When Pita Limjaroenrat took to the stage for his final big campaign event before Thailand’s elections, the cheers and screams were deafening. “Our time has come,” he told crowds of mostly young supporters in a packed stadium in Bangkok.
Pita’s Move Forward party has built a large and loyal support base among young Thais who are fed up with the political status quo. At rallies, he is met with long lines of students and young people queueing for selfies. On TikTok, fans post images of themselves with a special filter that displays his face smiling and lurking in the background.
Pita has promised to push military generals back to the barracks – a pledge that resonates with young people who have already lived through two military coups, in 2006 and 2014. He has also promised to break up powerful monopolies that dominate the Thai economy, and reform the lèse-majesté law, under which criticism of the monarchy can be punished with up to 15 years in prison. Move Forward is the only party to make a clear commitment to reform the law; conservative parties all fiercely oppose doing so.
“The wind of change has been blowing,” Pita said at the rally on Friday night, a final push before Sunday’s election. “What we need to carefully and maturely ask ourselves is, is Thai society building a wall, or a wind turbine?”
In 2020, mass youth-led protests shocked the establishment by calling for changes to the military and curbs on the wealth and influence of Thailand’s monarchy, an institution previously seen as untouchable. More than 240 people have since been charged with lèse-majesté – including former protesters who are now running as Move Forward candidates.
Speaking on Friday night, Pita referred to a high-profile case involving a 15-year-old girl who was held for more than 40 days in pre-trial detention after she was accused of criticising the monarchy.
A sensible debate was needed, he said.
Pita, 42, grew up in a political family. His father, Pongsak Limjaroenrat, was an adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture, and his uncle, Padung Limcharoenrat, was a close aide of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
It was time spent studying in New Zealand as a teenager that truly sparked his love for politics, however. “I got shipped to the middle of nowhere in New Zealand and there were three channels back then. Either you watch Australian soap operas, or you watch the debates in parliament,” he told the Thai YouTube programme Aim Hour. He began to listen to the then New Zealand prime minister Jim Bolger’s speeches as he did his homework.
Pita graduated from Thammasat University in Bangkok, before studying for a master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University, and an MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was the executive director of Grab Thailand, a ride-hailing and food delivery app, before joining politics.
He told the Guardian that Thailand had experienced a lost decade under Prayuth Chan-ocha, the incumbent prime minister who first took power in a coup in 2014. “Democratic institutions and norms have been broken,” he said, adding that the economy was “in a tailspin”. Thailand’s economy had slumped compared with its neighbours in south-east Asia.
Pita has been praised for his firm but polite debating style, and he has ranked well in polling for Thailand’s preferred prime minister.
But Move Forward has also made powerful enemies by promising to make changes to the conservative military-royalist establishment. Pheu Thai, an opposition party which is projected to win the most seats, may be deterred from forming an alliance with Pita’s party, fearing that its policies, especially those relating to the monarchy, are too sensitive.
Move Forward party’s predecessor, Future Forward, which was also outspoken in calling for change, was closed down in 2020 after a court ruled it had broken funding regulations. Its supporters saw the case as politically motivated, and it was one of the triggers for the 2020 protest movement.
Pita said it was unsurprising that some opposed Move Forward’s promise of change. “The definition of change is that some will be gainers, and some will be losers. But 99% will gain from our policies,” he said.
Last week, a complaint was filed against Pita, claiming that he owns undeclared shares in a media company. He has denied any wrongdoing and told the Guardian the case was just “dirty old politics”.
“We’re not concerned,” he said. But added: “We’re not reckless as well. We have a strong legal team.”
