![]() The enormous irony, as Patrick Jory observes in this week’s lead article, is that the surge in support for Move Forward’s emphatically reformist agenda has set Thailand up for ‘an historic political shift’ by making Thaksin and his allies the lesser of two evils in the eyes of the conservative elite who’ve sought to engineer the country’s institutional framework to deny him and his allies power since toppling Thaksin in a coup in 2006. ![]() To many younger progressives, exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his proxy party, Pheu Thai, are just another part of the political establishment. Perhaps as significant now is a generational divide, as younger Thais fed up with the stifling political culture demand political and social reform. Still, Move Forward’s surprise first-place showing in the May 2023 general elections speaks to new political dynamics and divides that have emerged since the most recent military coup in 2014 and the rule of military-backed parties after general elections in 2019.Īnalysis of the results from May has shown how Move Forward made significant ground in regional areas where Pheu Thai and regional machines were dominant. ![]() The failure of Move Forward party leader Pita Limjaroenrat to be appointed as Thailand’s prime minister - blocked by an unelected Senate and suspended from parliament on dubious legal grounds - was a travesty of democracy, but an all too predictable one. Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
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