Opposition allies spar over coup views ahead of election
Prominent political figure Piyabutr Saengkanokkul on Thursday questioned the Pheu Thai Party’s claim that it will take action against those involved in previous military coups if it returns to power after the May 14 general election.
The Move Forward Party will actually do away with the consequences of past coups, so he will vote for it, said Piyabutr.
Pheu Thai and Move Forward had been opposition allies but are now competing for votes.
“Chaikasem Nitisiri, a prime ministerial candidate of the Pheu Thai Party, today talked about ways to deal with coups. Please excuse me for shouting back, ‘I am not convinced’,” Piyabutr wrote in a Facebook post.
The law professor-turned-politician was secretary general of Move Forward’s predecessor, the Future Forward Party, before it was dissolved by court order in February 2020 for accepting illegal political donations.
Shortly after Future Forward was founded in 2018, he announced that the party would immediately “eradicate all byproducts of military coups” whenever it came to power, Piyabutr said.
“No delays. No excuses. You need to take revenge to solve the problem,” Piyabutr’s Facebook post said.
Piyabutr was responding to Chaikasem’s statement at a Pheu Thai rally that the party will seek a constitutional amendment to remove the statute of limitation for the offence of staging a coup.
Pheu Thai will not be brave enough to do this, Piyabutr said, adding that the party’s MPs took no action against the leaders of the 2014 coup after the last election.
He also noted that past governments linked to Pheu Thai’s patriarch, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, also took no action to do away with byproducts of the 2006 coup that overthrew his government.
“Over the past period of almost two decades, there has been no indication that when it got a majority [in the House of Representatives] Pheu Thai would do it,” Piyabutr wrote.
“Don’t fool yourself. Don’t let anyone fool you.”
Piyabutr claimed that in September 2011, he and his colleagues presented a proposal to “eradicate all byproducts of military coups” but no political parties supported it.
That was why he co-founded the Future Forward Party with Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and Chaithawat Tulathon, he said.
Thanathorn, leader of the now-defunct party, has retained his influence in its reincarnation Move Forward. Chaithawat is its secretary general.
