My interview in Matichon with respect to whether the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) should grant permission for political parties to organise political activities:
We should not have asked this question now because political parties should have been allowed to function a long time ago. The NCPO perceive political activities as a threat to national security, which I disagree with. In order to prepare Thailand’s return to democracy, political parties should be able to function normally. They should be able to organise party-meetings or other political activities. If these activities are banned it would not be in the interest of Thai democracy.
I argued that it is important for political parties to meet and communicate with the people and their constituents. I do not think that Yingluck’s court case (over allegations of corruption surrounding the implementation of Yingluck’s rice-pledging policy) is the main contributing factor to the NCPO’s ban of political activities. The NCPO might be concerned about the political movement of Yingluck’s power base and their distrust in other political parties.
Indeed, I argued that the NCPO is quite scared of the functioning of democracy, scared of elections, scared of voices of the people and of freedom of speech.
I believe that the NCPO will not grant permission for political parties to organise any political activities until they have set a precise timeline for elections.
If the NCPO truly want to return Thailand to democracy, then it is important to give a permission to political parties to function now. Delaying such permissions will not be in the interests of the NCPO in the long term.
