thailand's "red and yellow shirts" reconciled after 20 years? pheu thai party invites democrats to join petunthan government
2024-08-31
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
since thaksin shinawatra's daughter petunthan took office as prime minister of thailand on august 16, the political changes in thailand have continued. on the evening of august 29, the democrat party, a long-established political party in thailand founded in 1946, decided at a high-level meeting to accept the invitation of the pheu thai party led by petunthan to join the government of prime minister petunthan. the democrat party had long opposed the rule of former prime minister thaksin. the democratic party and the civil groups supported by thaksin's political forces, the "yellow shirts" and the "red shirts", had been in a long standoff on the streets of thailand, which eventually led to the military's intervention and a coup in 2014.
thai media reported that in an interview on august 30, petunthan explained that "a good government that can help the people must maintain stability" and "this is crucial" in inviting the democrats to join the government. facing the possible dissatisfaction and doubts of supporters, especially members of the "red shirts", petunthan pointed at himself and said, "this person is the red shirts... however, the political events of ten or even twenty years ago have passed, and many things have changed."
petontan visual china data map
why did the democratic party enter the cabinet?
after phethongthan took office as prime minister on august 16, news of the reorganization of the ruling coalition spread like wildfire. according to the bangkok post on the 29th, the pheu thai party, which has 141 seats in the lower house, officially invited the democrat party, which has 25 seats in the lower house, to join the government on august 28. on the 28th, at the national assembly, sorawong thienthong, secretary general of the pheu thai party, handed over the invitation letter to det-it khaothong, secretary general of the democrat party, and members of the two parties attended the handover ceremony.
"as the leader in forming the government, pheu thai party believes that the democrat party has the ability, knowledge and (appropriate) ideology to cooperate with pheu thai party. therefore, we would like to invite the democrat party to join the government and jointly manage the country for the benefit of the people," the invitation letter seen by the media read.
dee was recently elected as the secretary-general of the democratic party and became the "number two figure" in the party. on the 28th, dee thanked the pheu thai party for "trusting the democratic party" and "giving him the opportunity to serve the country." on the 29th, members of the democratic party's executive committee and members of parliament held a meeting and voted to approve the proposal to join the petunthan government.
the reconciliation between the two major parties coincided with the breakup between the pheu thai party and the palang pracharat party. the palang pracharat party has 40 seats in the lower house of parliament and is led by 79-year-old former deputy prime minister and senior military official prawit. the party is considered a pro-military conservative party. prawit and the pheu thai party were in a hostile relationship from the 2014 military coup to the 2023 general election, but maintained a reluctant cooperative relationship against the backdrop of the government's difficulty in forming after the 2023 general election.
after phethongthan took office as prime minister, the conflict between the pheu thai party and the people's national power party broke out completely. according to the diplomat on august 29, prawit himself was absent from the parliamentary vote to elect phethongthan as prime minister, which seemed to have angered the top leaders of the pheu thai party. afterwards, a thai reporter asked prawit about his opinion on phethongthan's election as prime minister, but was pushed by prawit, which was quite embarrassing.
to the pheu thai party, prawit and the palang pracharat party always look suspicious. prawit often misses meetings of the ruling coalition and the national assembly for health reasons. the pheu thai party is worried that prawit is behind the opposition. public opinion and analysts generally believe that a group of senators submitted a petition to the constitutional court, which led to the hasty resignation of former pheu thai prime minister setthala. last week, another member of the palang pracharat party filed a complaint, demanding a corruption investigation into petunthan, who had just taken office, raising concerns that petunthan might face the same fate as setthala.
on august 27, sorawong said that the people's power party would no longer participate in the formation of the pheu thai government. under such a political situation, the pheu thai party turned its attention to the old party and long-time political rival, the democrat party, which has been in opposition for many years. bloomberg reported on august 30 that with the successful reconciliation between the two parties, the ruling coalition controlled by pheu thai has nearly 300 seats in the lower house, and its power appears to be more stable.
is the feud between the reds and the yellows still unresolved?
the secretaries-general of the democrat party and the pheu thai party both said during their meeting on august 28 that "the country must continue to move forward." pheu thai party secretary-general sorawong said that no one in the pheu thai party objected to inviting the democrat party to join the ruling coalition, because the past is the past, and the country must continue to move forward. although the two parties had political struggles in the past, with the new generation of leaders taking office, political ideas are political ideas, and the direction of work can be consistent.
however, the alliance between the pheu thai party and the democrat party has largely caused dissatisfaction among their respective supporters and even party members. when asked whether the alliance with the pheu thai party would cause dissatisfaction among democrat supporters (especially in the traditional stronghold of southern thailand), de said: "the democrat party has no conflict with anyone. we only have love, understanding and forgiveness."
chuan leekpai, a member of the democrat party and former prime minister of thailand, strongly criticized the alliance. on august 28, he reiterated that he would reiterate his opposition at the party's high-level meeting, but would respect the final decision of the democratic party. deyi refuted chuan leekpai's criticism and stressed that every party member must abide by the party's resolution.
the feud between the democratic party and thaksin's political forces can be traced back to at least the 2001 general election. at that time, the democratic party led by chuan leekpai only won 128 seats, ranking second, losing to the thai rak thai party led by thaksin, which won 248 seats. in the six general elections in 2001, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2019, and 2023, the democratic party has never defeated the party led by thaksin.
although the military has long been involved in thai politics, and thaksin's administration has often been attacked by critics for its "populist" elements, thaksin and his cronies have always been more adaptable to electoral politics than the democratic party. the diplomat reported that the thai constitution has been amended in 1997, 2007, and 2017, and the party led by thaksin has always been able to adapt to the rules and gain a political advantage. in contrast, the democratic party has even gradually lost its status as the main opposition party after experiencing multiple election defeats, giving way to the people's party (formerly the far east party), which has a more radical stance than the pheu thai party.
however, supporters of the democrat party played an important role in both attempts to overthrow thaksin's government. both the pheu thai party and the democrat party have their own large supporters, and have attempted to overthrow the government in which the other party participated by means of large-scale rallies. according to analysis and reports, the democrat party and the yellow shirts led by it are pro-military, pro-conservative, and pro-business interests, and have "hated" thaksin and his forces. in 2008, the yellow shirts made a big fuss in the capital bangkok, forcing the government led by then prime minister somchai, thaksin's brother-in-law, to set up a temporary office at don muang airport. the yellow shirts followed the somchai government like a shadow, successively occupying the parliament building, don muang airport, suvarnabhumi international airport and other places, causing great chaos.
in 2010, the conflict between the democrat party and the pheu thai party escalated when the government led by democrat leader abhisit vejjajiva ordered the police to retake the roads occupied by the red shirts supported by thaksin. the conflict resulted in the death of many people, most of whom were protesters. the democrat party also became the "blood-stained evil party" in the eyes of the red shirts.
now that the two parties are jointly participating in the government, the supporters of the red shirts are also dissatisfied. the former co-leader of the red shirts, thida tawontseth, criticized that the pheu thai party and the democrat party were "colluding" and that the "phu thai party wanted to gain power by any means necessary." the diplomat reported and analyzed that the cooperation between the pheu thai party and the democrat party meant that the loyalty of the pheu thai party supporters was once again shaken. in august 2023, thaksin, who had been in exile for more than 15 years, successfully returned to thailand. this was considered to be the result of a compromise between the pheu thai party and pro-royal forces, which caused controversy and criticism at the time, especially attacks from the far east party.
although the red shirts and the yellow shirts had fought each other to death on the streets, thaksin and the democratic party leaders had actually known each other for a long time. thaksin once recalled that in the 1990s, chuan leekpa invited him to join the democratic party, and thaksin had "great respect" for chuan leekpa. the conflict between the two only became more intense after the 2001 election.
other analysts pointed out that after the democratic party joined the petuntan government, whether the new prime minister's power is stable remains to be seen. on the one hand, the outside world does not know how long the alliance between the two parties that have been in opposition for many years can last. on the other hand, given that the democratic party members who joined the government may have many "stains", the political forces opposing thaksin can do the same as they did to remove setara from office, suing and demanding the dissolution of the petuntan government on the grounds that "stainted people were appointed as government officials."
the paper reporter xu zhenhua and intern ma mingjie
(this article is from the paper. for more original information, please download the "the paper" app)
