I saw that the conservative parties seem to be losing to social Democratic ones.
Thai here. Will provide more complete report, plus background and my own opinion, as soon as more solid number arrives…and I got time off work and study.
As of this moment (15/05/23, 01:40, local time), yeah, the social-democrat-with-barely-define-policy is currently taking the lead, follow by long-time-oligarch, a oligarch, a party from current administration, another party from current administration, and the original, actual conservative.
Thanks, looking forward to it. I’m curious are there any socialist parties in Thailand?
Frustratingly none, and you can thanks the west for that.
Thailand is one of the nation considered allies to the US during the Cold War, to the point they use our country as base of operation during their war against Vietnam. Airbases expanded to house wings of USAF jets. Entire town filled with American troops (this is probably where the reputation on how we’re the hub of sex industry came from - sex industry expanded a lot during the 70s largely to fulfill the demand of US soldiers.)
(You can guess why our military were so well-proficient in overthrowing our own government. Kinda backfired against the west lately, though.)
There was a point where these western-sponsored military government, plus some religious institution, really crank up the anti-communist rhetoric to the point that people were killed on the street for being accused of associated with the communist. The Communist Party of Thailand were practically forced to fled into hiding in forest. I’m not that sure about what happened to them (the information is reeeeally hard to find, and even harder to verify), but from what I gathered, their desperation drove them to recruit anyone that would join them. They shift their focus from education to simply survival (for obvious reasons). I think they loss too many people with strong ideology that most that remain just gave up when the government offer full amnesty to all of them in around 1980s.
Sorry for late update. Like I said earlier, real-life responsibility.
Updated 21/05 : Pretty much the same as my previous comment - Move Forward party, the one you called “Social democrat” (if it could be called that) and Puea Thai party, which I’m just not sure how to classified it since their policy seem to center around “whatever sound good”, won the majority of the vote against the conservative…
To clarified first, calling the current ruling parties and future opposition side as “conservative” is a bit misleading. I’ve seen portrayed throughout western media as something along the line of “liberal vs conservative”, where the more accurate description would be “westernized parties” and “traditionalist parties”. I’m not going to try to compare either side to any European parties since they still confuse the hell out of me. In summary, the westernized side aim for economic “freedom” - thing like increase the UBI, deregulate business, business start-up loan, legalized existing grey business, like sex industry (which you might noted from one of my other comment I don’t have good opinion of). They also include thing you found western-left constantly talk about, like legalized same-sex marriage (which I do support) and active euthanasia (Passive euthanasia is a thing. Active one is not). Traditionalist aim more toward internal development and increase social security net, thing like restructure the unnecessary complicated and confusing healthcare system, retirement welfare, further basic infrastructure development, etc.
Yeah, you might notice how I don’t call them “Social democrat”. They barely pretend to be one.
That’s not the main, or only issue. One of my biggest concern regarding the westernized parties is…they are very unsubtly aligned to the west (hence the name I choose to call them). The leader of the precursor to the Move Forward Party, for example, once made a very direct speech about how “we’re too close to China, and not close enough to the west.”, and on numerous occasion talk specifically how he intended to pull us away from further economic cooperation with Chinese. This is unsurprise, as US, through NED, plus numerous western oligarchs, has spent years sponsoring and building organizations that promoted these factions and led political protest through both on the street and through social media. Indeed, such direct tie to not-so-legal sponsor led to two military takeovers in 2006 and 2014 and the dissolution of the precursor of Move Forward party. Now they act through NGO and not-so-subtle puppets, which remain just within legality.
So, yeah, while they are still numerous legal and practical obstacles, you can expect Thailand to shift westward a bit in the coming year. Hopefully no mess would come of it.
I don’t know much about Thailand, but aren’t they a monarchy?
Yes, but relatively based one. They managed to be less resisting to left-ish-reform than the government itself, so they’re not my main concern…for now.
Not sure if this speak of how relatively based the monarchy is, or how fucked up our government institutions are…or both.
Consider that the now-defunct Communist Party of Thailand did not consider the dissolution of monarchy to be their prime objective, they may think it’s the former case. I found documents describing something like “Socialistic government with the king as head of state” (loosely translated), so my guess is that they want to give them the Puyi treatment. Or maybe a simple case of trying not to alienated themselves from the people. Most Thai people did, and still do, held the monarchy in high regard, and publicly calling them the enemy would not go well for their popularity.
