The Network to Reclaim Doi Suthep Forest posted its six-point proposal on social media in an open letter addressed to the Supreme Court president and the Judicial Commission.

It marked a softening of the group’s original hardline standpoint, which demanded that all the buildings must be demolished while rejecting “any other options”.

Teerasak Rupsuwan, coordinator of the group, said yesterday that the network would like to inform Supreme Court president Cheep Jullamon, who is the chief of the judiciary, and the Judicial Commission about the civic group’s consensus before a meeting of relevant state agencies scheduled for tomorrow.

The meeting is to be held at the order of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha in an attempt to find a solution to the dispute. Representatives from relevant agencies including the local military unit, Office of the Judiciary and Treasury Department are to attend the meeting in Chiang Mai.

The dispute involves the construction of summer residences for senior judges and court officials at the foot of the northern city’s Doi Suthep mountain. Local environmentalists are unhappy that the ongoing construction has allegedly appropriated Doi Suthep forestland, as the construction site is close to the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park.

The project, built at a cost of Bt1 billion, includes nine homes for court presidents, 36 homes for chief justices, and 13 apartment buildings for court officials.

Teerasak said yesterday that the proposal came after his group’s meeting on Thursday with senior military officers in the northern region.

“The civic sector would like to reclaim part of the project area that is built on the original forest and clearly affects the ecological system – and not the entire project area,” he said.

The area the group wants to reclaim does not cover the part that houses the new office building of the region’s Appeals Court and most of the apartment buildings for court officials, the activist added.

He said the proposal was meant to find a “peaceful solution” to the dispute.

In its open letter, the group called on the judiciary to also take into consideration the possible hostile feeling of many local residents towards state agencies that could result from the project if the construction continued.

It noted that the project clearly encroaches on the “buffer forestland” of the national park – disputing an earlier statement by Office of the Judiciary secretary-general Sarawut Benjakul that other state agencies also have their projects in the adjacent land plots.

The group warned that the controversial project could encourage other agencies to expand their projects to encroach into buffer forestland.

The series has been a massive hit, sparking a mania among Thais to visit the Ayutthaya Historical Park where scenes for the soap opera were shot and have their photos taken in classical costumes from those times.

So many people are flocking to Wat Chaiwattanaram within the park that its visiting hours have been extended into the evening.

His Majesty the King joined in the nostalgia for what are widely regarded as “the good old days”, inviting citizens last month to an “Oun Ai Rak Klai Kwam Nao” (“Love and Warmth at Winter’s End”) festival in the Royal Plaza.

More than a million people donned the clothing of a bygone era.

Now the government wants to keep the ball rolling, promoting Thai culture and nationalism as a match for the Bt100-billion “Thai Niyom Yangyuen” (“Sustainable Thainess”) programme it launched earlier this year. Government officials have been encouraged to wear clothing made of Thai fabric during work hours, though the move has drawn complaints that those who don’t comply face discrimination.

The Culture Ministry and Tourism and Sports Ministry dived into the “creative economy” concept with the goal of celebrating “Thainess”. Anyone wearing traditional Siamese attire has been admitted to national museums and historical parks during Historical Thai Heritage Conservation Week, which ends today.

The TV series has been the talk of the town since its debut on BEC World’s Channel 3.

The series, which will end later this month, is about a kind-hearted woman, “Kedsurang”, whose soul is transported back in time to the Ayutthaya period to live inside the body of a beautiful woman called “Karaked”. Karaked was initially a wicked woman, who plotted a murder and was cursed.

“It’s been an interesting phenomenon – it’s got the younger generation watching TV soaps again,” notes Asst Professor Yukti Mukdawijitra, a lecturer at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology.

“It reflects nostalgia, a yearning for the past, especially for ‘the good old days’. But the belief that the past was better than the present has been linked to biases in memory.

“It shows the mental illness of our society,” Yukti says. “Today we’re living in conflict, especially on the political front. Watching comical and fantasy soaps can temporary heal people’s hearts. In reality we remain divided, and the fantasy is that we are united.”

The show’s history is woven into a contemporary plot and features a modern, liberated woman as its heroine, touching on issues of feminism and democracy, but it is also steeped in nationalism and conservative attitudes. Due to the series’ massive popularity and the government’s endorsement of it as a valuable vehicle for preserving traditional Thai attitudes, Channel 3 is working on episodes for a second season.

And the Culture Ministry is planning to co-produce similar historical dramas evoking Thainess.

The whole “phenomenon” has its critics. It’s been pointed out that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s Niyom Thai effort bears a striking resemblance to the Rath Niyom (State Customs) cultural mandates issued by his predecessor of the 1930s through 1950s, the dictatorial Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram.

“Nationalism and conservativism are political tools to unite the nation,” says Yukti, “but the revival of Thainess cannot solve society’s root problems. Democratic election is the key.”

With the permission of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), New Alternative held its first general assembly on March 24 at a Bangkok hotel.

In an interview with reporters covering the event, party leader Rachen Trakulwiang said New Alternative was not a military party and his party’s MPs would support the candidate of the party that wins the most House seats in the next election to become the next prime minister.

However, he added, if MPs could not agree on the next head of government, his party might support General Prayut Chan-o-cha to return to office when senators join MPs in selecting the new prime minister.

New Alternative aimed to win at least 50 House seats, according to its leader. The party’s slogan is “Dare to think, dare to do, and really do it” with the stated ideology of “Loving the country, religion and the monarchy and doing everything just for the people”.

Rachen, 55, said the party had been founded by a group of people who loved the country, religion and the monarchy and who wanted to defend the interests of Thai people as well as maintain faith in a democratic system with the King as head of state.

Rachen first came to the public’s attention as president of the Federation of Thai Defenders of the Monarchy. In 2011, he led a campaign against a group seeking to amend the lese majeste law in Article 112 of the Criminal Code. He has also filed complaints with police against several red-shirt leaders accused of insulting the monarchy.

In late 2013, Rachen joined anti-government street rallies organised by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), describing himself as a PDRC leader from Nonthaburi, his home province. Rachen also joined monk Phra Buddha Isara, a key PDRC leader, to organise a rally at Government Complex, but later withdrew from the effort.

Rachen has subsequently ended his role as a PDRC leader while continuing his role as president of the Federation of Thai Defenders of the Monarchy. He decided to enter politics two years ago and eventually turned the federation into the New Alternative Party.

A resident of Bang Kruay district in Nonthaburi, Rachen has several businesses in the province. His wife hails from the South.

“I volunteer to be the driver to steer the New Alternative Party to a great goal to work for the country. It doesn’t matter whether we will be successful or not. What matters is we must do something for the country,” Rachen said.

He announced his political intentions on Facebook, which he uses to communicate with party members around the country. He plans to hold Facebook Live broadcasts at 8pm every day to talk about the party’s activities, while the timeline on his Facebook wall shows that he has been visiting several provinces to set up party branches and recruit party members.

Those activities are surprising because the NCPO still enforces the ban on political parties, prohibiting them from carrying out political activities. But New Alternative has been actively recruiting party members, prompting opponents of the NCPO to think that the new party has strong connections with the junta.

While visiting provinces in every region, Rachen has promoted a policy to grant loans to registered homeowners, which he said would help them easily access government loans, which they would be allowed to repay at their convenience. He added that the project was not a populist policy like the revolving village fund project, but a “Thai-ism” undertaking.

He also expressed confidence that the policy would help his party win in the election.

After New Alternative’s first party meeting, Rachen told reporters: “Our party is ready in every dimension. We are fully prepared in all positions. We are ready to become the government, but we are not ready to become the opposition.”

His statement was straightforward, although he failed to make it clear that he believed his party had popular backing. New Alternative’s ambitions could trouble another prominent new party, Future Forward, a progressive alternative to traditional parties led by the young business tycoon Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.

Paiboon Nititawan, a former member of the National Reform Council, stood firm that he would join forces with other parties and the junta-appointed Senate to back General Prayut to become an outsider prime minister.

Paiboon said he believed that his party would be able to find at least 125 votes from different parties, in addition to those of his own People Reform Party. They would team up with the 250 senators to prevent the use of the PM candidate lists proposed by parties and pave the way for an outsider prime minister.

According to the Constitution, the prime minister must come from the lists proposed by political parties before the election. However, if MPs failed to agree on the decision, at least 375 members of both houses could vote to forsake the list. After that, anyone who wins at least 500 votes from the 750-member joint houses of Parliament would become the PM.

Paiboon expressed his strong preference for an outsider prime minister, saying his party would not vote for any PM candidates from the PM list and would only vote for a non-MP prime minister.

“We support a PM candidate who is not affiliated with any party. He should be a neutral man,” Paiboon said. “Personally, I think Prayut is qualified. He has the capabilities and is honest. So far, he hasn’t been found to be involved in any fraud.”

If Prayut accepted a party’s invitation and became a PM candidate in that party’s list, Paiboon said he would consult with members of his party first.

He clarified that he wasn’t pledging sole allegiance to Prayut. A neutral PM can be anyone, not Prayut alone, he explained. Politicians have warned anyone nursing the ambition to become an outsider PM that it would not be easy to run the government. Although he or she may be backed by the Senate, such a candidate might not survive a vote of no confidence in the Lower House.

Paiboon argued yesterday that contrary to people’s fears, a non-elected PM would not be weak. He said he believed in Dharmacracy in which people with high morals should be able to rule.

He refused to predict how many seats he expected the People Reform Party to win in the next election. However, he also said he believed the election would happen in February next year as per the road map.

However, if the road map failed Paiboon said he believed it must be for some understandable reason.

A meeting of founding members of the People Reform Party yesterday was attended by around 300 people to find an agreement on the party name, logo and other issues. The event was held at Coast Condominium in the Bang Na area.

People Reform was only the second newly registered political party to get permission from the ruling National Council for Peace and Order to hold its general meeting. The first one was New Alternative Party, which is also pro-Prayut.

“The People Reform Party maintains that we will not be a political party like in old politics which was governed by personal and vested interests. We will be a tool for the people and focus on good governance,” Paiboon said yesterday.

Paiboon was voted by the members to be the first leader of the new party.

Other party executives include retired military officers and academics, such as Rangsit University lecturer Mano Laohawanit, known as a staunch critic of the controversial temple Dhammakaya and its former abbot Phra Dhammachayo who is wanted in connection with an embezzlement scandal.

The move followed Friday’s publication of plans required under the national reform law, resulting in them being in effect.

The plans, including the committee’s, will guide how the relevant sectors would be reformed, and they are legally binding, in line with the 20-year national strategy.

The committee realised the importance of following up and monitoring the progress of the proposals, so it came up with the idea to create the relevant databases.

Theerapat also pointed out that under the plans, a reduction of inequality in opportunities in environmental management is also addressed, with Strategic Environmental Assessment being the prime tool to allow public members to participate in critical decisions in regard to natural resources and the environment.

Rights of other species and nature are also addressed, Theerapat added.

The committee members would be called upon to help put in place plans to monitor and follow up the reform work, he noted.

The committee is among 13 appointed under the national reform law to develop and put in place long-term and legally-bonding reform plans.

THE 20-year national reform strategy that officially comes into force today might not be able to shape the country in the junta’s vision as politicians obligated by the Constitution to implement the plan have dubbed it unrealistic.

Aimed at moving Thailand towards stability, prosperity and sustainability, the junta has mapped out a long-term plan – announced in the Royal Gazette yesterday – to reform 11 sectors including politics, administration, economics, judicial system, education, social, environment, public health and mass media.

There are no plans to reform the military, and the police reform was outside the scope of the 20-year national plan.

The military-sponsored charter, which was promulgated a year ago, makes it mandatory for governments after the election to implement the reform plan and failure to do so would make them liable to be impeached.

‘Constitution amendment possible’

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday the reform plan and the Constitution fostering it were both impractical. While the emphasis of the reform was purportedly to help reduce corruption, he pointed out it was weak and unhelpful.

The Democrat leader said that after the election, attempts would be made to amend the Constitution.

However, he admitted that amendments would not be easy as they would also need approval from the junta-appointed Senate unless the people put pressure on them. The law on process and procedure of reform was promulgated in August last year and the authorities formed committees to draft the reform agenda for 11 sectors.

While the government claimed that the plan was made after sufficient public hearings, observers said it was very rare to see people participate in mapping out the national reform strategy over the past months.

Political reform is one of the most-watched agendas and is seen as a key element in shaping the country’s future. In the political reform plan seen yesterday, the junta blamed politicians and political factions for conflicts over the past decades. “Political groups refer their legitimacy to power from different attitudes, beliefs and interpretations of democracy,” the paper said. “Elections are not free and fair. Politicians lack ethics and morality. They do not represent the people’s interests. They are corrupt. Political parties are dominated by capitalists.”

As Western-style democracy is on the decline, eastern values would be more suitable for government, it said. “Political reform in Thailand has to be a good mixture of both Western democracy and eastern values, as well as Thai norms and culture,” it said.

The monarchy is the source of political legitimacy and the national spirit, it said, “therefore the coup-makers have to seek royal audience with the King to report the situation. The King will appoint the government leader and Cabinet to run the country.”

On the economic side, the reform embraces the “Thailand 4.0” vision of employing technology and innovation in accordance with the sufficiency economy philosophy. Pracharat – the coordination of big corporates and the bureaucracy – would be the major driving force for the economic reform, it said.

However, a new breed of young politicians who are preparing to enter the political fray in the coming election said the junta’s reform strategy was turning Thailand backward.

The chief of the newly formed Future Forward Party, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, said his new-generation party would scrap the junta’s strategy if it managed to win the elections and form a government. The party wants to remove all of the junta’s legacy in Thai politics and move the country towards real democracy with people’s participation, he said in an interview with The Nation.

According to the strategy, the government has to allocate Bt130 billion to implement the reform agenda within five years. While most of the budget would be spent for reforms in the bureaucracy and administration, the plan did not specify the budget for mass media and energy reform.

DEMOCRAT LEADER Abhisit Vejjajiva marked the party’s 72nd anniversary celebrations yesterday by highlighting liberal democracy as its continuing core value and he also distanced himself from the junta that is looking to remain in politics.

Democrats will compete with both the Junta and the Pheu Thai Party, he said.

“The Democrat Party’s way will differ from others. While the National Council for Peace and Order centralises power to a bureaucratic system, we aim to decentralise it,” Abhisit said.

“And Pheu Thai – they focus on populism but we think about sustainability, welfare and rights.”

With the political climate today centred on emerging young new players who pledge to bring fresh ideas to the table, the former PM said the younger members of the Democrat party would work alongside the older ones. The Democrat Party also needed to make some changes, he admitted. Abhisit also predicted a constitutional amendment could be possible after the upcoming election.

Due to impractical clauses that led to the failure of reform and graft fighting, the people would pressure the junta-appointed Senate to agree to make amendments, he said.

However, Abhisit said politicians also needed to prove themselves in order to boost people’s faith in them.

A large number of party members attended yesterday’s anniversary celebrations. Among them were prominent Democrat Party leaders Akanat Promphan and Nattapol Teepsuwan, who turned up to reaffirm their allegiance amid uncertainty over whether those who had led the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) would form a new party to support the junta or return to their former base. PDRC head Suthep Thaugsuban, who had vowed not to return to politics, did not attend the event, although he had been a Democrat key member as well as Abhisit’s deputy prime minister.

Ex-party leader and Democrat patriarch Chuan Leekpai stressed the country needed to move forward, following criticism that the Party had often been attacked for not playing by the rules and siding with the military.

“We know that a crisis has been caused by the business of politics but we must uphold democracy, with the monarch as the head of the state, as well as with the parliamentary system,” Chuan said. In response to the junta head PM Prayut Chan-o-cha’s remarks that politicians were bad, Chuan said some soldiers were bad, too. He urged politicians to stand up against such insults. There were both good and bad people in every profession, he said.

No political party has yet received an invitation, and some are wondering aloud whether the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is attempting to copy their policy plans. They have said they would not want to attend such talks.

Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd refuted the allegation yesterday.

He said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha would like to share information with political parties about what the government had been doing and know what parties had to offer once the country returned to democratic rule to ensure peace and order.

The talks could be held in June or before that if the political parties prefer, the spokesman added.

Discussions between the government and political parties were still possible, he said, even though a constitutional review is underway for two organic bills necessary for the election to proceed – the MP election and Senate selection bills. The constitutional reviews could delay enforcement of the bills.

Sansern said that political parties must understand that some issues may not be settled by holding talks, including the plea for the junta to lift the ban on political activities.

Meanwhile, Varawut Silpa-archa, a leader of the Chart Thai Pattana Party, said yesterday the party had not received any such invitation. He said he had no idea which issues the government wanted to address.

Once those issues are clarified, Varawut said the party would discuss them and decide how to proceed.

“But now an election is expected,” said Varawut. “In order to return to normalcy, the election is the key. And what our party is working on right now is preparation for the election.”

Ongart Klampaiboon, a deputy leader of the Democrat Party, also told The Nation he was not sure what the government wanted to talk about. Hence, the party had not decided whether or not to join the talks, he said.

The orders are directives No 57/2557 and 3/2558, which imposed a ban on political activities, along with a recent addition to order No 53/2560 which allowed parties to perform some administrative operations while maintaining the ban.

The junta had previously promised that it would lift the political ban after the organic laws essential for the election came into effect, tentatively in June. However, the NCPO-appointed legislature on Tuesday sent the MP election bill – one of the key organic laws that must be in place prior to the election – to the Constitutional Court for a legality check.

The move undeniably would delay enforcement of the laws and consequently prolong the political ban, despite the fast-approaching election. Parties needed time to deal with their internal affairs as well as canvass voters, said Pheu Thai.

Pheu Thai slammed the NCPO as being both negligent and exercising its absolute power arbitrarily. They said the junta orders were inconsistent.

For instance, one order stipulated that parties could only convene after the political ban was lift. And yet, the junta has refused to remove the ban, said the party.

The real purpose of the orders continuing, they charged, was to handicap the established parties while giving an advantage to newly formed parties that have, suspiciously in the perspective of Pheu Thai, announced they would back junta leader Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha continuing as an outsider PM after the election.

The junta must revoke all these orders, Pheu Thai insisted, and parties must instead be governed by the organic law on political parties.

The party’s leaders also called on the NCPO to stop using its absolute power under Article 44 and respect citizens’ rights and freedom as well as the new Constitution now that the election was approaching.

Chaturon Chaisang, a key member of the party, said that NCPO leader Prayut may have an ambition to return to power. But he should stop sabotaging the political system, Chaturon said.

THANATHORN Juangroong-ruangkit, the co-founder of the closely watched Future Forward Party, on Wednesday stated emphatically that he had no intention to push for amendment of the controversial lese majeste law.

He made his remarks at the “Move Over Dinosaurs – A Panel Discussion with Young Thai Politicians” event hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand on Wednesday.

“I personally have no intention to propose any amendment to Article 112,” Thanathorn said, without elaborating, in response to a question about his opinion on laws that violated freedom of speech.

Thanathorn has made waves in recent weeks since launching the progressive Future Forward Party, but his statement on Article 112 drew a mixture of surprise and disappointment from the audience at the forum.

This was the first time he had made clear his stance on the controversial lese majeste law.

A group of academics and activists, including Future Forward Party co-founder Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, have campaigned for an amendment to Article 112 of the Penal Code as the draconian law has been widely abused by political groups, notably conservatives against their rivals in the past few years. Piyabutr had stated earlier that he too had no intention to push his views on the party’s agenda.

Thanathorn has been the target of criticism of conservatives for supposed involvement with the alleged anti-monarchy movement.

The new-blood politician, however, denied having been part of such a movement.

Although he financed a social science journal Fa Diaw Kan (Same Sky), deemed critical of the monarchy, Thanathorn refuted the allegation. He reasoned that if the journal had really committed lese majeste, it would have been shut down. The publishing house continues to be in operation even today, he explained.

Thanathorn’s announcement of his stance on Article 112 was expected to cost him some pro-right supporters, but some critics believe it will also give clarity about his positions as he takes the political plunge.

The pro-democracy Thanathorn said at the panel discussion that he would propose amendments to some other laws, including the Computer Crimes Act which, he said, was notoriously against free speech.

“These laws give power to the military to access our private communication,” he said.

The panel discussion was also joined by other young politicians – Parit Wacharasindhu from Democrat Party, Varawut Silpa-archa from Chart Thai Pattana Party, and Preechapol Pongpanit from Pheu Thai Party.

Parit and Preechapol both made clear they would not support the junta’s return to power after the election, and in particular they would not support an outside PM.

Varawut, meanwhile, was vague in his stance.

Although he said Chart Thai Pattana would have its own PM candidate, he said in the second round an outside PM could still come in. There was nothing anyone could do, he said.