How a 42-year-old businessman won over young Thai voters

Businessman Pita won the confidence of young voters with his pledge to make sweeping changes to Thai politics and the lese majeste law.

When Pita Limjaroenrat took the stage for his final campaign event before Thailand's elections last weekend, cheers erupted from below. "Our time has come," he told a crowd of mostly young supporters at a packed stadium in the capital Bangkok.

The Move Forward Party, led by the 42-year-old businessman and politician, has built a strong and loyal support base among young Thais who have become disillusioned with eight years of political upheaval in the country.

Move Forward Party leader and Thai prime minister candidate Pita Limjaroenrat attends a press conference in Bangkok on May 15. Photo: Reuters

At the event, Pita happily interacted with a long line of students and young people waiting to take photos with him. On TikTok, fans rushed to post their photos with a special filter showing the young politician's smiling face hidden in the background.

With the support of young voters, Pita is the leading candidate for the Thai prime minister's post, after claiming victory in the general election. His party ranked first with 152 seats in the House of Representatives, followed by Pheu Thai with 141 seats. Pita has announced a coalition with Pheu Thai and several other small parties to take power.

During his election campaign, he vowed to curb the influence of the military, a pledge that resonated with young people who witnessed two military coups in 2006 and 2014.

He also promised to break up the powerful monopolies that dominate the Thai economy and reform lese majeste laws that punish critics of the king and the monarchy with up to 15 years in prison. Move Forward is the only party to explicitly commit to reforming the laws, which conservative parties have fiercely opposed.

“The wind of change has risen,” Pita said at a rally on the evening of May 12, the last campaign event before the May 14 election. “What we need to ask ourselves carefully and thoughtfully is whether Thai society is building a wall or a wind turbine?”

In 2020, thousands of young Thais took to the streets calling for reforms to the military government and curbs on the power and spending of the monarchy, an institution previously considered sacrosanct. Since then, more than 240 protesters have been charged with lèse-majesté, including those running for the Move Forward Party.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, said Pita's reform pledges were shocking because they aimed to change the military, the economy, the centralized power system and even the monarchy.

“That’s why this election is unlike any other,” Thitinan said. “That’s why this election is important, because it’s pushing for changes that go to the core of the problems Thailand is facing.”

Pita was born into a political family. His father, Pongsak Limjaroenrat, was an adviser to Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture, and his uncle, Padung Limcharoenrat, was a close aide to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

However, it was his time studying abroad in New Zealand as a teenager that really sparked his love for politics.

“I went to school in New Zealand and back then, you could only watch three channels. Either Australian soap operas or you could switch to the channels with parliamentary debates,” he told Thailand’s YouTube show Aim Hour. Pita did his homework while listening to speeches by then-New Zealand prime minister Jim Bolger.

He then returned to Thailand, graduated from Thammasat University in Bangkok, then pursued a master's degree in public policy at Harvard University and an MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. He was CEO of ride-hailing and food delivery app Grab Thailand before entering politics.

Mr. Pita waves to a crowd of supporters in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 15. Photo: Reuters

He told the Guardian that Thailand had been through a lot in the past decade following the 2014 military coup. He also warned that the Thai economy was "going downhill fast".

Pita appeals to young voters with his tough but polite debating style and he also ranks highly in polls of who the Thai public prefers to be prime minister.

But the Move Forward party has also created a number of rivals with its pledge to push for radical changes in conservative politics that favor the military and the monarchy.

The Pheu Thai Party has also expressed concerns that Move Forward’s policies, especially those related to the monarchy, are too bold and sensitive. Pheu Thai also wants to change the lese majeste law, but has been cautious in saying that it will leave the matter to the Thai parliament.

Future Forward, Move Forward's predecessor, also pushed aggressively for change in Thai politics, but was dissolved in 2020 after the Constitutional Court ruled the party violated election funding rules.

Future Forward supporters say the ruling was politically motivated and is seen as one of the reasons driving the youth protests in 2020.

Pita said it was no surprise that some people were opposed to Move Forward's push for reform. "The definition of change is that some people will benefit, but others will suffer. The important thing is that 99% will benefit from our policies," he asserted.

Vu Hoang (According to Guardian, CNN )

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