Thailand’s new prime minister has vowed to restrict the use of marijuana for medical purposes after thousands of weed shops opened across the country since the nation became the first in Asia to decriminalise cannabis a year ago.

The government will seek to “rectify” its cannabis policy and rampant sprouting of dispensaries that freely sell the drug within a six-month time frame, Srettha Thavisin said in an interview on Wednesday in New York.

“The law will need to be rewritten,” Srettha said. “It needs to be rectified. We can have that regulated for medical use only,” he said, adding that there cannot be a middle ground for recreational use.

While Srettha said there was a broad agreement among the 11-party coalition he heads about the need to restrict cannabis use, how exactly his administration will proceed remains unclear.

Srettha’s Pheu Thai Party promoted a hardline anti-drug campaign ahead of the May election and vowed to undo the landmark policy to decriminalise cannabis. It is now in a coalition with Bhumjaithai Party led by Anutin Charnvirakul, who has vowed to press ahead with a plan to reintroduce a cannabis bill in parliament that seeks tighter monitoring of the industry but opposes classifying the plant as a drug again.

An ongoing regulatory vacuum, following the move to declassify marijuana as a narcotic, has led to a mushrooming of nearly 6,000 dispensaries all over the country. They sell everything from cannabis buds to oil extracts containing less than 0.2 per cent tetrahydrocannabinol – the psychoactive compound that gives users a “high” sensation.

Thai farmers are also allowed to freely grow cannabis after registering with the nation’s Food and Drug Administration. Local dispensary owners have also complained about unbridled imports and depressing prices.

Srettha’s government has vowed to “eradicate” drugs from Thai society, with the prime minister saying he will “decisively reduce” the menace within a year while presiding over an event to destroy drugs that were confiscated by authorities earlier this week.

Thailand is considered the main conduit for drug trafficking along Southeast Asia’s vast Mekong river valley, with enforcement agencies perceived to often turn a blind eye. Southeast Asia’s organised crime economy, including the illicit trade in drugs and wildlife, was worth an estimated US$130 billion in 2019, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes.

“The problem of drug has been widespread lately, especially in the northeastern and northern parts of Thailand,” Srettha said. “And we don’t need another issue added on top of that.”

Source : SCMP

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The pro-democracy camp’s success on Sunday was expected from opinion polling, but the depth of its victory was breathtaking. The urban-based, progressive Move Forward party was projected to come out on top with around 151 seats, followed by Pheu Thai, the latest iteration of the populist political machine of an ousted prime minister now in exile, Thaksin Shinawatra, with around 141 seats.

Mr. Thaksin’s parties have won every free Thai election for about the past two decades, but the military has repeatedly either kept the party from power through the courts or ousted it in coups. Pheu Thai is now led by Mr. Thaksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 36, who had been leading in many pre-election polls.

Move Forward is led by Pita Limjaroenrat, a 42-year-old Harvard Kennedy School alumnus and a business executive. The late surge of support for Move Forward appears to have come from millions of first-time voters who might have also been tired of the dynastic politics represented by Pheu Thai, meaning that voters opted for a major political realignment.

Smaller opposition parties also scored well, and all the pro-democracy parties seem willing to work together to form what should be an overwhelming bloc for change.

The biggest loser appears to be current Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup and retired from the military to be an ostensible civilian government leader. His United Thai Nation Party is poised to come in fifth place in the constituency vote, with only around 36 parliamentary seats. Mr. Prayuth, who polls show is widely unpopular after nine years in power, had campaigned on a promise of continuity — something Thai voters clearly rejected. Mr. Prayuth’s party came in behind even a rival military party led by his erstwhile deputy, Prawit Wongsuwan, who is also a retired general.

The two main opposition parties were both considered unpalatable to the military. The generals disliked and feared Pheu Thai for its populist brand of politics that particularly appeals to poor Thais in the country’s northeast. Both Mr. Thaksin and later his sister were deposed. But Move Forward represents an even bigger threat to the military and the conservative elements in Thai society, for example by pledging to end military conscription and modify the country’s strict “lèse-majesté” law that makes it illegal to criticize the king.

That so many Thais, particularly young people, were willing to vote for a party that openly advocated a change to the law protecting the once-revered monarchy is itself a sign of the dramatic change underway in Thailand. The question now is whether the conservative forces, including the military and the monarchy, will respect the people’s wishes. Mr. Pita on Sunday said his party had no intention of backing down on its campaign pledges.

It’s not a given in Thailand that the soldiers will stand down, despite their resounding repudiation at the polls. Under the constitution they designed to guarantee a dominant military role in politics, the next prime minister will be chosen not just by the 500-member House of Representatives. A 250-member Senate, appointed entirely be the ruling junta, also has a vote for prime minister, meaning the military can still suppress this popular surge.

So while many Thais are elated, some caution — and vigilance among leaders in the United States and other democracies — is still needed. One need to look at Thailand’s neighbor, Myanmar, where the popular party of Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi scored a landslide victory in elections in November 2020, only to see the military take power three months later and annul the result. Myanmar has been gripped by civil war ever since.

The tragedy there should be a cautionary note to any generals in Thailand thinking of defying their country’s legitimate election results. As the Thai political system wrangles over Sunday’s results, the Biden administration and other foreign observers should make this point clearly and often.

The post Thai Vote Shows Deep Desire for Change — If the Generals Will Allow It appeared first on Policy Print.

Government spokesperson Mr. Anucha Buraphachaisri announced that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was highly impressed with the performance of Thai dancers donning the traditional attire earlier this month at the World Dance Day in Jakarta. The dancers not only received a roaring applause from the audience but many foreigners also asked to click photos with them.

According to Mr. Anucha, Gen Prayut believes that the “Pha khao ma” can be a successful source of soft power to promote Thailand and its rich culture globally.

The first performance showed how Thai villagers wear the “Pha khao ma” in their daily lives while the second featured dancers wearing traditional clothing from across Thailand.

“The Prime Minister has asked for cooperation from relevant agencies to jointly extend and push Pha Khao Ma, to be recognized worldwide,” said Anucha.

“The Prime Minister also appreciated the youth for supporting Thai traditional culture to be well-known outside the country. He is also ready to support the loincloth to be registered as an item of intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO,” he added.

The spokesperson informed that the Thai cabinet had already considered registering “Pha khao ma” to be listed as one of the intangible cultural heritage items with UNESCO back in February this year, and the outgoing Prime Minister has been rallying his support for a worldwide recognition since then.

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In a country where the average age of cabinet ministers is 65, where unquestioning deference to elders is still a cherished tradition, his youth – he looks far younger than his 42 years – and unabashed confidence make him stand out.

That he is, after a shock election result which put his reformist Move Forward party ahead of all the others, poised to become the youngest prime minister in 78 years, has stunned the conservative political establishment which has dominated Thailand for much of the modern era.

Difficult negotiations are now under way to form a coalition government with Pheu Thai, the second largest party, which has won every election held in Thailand since 2001, and had been expected to win the latest, held on 14 May.

Both Pheu Thai and Move Forward consider themselves to be progressive, opposed to military interference in politics like the 2014 coup, which deposed a Pheu Thai administration.

But the young activists of Move Forward outmanoeuvred the older party, and beat many of its candidates, with an imaginative, social media-based campaign offering voters a complete break with the past, and a different kind of political leadership.

“I’m different,” Pita tells me. “We are not getting into a coalition to pursue a quick fix, or to get me the prime ministership. I’m in government for the people. The world has changed.

“You don’t have to be a strong man, with toxic masculinity, to make sure ‘people have to listen to me, and I have to be the one in the spotlight all the time’.

“I don’t have to be perfect all the time. I can just be like a regular human being here in Thailand, riding motorcycles, eating on the streets like any other people.”

Pita Limjaroenrat was born into a wealthy Thai family.

He cites being sent to school as a teenager in New Zealand, the time he lived in the United States doing postgraduate study, and his experience working in the family rice-bran business, and then as an executive with the ride-hailing company Grab, as formative influences.

He admires down-to-earth leaders like New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern and Uruguay’s José “Pepe” Mujica.

Move Forward has the most ambitious reform agenda of any party in Thailand’s electoral history.

Among the 300 policies in its manifesto are equal marriage for LGBTQ Thais, ending military conscription, tackling business monopolies, and overhauling the education system to make it fit for a 21st Century economy.

The party plans to scrap the military-drafted constitution, and bring the army’s many business interests under the Ministry of Finance.

“It is time to end the cycle of military coups, and time to end the corruption in politics which opens the door to coups,” Pita says.

But the party’s most controversial proposal is to amend the lèse majesté law, which imposes long jail sentences on those convicted of insulting the royal family, and to begin a conversation about the relationship between the monarchy and the Thai people.

Many of the 250 senators, who were appointed by the previous military government, and who are required to join the parliamentary vote for the next prime minister, say they will block Move Forward from taking office over this issue.

“The sentiment of the era has changed,” says Pita.

“I think we now have the maturity and tolerance to speak about the monarchy. Even conservatives understand what the role of a constitutional monarchy should be in the 21st Century.

“We won the votes of 14 million people. And they understood – it was clear, it was transparent – that this was one of the agendas we wanted to push.”

The Move Forward leader believes that his coalition, which currently holds 312 out of the 500 seats in the lower house of parliament, will get the necessary backing of 64 senators to give them the super-majority they need.

Sources inside the senate, though, say this will be difficult to achieve so long as Move Forward remains committed to amending the lèse majesté law; but that at least some of the senators, who only have a year left of their unelected terms, do feel uneasy about opposing a coalition which won a clear majority in the election.

Pita Limjaroenrat is promising a new foreign policy as well.

Under the military-backed governments of the past decade Thailand is widely viewed as having punched below its weight in international affairs, with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha taking little interest in foreign policy.

“Definitely we need to engage the international community more,” Pita says.

“We have to rebalance. We have to speak out more, and we have to side with the rules-based world order. No words, no weight in foreign policy.

“And a lot of our problems, whether its economic, it’s air pollution, it’s the price of fertiliser, come from the rest of the world.”

His government, he says, would work more closely with Thailand’s Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbours to seek a solution to the civil war in Myanmar, and he would try to channel more humanitarian aid across the Thai-Myanmar border.

The challenges still confronting this young prime minister-in-waiting are daunting.

There is the sceptical senate, and the need to hammer out a deal with Pheu Thai, which won only ten seats fewer than Move Forward and has more experienced negotiators in its team.

Pheu Thai has been demanding top ministries, and the powerful parliamentary speaker position, which Pita views as a priority to get his many new bills tabled.

His party is made up mainly of first-time MPs, some too young to pass the 35 years age threshold to be a minister, some still facing serious criminal charges from their past political activism.

Ideologically more flexible, and taking a hands-off approach to the monarchy, Pheu Thai has the option of joining an alternative coalition which includes parties in the outgoing administration.

Move Forward has ruled out such a compromise, having won many of its votes through its promise not to do deals with the generals.

Pita Limjaroenrat believes neither party can abandon what he is calling a coalition of dreams and hope, because of the damage it would do to their reputations.

He wears the weight of these responsibilities lightly, still making time to spend with his family, and breezily optimistic that things will work out.

“I don’t want to be like those other Thai politicians still fighting for positions well into their 70s and 80s,” he tells me.

“I want to keep doing this for maybe another ten years, and then it will be time for something else.”

The post Pita Limjaroenrat: Thai Election Upstart Who Vows To Be Different appeared first on Policy Print.

This is the decidedly low-rent campaign headquarters in Bang Bon for Move Forward, the most radical party contesting this month’s general election in Thailand.

Pacing among them is the parliamentary candidate, Rukchanok “Ice” Srinork, a 28-year-old woman brimming with energy. Ice’s team have bought cheap bicycles, and for weeks now they have been using them, in brutally hot weather, to reach out to residents in the smallest alleys of Bang Bon.

Ice is one of a slate of young, idealistic candidates for Move Forward who have joined mainstream politics in the hope that this election allows Thailand to break the cycle of military coups, street protests and broken democratic promises in which the country has been trapped for two decades.

Move Forward is the successor party to Future Forward, which exploded onto the political stage in Thailand five years ago.

It contested the first election permitted since a coup in 2014 deposed the then-elected government. Future Forward was something new, promising sweeping changes to Thailand’s political structures, including limiting the power of the armed forces, and, more quietly, suggesting changes to the monarchy, then a strictly taboo topic.

“Their agenda was basically about taking Thailand’s future back from the powers-that-be,” says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, from the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University. “In this century young people have had to live in a country that has been lost to an endless cycle – we had two coups, two new constitutions, a series of judicial dissolutions of parties. I think the younger demographic got sick and tired of it. And Future Forward tapped into that sentiment.”

It stunned conservatives by winning the third largest share of seats in the 2019 election. Thailand’s royalist establishment, a network of military officers, senior bureaucrats and judges, responded as it has to similar threats in the past – it had Future Forward dissolved by the Constitutional Court, and banned its leaders from politics. The party lost about one-third of its MPs, and its replacement, Move Forward, became a lonely opposition voice in parliament.

Yet in recent weeks the party’s popularity in opinion polls has been surging again, alarming rivals. Many polls put its leader, the telegenic and articulate Pita Limjaroenrat, as the preferred candidate for prime minister.

That popularity is changing the reception Ice and her bicycling volunteers are getting in Bang Bon, traditionally the fiefdom of a powerful family from a rival party. People are genuinely interested in what these youngsters have to offer. Even older residents talk about the need for big changes in Thailand.

Ice herself epitomises this shifting political landscape. She admits she used to be a die-hard royalist, who cheered on the military coup and admired the man who led it, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who is still prime minister today.

“I think that I’m doing this partly out of feeling guilty that I was part of a movement that encouraged the coup, a crime against 70 million people,” she says. “At that time, I agreed with it and thought it was the right answer for the country. But later I asked myself, how could that happen? How could this nation support a freaking coup? And that’s when I became taa sawang.”

“Taa Sawang” – literally, “bright eyes” – is the phrase adopted by younger Thais to describe their being enlightened about previously taboo topics, in particular the monarchy. It was a watchword of the mass protest movement that erupted after Future Forward was banned in 2020, at a stroke disenfranchising millions of younger voters who were hungry for change.

And that movement, while it was eventually crushed through the extensive use of the draconian lese majeste law, shattered the taboo, by calling openly, for the first time, for the powers and financing of the monarchy to be accountable. Three years later, Move Forward’s support for royal reform no longer seems so shocking. And more Thais seem willing to back the party’s broader agenda for change.

Chonticha “Kate” Jangrew’s journey has been from the opposite direction. Her “taa sawang” moment was much earlier, when she was still a student.

She was among a very small group of dissidents willing to risk arrest by protesting against the 2014 coup that Ice was still cheering. She also joined the much bigger, monarchy-focused protests of 2020. But now she has decided to give up her activist life, and run as a candidate for parliament, also for Move Forward. “I believe to achieve the changes we want we have to work in parliament as well as on the streets,” she says.

Her pitch to voters in Pathum Thani, another district outside Bangkok, is unusual. “I have 28 criminal charges against me,” she tells them – two are under the lese majeste law, which carries a penalty of 15 years in prison for each. “But that shows you I am brave enough to speak out when I see something that needs to happen for our country.”

Even older voters seem charmed by her youthful sincerity. Almost everyone at the market where she appeared said they liked Move Forward, because they represented change, and would stick to their promises.

For all the buzz generated by Move Forward, few believe they can win enough seats to form a government. The revised electoral system is less favourable to them than last time. And Thailand is an aging society, so voters under 26 years old – Move Forward’s natural supporters – make up less than 15% of the electorate.

But if the party’s current surge in support holds until polling day, they could do well enough to be part of a coalition government, or a strong opposition voice. Then the inevitable question arises – will the establishment reach into its arsenal of extra-parliamentary schemes to disable the reformists once again?

“The Move Forward party’s agenda is an existential challenge to the established centres of power – the military, monarchy, judiciary, the institutions and players that have run Thailand for decades,” says Thitinan Pongsudhirak.

“Right now, they will probably wait for the poll results. But after that, the conservative establishment will have to ask themselves, what else they can do? They dissolve parties, but they come back, even stronger. They have military coups, but eventually they have to go back to a constitution. And even though they rewrite the electoral rules in their favour, their parties still lose the election.”

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