On the surface, Thailand appears to be stuck in a never-ending cycle.
Elections are held in which voters voice increasingly clear demands for change, only for those to be denied by the royalist old guard that has dominated my country for generations.
Each of the past several elections, going back to 2005, have resulted in the winning party either being denied its right to form a government, overthrown in a military coup or otherwise removed from office.
So when Thailand’s Constitutional Court last week ordered the dissolution of the country’s most popular political party — the pro-reform Move Forward Party, which won last year’s national election on a platform of curbing royal prerogatives — it seemed like déjà vu, the latest chapter in a normalized process of political stagnation.
The court decision is not a sign of the strength of the conservative establishment, but of its weakness; a last-gasp attempt by the old guard to cling to an outdated status quo despite demands for change by millions of politically literate young Thais.
Persons:
—, Thais
Organizations:
Party
Locations:
Thailand, Southeast Asia