Scholar-turned-politician Piyabutr Saengkanokkul is set to embrace the challenge of moving from the theoretical plane to the realm of practical politics.
Frustrated with years of the persistent political divide, the Thammasat University law lecturer has decided to leave his ivory tower and enter the fray, hoping to ''reinvent'' Thai politics.
A noted member of the Nitirat group of progressive law scholars, Mr Piyabutr has joined hands with Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the scion of Thailand's biggest auto parts group, to form the Anakhot Mai Party or Future Forward Party.
It has portrayed itself as a party of new-breed politicians looking to cater to younger voters and offered itself as an alternative to the old-school political establishment. The new party has made clear it is opposed to a so-called "outsider prime minister" -- a term referring to a nominee not on the list of political parties and who is voted in by a majority in both the House and Senate.
InquiryLines, published bi-weekly on Mondays is a Bangkok Post column to present in-depth details of a range of issues from politics and social interest to eye-catching everyday lives.
Mr Piyabutr said he began to lose hope in the state of politics in 2005 when Thai politics became sharply polarised to the point of an impasse, opening the way for the military to step in and take over in the two military coups in 2006 and 2014. ''After the 2014 coup, I felt hopeless and was in total despair when suffering a defeat in the referendum [on the draft constitution on Aug 7, 2016].
''At the time, I banked on the two major political parties which expressed opposition to the draft charter. If you add up the total number [of their supporters], those who voted no to the draft charter must have won. But why did we lose? This means there must be something wrong,'' Mr Piyabutr said.
Following the 2014 military putsch, he received a scholarship from the French government to do research in Paris for six months. His study focussed the emergence of new political groups in the political scene of Europe.
''I found that we had something in common. That is people have lost hope in existing political parties. So I think it is necessary for me to engage [in politics],'' he said.
But first of all, he had to ponder which form of political activity would be best for him to advance his cause -- between an extra-parliamentary pressure group or a formal political party. ''Political rules under the new constitution are not favourable to the creation of a new breed of political parties. There is so much fastidiousness that threatens party dissolution all the time,'' he said.
He noted that there were already so-called several social movements in Thailand, but political parties just ignored them and failed to take them up.
Mr Piyabutr said his critics have branded him as a radical just because he has read a lot of history books. He said he has drawn a conclusion from his studies that massive popular uprisings and dramatic social upheavals that took place in the past will now become rare in the world of the 21st century.
In today's world dominated by global capitalism, people tend to be more preoccupied with the bread-and-butter issues closer to their lives and struggle to make ends meet rather than stepping up to make any drastic social change, he said. He also argued that the state which claims a monopoly over the legitimate use of violence or possession of weapons would not allow such popular uprisings.
In light of this, the only option available for creating change is to prevent the rule of military dictatorship, he said. ''Even though the existing political rules are bad and frustrating, I want to prove that I have no malicious intentions against those who are currently in power.
''I just want the country to change for the better. We now enter the race and thus have to abide by the rules. They should open their mind. We want to let them know that we are not planning sweeping changes,'' Mr Piyabutr said.
He went on to say that Future Forward aims to pursue ''a new kind of politics'' and offers hope to the people so they will stop relying on the regime and the government to hold elections.
While Future Forward is made up of young bloods, it does not reject old-school politicians as long as they accept the party's principles. Future Forward will never vote for an outsider prime minister and will oppose the regime clinging on to power, he said.
Future Forward will mobilise funds on a national level to manage its operations. Party members will be given greater participation in handling party affairs through a bottom-up decision-making approach, Mr Piyabutr said.
He insisted Future Forward is not an ad-hoc party and even if the party may not win a single House seat in the next election, it will not cease operations.
Even if it wins enough seats to form a government, the party must carry on with its activities because Future Forward is not just a springboard to seats of power in the government, he said. ''It's about engaging in politics for life. Mr Thanathorn and I will not return to being a businessman and a teacher. This is not a rich man's plaything or an academic's experiment,'' Mr Piyabutr said.
With the constraints of his new political role as the party's co-founder, Mr Piyabutr feels the need to abide by the rules of the politics game.
He now has to leave the personal causes he has championed as an academic on the back burner to prevent any backlash against the new party which is still in its infancy. Standing out among them is his push for amendments to Section 112 of the Criminal Code, known as the lese majeste law.
As an academic, he was free to express his opinions and present them to the society. During his campaign for amendments to the law, he firmly believed the section was problematic. But he is now as the party's co-founder, he must separate personal causes from party affairs.
''The party does not belong to me alone ... When I took on this role, I declared that I would not raise the issue in the party. Otherwise, it would have looked as if I dictated to them ... Just like I set up the party specifically for this purpose.
''The party's aim is to reinvent politics and keep the military from politics. It has nothing to do with my original ideas...We agreed that the party would bring together people with a wide range of ideas, rather than thinking along the same lines. I confirm I will not push for amendments to Section 112 as part of the party policy,'' Mr Piyabutr said.
Instead, he said he will target Section 279, the final section of the constitution, which legalises all the orders, announcements, and the actions of the National Council for Peace and Order.
Even after an elected government is sworn in and the NCPO steps down, the regime's legacy -- all its decrees endorsed by Section 279 -- will remain, he said.
However, he does not intend to have all of them scrapped as some of them are not that bad, he said. It will be a sensible move to prioritise the regime's orders and announcements seen to benefit the public while those which violates people's rights must be scrapped, he said.
Those issued in the public's interests would be made into law by the parliament later, he added. Asked whether Future Forward actually represents the red-shirts, Mr Piyabutr said he would rather see the party represents people who fight against dictatorship and who want the military sidelined from politics.
''Whichever camp you belong, eventually you just want to wish the country well,'' he said.
Future Forward, he said, represents people who believe Thailand needs change and coups are not an answer. The military must be kept at bay and people will handle political conflicts themselves.