royal insult laws.
The 23-point agreement, unveiled Monday, outlines the coalition’s policies and priorities as it seeks support from lawmakers to form a government after nine years of conservative, military-backed rule.
Move Forward, along with Pheu Thai, a populist party affiliated with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, dominated last week’s elections in a resounding rejection of the royalist, military-backed parties that have controlled the country since a 2014 coup.
“This is another historic moment that shows that we can peacefully transform the government into democracy,” said Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat, who wants to become Thailand’s next prime minister. “The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding is to gather the agenda that all parties agree on and are ready to push through in government and parliament.”
The signing took place on the ninth anniversary of the military coup that brought army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha to power.
Move Forward was the surprise winner of the May 14 election, winning most parliamentary seats with the help of young voters excited by an agenda that puts the party at odds with some conservative business interests and institutions, including a plan to create a . to change the rental agreement. majesty law punishing alleged insults to the monarchy by up to 15 years in prison. Critics of the law say the Prayuth government used it to quell dissent.
But Move Forward alliance members have expressed reservations, and Monday’s agreement contained no proposal to reform that law.
Instead, it reaffirmed the country’s “status as a democracy under a constitutional monarchy framework and the inviolable status of the monarch”.
Pita said Monday he doesn’t think his party’s independent effort to push through lèse-majeste reform will deter the upper house, whose support the coalition needs to appoint a prime minister and form a government.
The eight-party coalition controls 313 seats in the lower house, a large majority, but that is not enough to ensure a takeover of power. Under the military-drafted constitution, the prime minister is elected by a joint vote of the lower house and senate, whose 250 members were appointed by the post-coup military government. That means the winning candidate needs at least 376 votes.
Several senators have said they will not vote for Pita over the lese-majeste issue.
Pita said he has a team to explain how Move Forward plans to change the law “so it can’t be used as a political tool” and “this will allay senators’ concerns.”
The coalition agreement includes most of Move Forward’s flagship policies, such as drafting a new, more democratic constitution, passing a same-sex marriage bill, decentralizing government power and transitioning from military conscription to voluntary service “except when the country is at war”. .
It calls for reforms in the police, military, civil service and judicial process, abolition of corporate monopolies, particularly in brewing and other alcohol production, and reinstatement of controls on marijuana production and sale after the poorly executed de facto decriminalization of Thailand last year.
It also pursues welfare and education reform, as well as a balanced foreign policy that revives Thailand’s role as a leader in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
It states that “all parties have the right to advocate for additional policies, so long as they do not contradict the policies set forth in this agreement.”