Thailand’s Political Earthquake | Why Saudi Arabia Bought Pro Golf

Progressive populism, FTW

Pita Limjaroenrat, House of Representative member in Thailand Parliament, Future Forward Party. Sirakorn Lamyai - Own work

On May 14th, Thailand held general elections. The results were a shock to the Thai political system.  

Since a 2014 coup, military leaders have dominated Thai politics. A mainstream opposition party has challenged military rule, but has been generally thwarted at every turn.  However, this year a third party emerged victorious — and its vision for the country represents a radically progressive shift in Thai politics. 

The Move Forward Party, lead by the charismatic Harvard and MIT educated 42 year-old Pita Limjaroenrat handily won the elections. And they did so by channeling a kind of progressive populism that can change Thailand's domestic political culture and foreign policy in big ways. 

On the podcast today is Prashanth Parameswaran, Fellow at the Wilson Center and founder of the excellent ASEAN Wonk Substack Newsletter.  We kick off discussing the political cont…