Chart Thai party
The Chart Thai Party ( Thai พรรค ชาติ ไทย , Phak Chat Thai, translated "Thai National Party") was a conservative political party in Thailand . It was founded in 1974 and dissolved in December 2008.
From a right-wing party close to the military, she developed into a relatively non-ideological representative of wealthy business people from the provinces. Between 1975 and 1988 she was repeatedly involved in government as a junior partner. From 1988 to 1991 she led the government under Chatichai Choonhavan , from 1995 to 1996 under Banharn Silpa-archa . From 1997 to 2005 and from 2007 to 2008 she was again a small coalition partner in the government. In 2008 the Constitutional Court of Thailand banned the Chart Thai Party because of irregularities in the previous election.
history
The Chart Thai Party grew out of a family network that did business for the military and was founded by the strong man of the 1950s , Field Marshal Phin Choonhavan (“Soi Rajakru Clan”). The party was founded in 1974 by Field Marshal Phin's son Chatichai Choonhavan and his brothers-in-law Pramarn Adireksarn and Siri Siriyothin. Pramarn became their first party leader. The party represented the right-wing and aggressively anti-communist wing of Thai politics in the 1970s . In the extremely ideologically heated election campaign in 1976, she entered with the slogan “Right kills left”.
However, the party de-ideologized itself during the 1980s. It was a "ruling party" that endeavored to be part of the government under all circumstances and was therefore part of a number of coalition governments between 1975 and 1988. During that time, it was the second strongest force in all national elections. It was only a leading opposition force from 1983 to 1986. According to their general secretary Banharn Silpa-archa , opposition to a politician was "like starving yourself to death."
In 1988, the Chart Thai Party received the most votes in the elections, so its party leader, Chatichai Choonhavan, who has been in office since 1986, was elected Prime Minister . Chatichai's government came to be known as the "Buffet Cabinet" as its members blatantly scrambled over the distribution of state funds. The Chart Thai Party advocated a strengthening of the parliament, in which many rich and increasingly politically ambitious business people from the province were represented, against the traditionally powerful administration that was not legitimized by elections. It was overthrown in a military coup in 1991. The putschists accused the prime minister and other cabinet members of having amassed "unusual wealth".
After the March 1992 election, Chart Thai formed a coalition with the 1991 coup party under General Suchinda Kraprayoon . During the street protests and bloody clashes in " Black May " in 1992, the Thai press counted it among the "devil's parties". A wing of the party rejected this alliance and founded the Party for National Development ( Phak Chart Pattana ). The former party leader Chatichai also joined this party. After Suchinda's resignation, the Chart Thai party received three fewer seats in the new elections in September than in the March election. It was not taken into account in the governing coalition that was formed by the previously opposition "angel parties". Until May 1994, Air Force General Sombun Rahong was the temporary party leader.
His successor was the multi-billion dollar building contractor and “godfather of Suphan Buri ” Banharn Silpa-archa, who led the party to victory in the July 1995 elections and won 92 seats in the parliament, which was expanded to 391 seats. Banharn's government fell apart after just over a year due to constant disputes between coalition partners and protests against their apparent economic policy incompetence. After the new elections in 1996, the Chart Thai party fell to 39 seats and went into opposition.
In 2001 the party received 41 of the 500 seats and joined a coalition with the largest party, Thai Rak Thai under Thaksin Shinawatra . In 2005 she lost more votes, because of or despite the support of the Red Light King of Bangkok Chuwit Kamolvisit . She was only able to win 27 seats. The Chart Thai Party then went into opposition to Thaksin and his Thai-Rak-Thai party and also boycotted the 2006 elections in the hope that Thai Rak Thai would not be able to form a legal government.
After the 2006 coup and the 2007 election, the Chart Thai Party formed a coalition with the People's Power Party , which was a replacement organization for the now banned Thai-Rak-Thai party of Thaksin Shinawatra. In December 2008, the Thai Constitutional Court disbanded all parties in the ruling coalition, including Chart Thai, on charges of electoral fraud. Its leading members have been banned from politics for five years. The party's politicians, who previously held no office and were therefore not affected by the judgment, then founded the Chartthaipattana party . It was run by Banharn's younger brother Chumpol Silpa-archa .
swell
- Michael Leifer: Dictionary of the modern politics of South-East Asia . London: Routledge: 1996, ISBN 0-415-13821-3 . Keyword: "Chart Thai Party".
Individual evidence
- ^ Pasuk Phongpaichit, Chris Baker : Power in transition. Thailand in the 1990s. In: Political Change in Thailand. Democracy and Participation. Routledge, London / New York 1997, p. 31.