Agents of change: Lookkate (centre) reacting with other candidates during the upcoming election campaign in Pathum Thani. — Reuters
Chonthicha “Lookkate” Jangrew is going door to door asking people to vote for her in Thailand’s May 14 election even though she faces possible jail time on charges of sedition and defaming the king during unprecedented protests in 2020.
The 30-year-old is one of more than a dozen activists from a student-led protest movement who are taking their once-taboo cause from the streets to the ballot box as candidates in the election.
They are bringing the issue of the role of monarchy in society into the open. King Maha Vajiralongkorn is officially revered under the constitution and insulting the monarchy is illegal under strict laws known as lese majeste, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Changing – though not abolishing – those laws is part of the platform of Lookkate’s progressive Move Forward party, which is campaigning on reducing the severity of punishment for royal insult and how it is applied.
“If you want to make a change in Thailand, you cannot rely solely on street movements or only on parliament,” Lookkate said in an interview as she took a break from campaigning in Pathum Thai province.
“Both paths need to move forward together.”
The 2020 demonstrations that started as opposition to the military’s domination of politics following a 2014 coup and a disputed election five years later, broke ground in Thailand by questioning the supremacy of the monarchy.
Protesters pointed at what they described as an unhealthy power nexus between the military and the palace that justified repeated military intervention against elected governments.
The military says it only intervenes in civilian politics when it has to act to save the nation from chaos and it has ruled out any involvement in the election. The palace does not comment on politics.
The protests were eventually suppressed, largely by legal action against their leaders, with hundreds arrested and facing criminal cases that are still working their way through courts.
Lookkate said she has 28 criminal cases against her, including two of lese majeste, which would end her parliamentary career if she were to win a seat. Anyone convicted of an offence is disqualified from the legislature.
Analysts say that many of the issues that the youth movement raised are now part of mainstream discourse, including calls to amend the lese majeste laws.
Dozens of youth activists, like Lookkate, have joined political parties like Move Forward, Pheu Thai and the Thai Sang Thai, either as candidates or workers, said Kanokrat Lertchoosakul, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University who closely follows the youth movement.
Move Forward party spokesman Rangsiman Rome said the party was a good fit for the youngsters who joined the 2020 protests that were rooted in opposition to the military’s attempt to constitutionally enshrine its role in politics.
“The issues they were campaigning for, like changing the constitution or amending the lese majeste law, are aligned with party policies,” he said.
Rangsiman did not say how many of the party’s candidates came from the youth movement but Kanokrat said the party had at least 20 candidates, and more behind the scenes, linked to it.
“We have at least three pro-democracy parties in which youth activists have found various roles,” Kanokrat said.
Political analyst Prajak Kongkirati from Thammasat University said the involvement of the young activists had brought the biggest change to mainstream politics in decades.
They had energised the progressive left while at the same time triggering the rise of a right-wing royalist party, Thai Pakdee, which is campaigning on toughening up the lese majeste law, he said.
“The political spectrum has not been this broad in 30 years,” Prajak said. “We have a real progressive left that connects with street politics and a far-right party that rises as a response.” — Reuters
