United Thai Nation (UTN) Party leader Pirapan Salirathavibhaga has vowed to take action against "nation haters" if his party forms the next government, saying Thailand is a land for patriots and those who don't like it can live somewhere else.
Mr Pirapan, the party's No 2 prime ministerial candidate for the May 14 election, made the declaration during the party's first major campaign rally at Benjakitti forest park in Klong Toey district on Friday night.
Caretaker Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the party's top PM candidate, led key figures at the rally. Those who took the stage included ML Chayotid Kridakon, head of the party's economic team; Dr Rienthong Nanna, the ultra-royalist owner of Mongkutwattana General Hospital and chairman of the party's committee on quality of life improvement; and party secretary-general Akanat Promphan, stepson of Suthep Thaugsuban, who led the 2014 street protests that paved the way for the military coup led by Gen Prayut.
At the rally, Mr Pirapan said the UTN is the fastest-growing party at the moment and it intends to be around for a long time.
"It is common for parties to exist and vanish, but the UTN will live forever under the policies of Uncle Tu (Gen Prayut's nickname) and the heart of the party is the nation, the monarchy and people," said the former judge.
Some people, he told the crowd, expressed concern and asked him why a handful of people in a country of 70 million liked to create chaos and turbulence.
"Someone asked me what I would do if my party was taking care of the country, and I replied 'It's easy'," he said. "Thailand is a land for patriots and the land is holy with the monarchy serving as the pillar of the country."
"If you don't like it, you have no right to change it because the entire nation wants it," he added.
"If you don't like it, please go to another place. No one is stopping you. Go now. Any country you like, you can go and stay there. But Thailand will be like this forever."
"Under the Ruam Thai Sang Chart (the Thai name of UTN), we will not change," he said. "If the UTN is a core party that forms the next government, we will get tough against chang chart (nation haters) and those who want to overthrow the institution."
Mr Pirapan did not name names, but some discussions about Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the tough lese-majeste or royal defamation law, have been heard on the fringes of the campaign.
Many people were also shocked last month when a man spray-painted a "No 112" message on a wall outside Wat Phra Kaew, a part of the Grand Palace compound. He was charged with violating the Ancient Monuments Act, and a charge under Section 112 was added last week.
Several copycat incidents have since taken place at other sites and the original message is featured on a popular T-shirt.
Meanwhile, two activists who staged a 52-day hunger strike to press for the repeal of Section 112, have been attending various rallies.
The Pheu Thai and Move Forward parties allowed them on stage, but at a Palang Pracharath Party rally, led by party leader Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, the activists were turned back and some of their supporters were beaten by security guards and locals.
Earlier this month, Gen Prayut, 69, said he wanted Mr Pirapan, 64, to succeed him if he was chosen as prime minister after the election. The Constitutional Court ruled on Sept 30 that Gen Prayut's tenure as prime minister began when the 2017 constitution took effect on April 6, 2017, not in May 2014. Under the ruling, Gen Prayut's eight-year term expires in 2025.