Back to the future as Thailand gets a socialist party

Last week, former socialist politician Insorn Buakiew, plus Chula-longkorn University historian Suthachai Yimprasert, former communist insurgent Surachai Danwattananusorn took over a political party named Phue Cheevit Thidekwa (For a Better Life) and renamed it the Socialist Party of Thailand.

Watwarith Tanpirom retained the position of party leader but Eak Mongkol, an adviser to former minister attached to PM's Office Jakrapob Penkair, was named as the party's secretary general.

Suthachai, who is an adviser to the party, said it would seek to apply a European socialist model in the political scene dedicated to establishing a welfare state in Thailand.

The Socialist Party of Thailand would be an alternative for the country, which, he said, had been dominated by conservative parties for a long time.

"As capitalism is in crisis now, why don't we explore the other way to offer equality of economic right to the people?" Suthachai said.

"Don't fear socialism. It is not an evil, but merely an economic plat-form for equality of wealth. It can also be applied in the Kingdom, and is not necessarily reserved only for a republic," he said, refer-ring to fears that socialists might seek to turn Thailand into a republic.

Socialist ideology is not strange in Thai political history but it has been painted as alien by conserva-tive forces in the country. The first socialist party, named Sahachiv (United Lives), was set up in 1945.

The party won 33 seats, mostly in the Northeast, in the Lower House after an election in 1946.

The socialists played some crucial roles in the politics until a coup d'etat in 1947 by Pin Choonhavan, Pao Sriyanont and Sarit Thanarat, which brought the conservative Democrat Party's Kuang Apaiwong to power.

The conservative government then arrested and killed many socialist politicians. The socialists were eliminated but the move-ment re-emerged on and off in 1960s and '70s.

Socialism ideology peaked after the student uprising in 1973 when Thailand enjoyed its most democratic atmosphere, and shortly after the communists won the war in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Well-known socialists in 1970s including Somkid Srisangkom, Bounyen Wothong, Khaisaeng Suksai and Bounsanong Bounyothayan formed the Socialist Party of Thailand to champion such a society.

And there were two other socialist parties - Plang Mai (New Force) and the Socialist Front -in the 1975 election. They won some 37 seats between them out of 270 in the parliament in that poll.

But the socialists' involvement in electoral politics came to an end after the October 1976 crackdown on students at Thammasat University.

The military regime then launched a campaign against communists and forced all socialists and progressive movements to join the communist insurgency in the jungle, in Isaan.

The Communist Party of Thailand was defeated in the early 1980s and all kind of fighters under the party's umbrella returned home and began new modes of fighting.

Some joined the Democrat Party while some joined Thaksin Shinawatra's now defunct Thai Rak Thai Party. Some are in the yellow-shirt movement (PAD) while some are in the red-shirt group and are fighting each other.

"Of course, politically we are similar to the red-shirts, as we champion for real democracy and the poor, unlike the yellow shirted group who fight for elitism and aristocracy," Suthachai said.

"We have no connection with Thaksin. He is a capitalist, while we are socialist. He has his own Phue Thai party," he said.

The newly formed Socialist Party of Thailand does not expect the old socialists from the '70s who have already turned to other ide-ologies to return to the fold. Suthichai said the party wanted to see the younger generation work for a new society.

But he had no idea if socialist ideology would be welcomed again these days at a time when Thailand appears relatively con-servative.