Peta Limgarwinrat: Driving Thailand’s Political Earthquake

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Party leader Step Forward and prime ministerial candidate Peta Limjaronrat holds a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Bangkok on May 14, 2023, after polls close in Thailand’s general election Jack Taylor.

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Few have seriously referred to him as a potential prime minister, but it looks like Thai opposition leader Pita Limgaroonrat will play a key role after voters rejected military-backed rule for nearly a decade.

With most votes counted in Sunday’s election, Peta’s radical Movement Forward party was leading the popular vote, ahead of the more-established opposition Pheu Thai party.

This represents an extraordinary achievement for a party whose predecessor was dissolved and its leader banned from politics.

The 42-year-old Pita was a dynamic presence on the campaign trail, drawing on his youth and energy to reach disillusioned voters yearning for change after eight years of draconian, military-backed government.

“We will rewrite Thai political history. Vote forward, Thailand is changing,” he told his ecstatic supporters at the last MFP rally in Bangkok on Friday.

The election is the first since large youth-led pro-democracy protests erupted across Bangkok in 2020 with demands to curb the power and spending of Thailand’s king – breaking a long-held taboo on questioning the monarchy.

The MNC is the only party promising to reform the lese majeste laws, known as 112 in Thailand after its oath in the penal code.

A sensitive and highly controversial topic, it has long been considered untouchable in Thai politics. Even opposition opponents Pheu Thai said they would leave the issue to parliament.

But Peta didn’t hesitate, telling reporters late Sunday that “no matter what, we will push for reform of the royal defect law.”

The father of one is considered a political operative, and the pop star inspires levels of hysteria from his supporters.

He was educated in New Zealand and the United States, and studied at Harvard University on an international scholarship, before becoming an entrepreneur.

However, after his father died when he was 25, Pita returned home to run his family’s indebted family business Agrifood, turning its fortunes around. He later became the CEO of the transportation and delivery app Grab Thailand.

In 2012 he married Thai TV actress Chutima Thippanat and they have a seven-year-old daughter. And the marriage fell apart in 2019.

His daughter was featured prominently in the campaign with Peta bringing her on stage after speeches, much to the delight of the crowd.

Online, he used a public “personal” account — followed by nearly a million users — to share photos of himself and his daughter wearing matching T-shirts and eating ice cream together.

But despite the success at the ballot box, there is no indication that his path to the premiership will be clear.

He must now put together a coalition to override the government-appointed senators who elect the Prime Minister of Thailand from among the eligible candidates.

rbu/pdw/dw

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