By Thai Newsroom Reporters
MOVE FORWARD LEADER Chaithawat Tulathon confirmed today (Mar. 14) a political conspiracy had been quietly hatched by a clique with intent to put an end to his progressive party by way of a dissolution by court.
Without naming names, Chaithawat said the unidentified clique of powerful persons had clandestinely designed the hush-hush political conspiracy under which a dissolution of the Move Forward at the order of the Constitutional Court was their ultimate goal.
“The conspiracy to have the Move Forward dissolved by court was a politically motivated, premeditated attempt rather than a purely legal bone of contention.
“We had been virtually depicted as a dangerous devil whose ideologies may have been viewed as detrimental to their established rule so they hatched the political conspiracy to destroy us,” Chaithawat said.
Without elaborating, Chaithawat apparently referred to the Move Forward’s archrivals such as the leadership of ultra-conservative camps and powers-that-be wherein, he said, integrity of the judicial branch may have been compromised and raised suspicion among members of the public.
Nevertheless, the Move Forward leader called on the Constitutional Court to give his colleagues and himself the opportunity to produce evidence and reasons to defend themselves in a court hearing before a verdict is delivered on the Election Commission’s lawsuit filed in pursuit of the dissolution of the 149 MPs-strong party.
Chaithawat contended that none among his party’s rank and file had had the intention to undermine the country’s rule as accused by the polling agency when they proposed amendment to the draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code, or bailed out some political activists earlier arrested and charged with lese majeste offences or public sedition. Elected lawmakers have the lawful privilege of bailing out criminal suspects by using their MP status as a virtual collateral.
The Constitutional Court had earlier deemed the reported Move Forward efforts toward amendment to the lese majeste law as being tantamount to a “corrosive” act which might possibly finally trigger a total undermining of rule in association with the constitutional monarchy and ordered for an immediate end to such moves on the part of the progressive party.
If found guilty by court as charged, all 10 members of the party’s executive board at the previous times of the pro-amendment moves would be immediately legally banned from political activity for as many as 10 years in addition to the dissolution of their party.
Those would include former Move Forward leader/MP Pita Limjaroenrat, Deputy House Speaker Padipat Santipada, who had been pressed to skip over as an MP to the Fair Party, and Chaithawat who was then secretary-general of the Move Forward. They would be immediately deprived of their MP status if the Move Forward dissolution lawsuit won in court.
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Top and Front Page: Move Forward leader Chaithawat Tulathon. Photos: Thai Rath
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