🇹🇭 Pita weighs options as parliament readies for second vote

Hello friends!

Quick update from me today on the weekend’s developments in Thailand. Below, I also take a quick look at the drama of last week’s Asean Regional Forum in Jakarta. 

Another prime minister vote is due on Wednesday in Bangkok, so expect a fresh update on Thursday.

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Thanks so much and stay safe out there!Erin Cook

🇹🇭 Pita looks to other options

Move Forward’s Pita Limjaroenrat failed in last week’s joint sitting for prime minister, but it’s not over yet. Thai Enquirer has a round-up of the options left here, but I’d like to focus on two today: a constitutional amendment or the nomination of a Pheu Thai candidate. 

Can’t we just get rid of the Senate’s votes? That’s one solution Move Forward has floated. The needed approval of military-appointed Senators is widely seen as representing the political elite and the military’s influence within parliament. That just 13 senators voted for Pita on Thursday while so many abstained, rather than vote no, has been offered as evidence that the rule isn’t really fit for purpose. It was introduced only in the 2017 constitution and has either failed or been proven wildly successful in its first serious challenge, depending on your political persuasions. 

Move Forward secretary-general Chaithawat Tulathon filed a motion on Friday aimed at amending part of the constitution, Reuters reports. “This is a solution that all sides will feel comfortable with,” he said, as per the wire. 

"There are forces from the old power to pressure the Senate — from the old power to some capitalists who do not want to see a Move Forward government," he said earlier, as reported by Reuters. He also noted he expected any amendment to take around a month. 

This amendment would dump the Senate from the vote for prime minister, leaving it to just the elected representatives, which Pita would’ve won handily on Thursday. Some senators have indicated unease with being given a vote, according to some who dodged the occasion entirely and were recorded as absent. 

Will it work? Honestly, who knows? Constitutional amendments are a bit above me. But what is clear is that Thai voters want nothing less than Pita as PM. According to NIDA polling conducted at the start of last week (that is, before the first vote), more than 60% of respondents believed Pita should have multiple tilts. 

Those results came as Pita and Move Forward leadership looked to coalition partner Pheu Thai. A second round of voting will be held Wednesday, but few expect a largely different result. Move Forward ran only Pita as a candidate — which at the time seemed totally reasonable given such a win was not expected — but Pheu Thai has three options. Sretta Thavisin is the name I’ve seen most frequently, but it could also be party heavy-hitter Chaikasem Nitsiri or Paetongtarn Shinawatra. 

It’s not clear who would be the candidate at this time but Pita appears to be pushing for a Pheu Thai contingency plan ASAP.

“This is a fight of all people in Thailand. The voice of the people must be the voice that shapes the future of this country. We don’t have much time left, as I’m well aware that Thailand cannot go forward for long without a government of the people,” he said in a video posted to Facebook on Saturday, as reported by the AP. 

Meanwhile, protests were held across the country over the weekend. Prachathai has some great photos here.

Let’s see what Wednesday brings!

🇲🇲 The Don, the Lady and the Forum

The Asean Regional Forum in Jakarta last week was overshadowed somewhat by Thailand again, but not just with domestic politics. 

Thailand’s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told media last Wednesday that he had met with Aung San Suu Kyi while visiting Myanmar and that the jailed ousted leader was “in good health.” He said the meeting had taken place the weekend prior and she had given him a message to pass along to Asean encouraging the foreign ministers to “try to find a way to settle” the conflict in Myanmar, as per Nikkei Asia.

The responses were initially incredulous and then damning. Why would he do this outside of Asean and, more importantly, how did he manage to do so? 

It was nothing untoward, Don told reporters in Jakarta. Simply “an approach of the friends of Myanmar, who would like to see a peaceful settlement.” Thailand, of course, has a special relationship with Myanmar that Asean initially tried to leverage in the early coup days before Thailand’s outgoing government seemingly preferred the bilateral route.  

Indonesia is not happy. This year’s Asean chair has grinned and bore it through Thailand’s earlier extracurricular intervention in Myanmar, but comments last week seem to suggest frustrations are mounting. "Asean cannot be a competition, it can't be a proxy of any country, and international law should be respected consistently," President Joko Widodo said during his address to the ministers on Friday, as reported by AFP. 

Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan wasn’t overly impressed either. Getting her sprung from prison is the priority here and Don’s visit doesn’t appear to have made inroads on that. “You can’t have any solution without her participation. Is this one visit, one interaction, sufficient? No, I don’t believe it is. In fact, if you go back to the five-point consensus (5PC), what it calls for is that the special envoy of Asean will visit Myanmar and will be given access to all stakeholders, which must include Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” he said, as per Straits Times. 

The Regional Forum also touched on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the South China Sea.