Thai opposition leader Pita will ‘fight tooth and nail’ for party’s survival

BANGKOK – Thailand’s opposition leader and former prime ministerial hopeful Pita Limjaroenrat said on Feb 27 that his Move Forward Party will “fight tooth and nail” for its future amid legal threats that could see the pro-reform group dissolved, and its leaders banned from politics.

With a platform appealing to young and urban voters, the party is seen as threatening Thailand’s status quo, colliding with the interests of powerful conservatives and the royalist military that blocked its bid to form a government in 2023.

Mr Pita, 42, who led the party to an election victory in May 2023 on an anti-establishment platform but was unable to form a government, said it could be the bridge to create a new political consensus.

“Instead of looking at us as a choice of the people and the enemy of the Parliament, use us as a bridge,” he told Reuters in an interview.

However, the party could be disbanded and leaders banned from politics after the country’s Constitutional Court in January said their plan to change a law on insulting the monarchy undermined the crown, paving the way for legal complaints.

“We’ll fight tooth and nail to make sure that this worst-case scenario doesn’t happen,” Mr Pita said.

The party’s liberal agenda targets issues and institutions long seen as untouchable, with plans to tackle business monopolies, end army conscription and keep the military out of politics.

Its boldest aim, which led to its current legal woes, is to change the royal insult law or Article 112 of the criminal code, used to charge hundreds of people with insulting the monarchy, an offence that carries jail terms of up to 15 years.

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Move Forward’s predecessor, Future Forward, had championed similar policies and was disbanded in 2020 for violating campaign funding rules.

Mr Pita said: “I feel like it’s a vicious cycle. We keep going around in circles, and we never move forward.”

He said Move Forward’s popularity stemmed from its call for social change, and it could work with other political forces in a democratic way.

“I can never monopolise the change that I want to do, because I have to do it through Parliament,” he added. “There’s checks and balances.”

However, the establishment’s response to the call for change had displayed a “paranoia” that led to unreasonable decisions, he said. “It’s out of proportion.”

The party has a succession plan with a pipeline of talent to broaden its political footprint even if it is dissolved, he said.

“They can never take away our legacy,” Mr Pita said. “They can never take away our ideology.”