This Harvard Alum Wants to Help Thailand Reclaim Lost Decade as Election Race Heats Up

Patpicha Tanakasempipat
·4 min read
2
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

(Bloomberg) -- Thailand’s Move Forward Party, which is surging in opinion polls ahead of the May 14 election, wants to reclaim the “lost decade” of military-backed rule with sweeping reforms to revitalize Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Its leader Pita Limjaroenrat, a 42-year-old alumnus of Harvard Kennedy School of Government, is pitching to spread economic activity beyond the capital city Bangkok, dismantle business monopolies and reduce the influence of the armed forces in politics to end a cycle of coups.

“This election is about people looking for a new face, a new future,” Pita said in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Haslinda Amin where he reiterated his campaign platform of de-militarization, demonopolization and decentralization. “People are thinking about the lost decade, the past 10 years that was under military junta.”

Pita, who casts himself as an agent of change, has spent the last decade in and out of the spotlight. Before joining politics, he helped turn around his family’s debt-ridden rice bran oil company. He also worked as executive director of ride-hailing firm Grab Holdings Ltd.’s Thai unit. He was a parliamentarian under Future Forward before it was dissolved in 2020 and many of its members including Pita set up Move Forward.

While Move Forward, which is popular among the youth and liberals, is projected to get the second-most votes next month, it’s unlikely to win enough seats to head the next government. Pita expects the party to have more than 100 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives, better than 81 that Future Forward got in 2019.

Its best chance is to form a coalition with the more popular Pheu Thai Party led by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, youngest daughter of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra whose government was toppled in a 2006 coup. But even pursuing such alliance may be tricky.

A controversial call to amend the lese majeste law, which punishes royal insults by up to 15 years in prison, may hamper its prospects of joining any coalition, according to Napon Jatusripitak, a research fellow at Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“It is not very likely that the Move Forward Party will be part of the next governing coalition, whoever wins,” Napon said.

The party may win about 21% of votes, a survey by the National Institute of Development Administration showed this month, a four-point jump from a month earlier. Another survey by Thai language newspapers Matichon and Daily News this week ranked him above Paetongtarn.

Stakes are high as the Thai general election is shaping up to be a contest between the pro-establishment parties of the ruling military-backed coalition that’s helmed the country since a coup in 2014 and the pro-democracy opposition including Move Forward and Pheu Thai Party. Reviving a once-vibrant economy that grew at the slowest pace in the region last year after the pandemic dealt a blow to its tourism and manufacturing is also in focus.

Ending the monopoly of a few liquor companies and passing a marriage equality bill are examples of how Move Forward proposes to bring reforms, Pita said. The party will seek to end mandatory military conscription and cut the size of the army to free up defense budget and stop the cycle of coups.

Pita said part of his 100-day agenda is starting a process to overhaul the charter written after Prayuth seized power.

Pita said if Pheu Thai and Move Forward win 300 seats together in the House of Representatives, they can form the government as the 250-member Senate, a body stacked with allies from the military establishment, may not go against the popular mandate.

Move Forward is ready to face any moves for dissolution and warned that such strategy would be met with massive protests similar to how the progressive youth rallied against steps taken to disband Future Forward. The eventual dissolution was seen as an initial spark which ignited larger demonstrations that made taboo-breaking calls for monarchy reforms.

“We’ve learned our lessons and are prepared legally,” Pita said. “People are fed up, especially the younger generations. We cannot tolerate this kind of thing anymore.”

--With assistance from Taimoor Sobhan and Rika Yoshida.

(Updates with analyst comment in sixth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.