BANGKOK: The liberal frontrunner to become Thailand’s next prime minister said Saturday he would withdraw his candidacy if parliament did not endorse him next week, after military-appointed lawmakers foiled his first attempt.
Pita Limjaroenrat’s Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats in May elections, buoyed by young Thais eager for progressive reforms after nine years of army-backed rule in the kingdom.
But the Harvard-educated millionaire’s campaign to lead the next government was knocked back Thursday by senators in parliament who consider his pledge to reform strict royal defamation laws a red line.
The legislature holds its second ballot for a new prime minister on Wednesday, and Pita said he would support a candidate from coalition partner Pheu Thai if he again failed to win the needed votes.
“I’d like to apologize that we haven’t succeeded,” he said in a video address posted to social media.
“I’m ready to give a chance to Thailand by letting the party that has the second most votes... be the one to form the coalition.”
Pita was 51 votes short of the 375 lawmakers he needed to support his candidacy during the first ballot.
Just 13 senators voted for him, with many voicing their opposition to MFP’s pledge to soften the kingdom’s royal defamation laws.
After the first ballot, the party ruled out compromising on its proposed revisions to the laws, which currently allow convicted critics of the monarchy to be jailed for up to 15 years.
All 250 senators were appointed under the junta-drafted constitution, which political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak said was a reliable impediment to MFP’s reformist platform.
“It is a way for the authority and the regime to stay in power in the long term and to prevent a pro-democracy government that can stand against them,” he told AFP on Friday.
Pita urged his supporters on Saturday to get “creative” in urging senators to throw their support behind him in the next round.
“I alone can’t change the senators’ mind. Therefore, I ask everybody to help with this mission,” he said.
“Send a message to the senators in every way possible, every way you can think of.”
The MFP’s largest coalition partner Pheu Thai is seen as a vehicle for the Shinawatra political family, whose members include two former prime ministers displaced by military coups in 2006 and 2014.
Property tycoon Srettha Thavisin, 60, is widely tipped to be Pheu Thai’s candidate for prime minister if Pita’s bid fails again.
Liked by business leaders among Thailand’s influential elite, he has been touted as a potential compromise candidate.
Pita rode a wave of support that saw voters emphatically reject almost a decade of army-backed rule under Prayut Chan-o-cha, who took power in the 2014 coup.
But the MFP’s reformist agenda has drawn strident objections from conservative supporters of the country’s establishment.
Thursday’s vote on Pita’s candidacy came just a day after Thailand’s top election body recommended the Constitutional Court suspend Pita as an MP — providing more fuel for senators already poised to vote against him.
The electoral commission recommended Pita’s suspension from parliament over allegations he broke campaign rules.
The recommendation followed a probe into Pita’s ownership of shares in a media company, which MPs are prohibited from holding under Thai law.
The station has not broadcast since 2007, and Pita has said the shares were inherited from his father.
The Constitutional Court has also agreed to hear a case alleging that the MFP’s position on royal defamation laws is tantamount to a plan to “overthrow” the constitutional monarchy.
Thai PM frontrunner says only one more shot at forming government
https://arab.news/4v4eh
Thai PM frontrunner says only one more shot at forming government
- Pita Limjaroenrat’s Move Forward Party won the most seats in May elections
- Harvard-educated millionaire’s campaign to lead the next government was knocked back Thursday
Immigrant rights advocates claim US violated court order by deporting migrants to South Sudan
- The advocates made the request in a motion directed to a federal judge in Boston
BOSTON: Immigrant rights advocates accused the Trump administration on Tuesday of deporting around a dozen migrants from countries including Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan in violation of a court order and asked a judge to order their return.
The advocates made the request in a motion directed to a federal judge in Boston who had barred the Trump administration from swiftly deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first hearing any concerns they had that they might be tortured or persecuted if sent there.
Maritime security under threat from ‘emerging dangers,’ UN chief warns
- Houthi Red Sea campaign ‘increased tensions in an already volatile region’
- Antonio Guterres calls for three-point plan to address challenges
NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of rising threats to global maritime transport at a high-level Security Council meeting on Tuesday.
It follows almost two years of turmoil in the Red Sea, a vital shipping lane connecting global trade via the Suez Canal.
Yemen’s Houthi militia launched a campaign in late 2023 to prevent Israel-linked shipping from transiting the Red Sea, claiming to act in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The US responded with Operation Prosperity Guardian, a military campaign to target Houthi launch sites and infrastructure.
The EU contributed with EUNAVFOR Aspides, while Israel later responded to Houthi attacks with extensive strikes on Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeidah.
Tuesday’s Security Council meeting was chaired by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister.
Guterres told the meeting: “Without maritime security, there can be no global security.
“From time immemorial, maritime routes have bound the world together. They have long been the primary means for the trade and transport of not only people, goods and commodities, but also cultures and ideas.”
However, maritime spaces are “increasingly under strain” from traditional threats and “emerging dangers,” Guterres added.
He highlighted contested boundaries, the depletion of natural resources, conflict and crime as key issues affecting maritime security.
The first quarter of 2025 saw a “sharp upward reversal” in reported piracy and armed robbery at sea, Guterres said.
He highlighted the Houthi Red Sea campaign, warning it had “disrupted global trade and increased tensions in an already volatile region.”
Earlier this month, the US reached a ceasefire deal with the Houthis following mediation by Oman.
However, the militia and Israel continue to trade strikes.
Guterres called for three measures to improve global maritime security: Respect for international law; efforts to address the root causes of maritime insecurity; and partnerships involving “everyone with a stake in maritime spaces.”
The international legal framework for maritime security “is only as strong as states’ commitment” to its implementation, he said.
Globally, more must be done “to reduce the likelihood that desperate people will turn to crime and other activities that threaten maritime security,” he added.
Guterres said: “We must involve everyone with a stake in maritime spaces. From coastal communities to governments and regional groups. To shipping companies, flag registries, the fishing and extraction industries, insurers and port operators.
“Let’s take action to support and secure maritime spaces, and the communities and people counting on them.”
Indonesian gig drivers protest demanding lower app fees
- Motorbike and scooter drivers who form the backbone of Indonesia’s sprawling gig economy earn up to 150,000 rupiah ($10) a day
JAKARTA: Thousands of drivers from ride-hailing and food delivery apps protested in Indonesia on Tuesday, demanding a 10-percent cap on commission fees.
Hundreds of drivers gathered in the streets of the capital Jakarta, driving their motorbikes and waving flags.
Thousands more in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya drove to the offices of ride-hailing apps GoJek and Grab, before rallying in front of the governor’s office, an AFP journalist saw.
“Many of our friends got into accidents on the road, died on the road because they have to chase their income,” Raden Igun Wicaksono, chairman of the driver’s union Garda Indonesia, told AFP.
“It’s about lives, not about business calculation.”
Drivers are also demanding the end of discounted fare programs and calling on lawmakers to meet with the drivers’ association and app companies.
Motorbike and scooter drivers who form the backbone of Indonesia’s sprawling gig economy earn up to 150,000 rupiah ($10) a day, but costs including app commissions and fuel eat into their income.
Gojek — which alongside Singapore’s Grab is among Asia’s most valuable startups — said it was committed to “supporting the long-term welfare of our driver partners.”
But lowering its 20-percent commission fee, which complied with regulations, was “not a viable solution,” according to Ade Mulya, head of public policy for Gojek’s parent company GoTo.
Pentagon chief orders review of US withdrawal from Afghanistan
- A special review panel will “thoroughly examine previous investigations,” Hegseth said in a memo
- “This team will ensure ACCOUNTABILITY to the American people”
WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday ordered a Pentagon review of the chaotic 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has long been a target of Republican criticism.
“I have concluded that we need to conduct a comprehensive review to ensure that accountability for this event is met and that the complete picture is provided to the American people,” Hegseth wrote in a memo.
A special review panel will “thoroughly examine previous investigations, to include but not limited to, findings of fact, sources, witnesses, and analyze the decision making that led to one of America’s darkest and deadliest international moments,” the memo said.
“This team will ensure ACCOUNTABILITY to the American people and the warfighters of our great Nation,” it added.
The US withdrawal saw Taliban fighters sweep aside Afghan forces, forcing the last American troops to mount an evacuation from Kabul’s airport that got more than 120,000 people out of the country in a matter of days.
On August 26, 2021, a suicide bomber targeted crowds of people on the perimeter of Kabul airport who were desperate to get on a flight out of the country, killing more than 170 people, among them 13 American troops.
Joe Biden, who was US president during the withdrawal, defended the decision to leave Afghanistan, which critics have said helped cause the catastrophic collapse of Afghan forces.
That paved the way for the Taliban to return to power two decades after their first government was toppled by American forces in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
Muslim Brotherhood ‘threat to national cohesion’: French report
- The report pointed to the spread of Islamism “from the bottom up” and at the municipal level
- It highlighted the “subversive nature of the project,” saying it aims “to gradually bring about changes to local or national rules“
PARIS: The Muslim Brotherhood movement is a “threat to national cohesion” in France and action must be taken to stop the spread of “political Islamism,” according to a report to be presented to President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday.
“The reality of this threat, even if it is long-term and does not involve violent action, poses a risk of damage to the fabric of society and republican institutions... and, more broadly, to national cohesion,” said the report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP on Tuesday.
The report, prepared by two senior civil servants, is to be examined by the Defense Council on Wednesday.
France and Germany have the biggest Muslim populations among European Union countries.
The report pointed to the spread of Islamism “from the bottom up” and at the municipal level, adding the phenomenon constituted “a threat in the short to medium term.”
In France, the movement is “based on a solid structure, but political Islamism is spreading primarily at the local level,” the authors stressed.
“Resolute and long-term action on the ground seems necessary to stem the rise of political Islamism,” they said.
The report highlighted the “subversive nature of the project,” saying it aims “to gradually bring about changes to local or national rules,” particularly those concerning secularism and gender equality.
Such “municipal Islamism” risks affecting the public sphere and local politics, the report said, pointing to “the creation of increasingly numerous Islamist ecosystems.”
France’s tough-talking Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expressed concern on Tuesday about “a low-level Islamism” whose “ultimate goal is to turn the entire French society to Sharia law.”
But the report authors said that “no recent document demonstrates the desire of Muslims in France to establish an Islamic state in France or to enforce Sharia law there.”
Muslims in France (Musulmans de France), formerly the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, is identified as “the national branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in France.”
“We are not dealing with aggressive separatism” but a “subtle (...) yet no less subversive aim for the institutions,” the authors said.
The report estimates that there are 139 places of worship affiliated with Muslims of France, with an additional 68 considered close to the federation.
This represents seven percent of the 2,800 Muslim places of worship listed in France, the report said.
The Islamist movement is losing its influence in the Arab world and “focusing its efforts on Europe,” it added.
A public awareness campaign must be combined with renewed efforts to promote a “secular discourse” as well as “strong and positive signals to the Muslim community” including the teaching of Arabic, the report said.
