Thanathorn stirs political hornets' nest

Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha promised earlier, yet again, that the general election should be held in February next year. His words were still ringing in the air when his deputy Wissanu Krea-ngam said late last week he could not tell whether the poll would be postponed to April as things are not yet certain.Atiya Achakulwisut is a columnist, Bangkok Post.Despite the timing uncertainty, it's generally agreed that the election must be held sometime next year. An attempt to prolong the long-promised return to democracy further is likely to backfire on the military regime which has held power for four years.That may be why we are seeing more political parties, old and new, being launched and campaign promises made.While feelings that the new election is going to be less about the past political conflicts than military dictatorship have lurked in the background for a while, Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit seized on them and drew a clear line when he announced that the first thing he would do if his party won an election would be to amend the military-sponsored 2017 constitution -- the entire document.The 39-year-old former car parts executive and political rookie clearly hit the regime where it hurt as PM Gen Prayut immediately warned the new party leader to "think carefully''. Deputy PM Wissanu also cautioned that Mr Thanathorn's words could "cause him future problems".The regime's responses, however, were met with sarcastic remarks from anti-military groups which asked why newbie Mr Thanathorn was being warned for proposing the constitution's amendment in his poll campaign when PM Gen Prayut and his National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) came to power on May 22, 2014, precisely by tearing up the 2007 charter?Now former leader of the whistle-blowing, shut-down Bangkok People's Democratic Reform Committee Suthep Thaugsuban re-entered the fray, with a promise to do many things, including protecting the charter.Although Mr Suthep said it's too early to say whether he and the Action Coalition for Thailand he is helping will back Gen Prayut as outsider PM, it's highly possible as he later stressed that his stance from the 2014 coup onward has been to support Gen Prayut as "the PM to solve the country's crisis".While the road is still long and, at the end of the day, an election often ends up being a numbers game, what Mr Thanathorn brought up and Mr Suthep rose to respond to has shaped up a pre-poll landscape that could influence the real game once it begins.To his credit, Mr Thanathorn set the rules of the election game when he publicly declared he would scrap the charter, arguably the blueprint for the military regime's long-term hold on power, should he get elected. The new leader not only made himself as distinct as possible from his rival, namely PM Gen Prayut, but made people aware they do have a choice, something they haven't enjoyed for four years under military rule.Whether people like it or not, the 2017 charter was approved in a public referendum and that should extend it enough legitimacy. That is probably why many people have come to regard the highest law as a given. Now that the leader of a newborn party has dared to announce that he would scrap it, he has invoked a notion that has probably been forgotten for a while that an election is a supreme decider under democracy.If Mr Thanathorn wins a free and fair public vote, it would mean his proposal now carries more legitimacy than whatever the military regime has done. He is telling people to choose and telling them that their choice has more power than the a regime that has been imposed on them.Viewed in this light, it's not surprising that both PM Gen Prayut and his legal ace Deputy PM Wissanu had to issue a warning to the newbie. It's not the proposed constitution amendment that is dangerous to them. It's the idea that Mr Thanathorn is instilling into the public, that when the time comes they will have the choice to erase everything the seemingly all-powerful NCPO has built.Do not forget that the NCPO's main appeal lies in its ability to keep the peace, enabled by authoritarian rule. Once an election is called, however, the regime will have to forego its autocracy and let things proceed the democratic way.When the time comes, and when voters are basically asked to choose between military dictatorship and something new, what will their choice be?

Thanathorn stirs political hornets' nest

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