Thailand’s other parties: #2 Chart Thai Pattana

June 8, 2011 by Luke Hoyland in News, Southeast Asia

Second in a series of posts looking at the parties who won’t come first or second in the Thai a election, but will probably form part of a coalition government.

Party logo

Name
Phak Chart Thai Pattana (CP, พรรคชาติไทยพัฒนา) means Thai Nation Development Party.

Current number of seats in House of Representatives
25 (of 480).

Founded
April 18 2008.

Origins and membership
Chart Thai Pattana is the successor to the Chart Thai party, which was dissolved in December 2008 along with the People’s Power Party (PPP, succeeded by Pheua Thai) and the Neutral Democratic Party (succeeded by Bhum Jai Thai). Those three parties had been part of a coalition government led by the Thaksin Shinawatra-linked PPP. After they were disbanded and their leaders banned from office, Chart Thai Pattana and Bhum Jai Thai, the replacements for the two junior partners, jumped ship and entered into coalition with Abhisit Vejjajiwa’s Democrat Party, which took office after an MPs’ vote.

Chart Thai Pattana’s leader is Chumpol Silpa-archa, younger brother of Banharn Silpa-archa. The now much-derided Banharn won an election for Chart Thai in 1995 and was prime minister of a short-lived administration in the run-up to the Asian financial crisis of 1997.

One of the two current deputy prime ministers is Maj Gen Sanan Kajornprasart (สนั่น ขจรประศาสน์), the CP’s chief advisor. He’s also a big-time ostrich farmer.

Sanan Kajornprasart

Allegiances
Current member of the Democrat-led coalition. CP is in an uneasy electoral alliance with Bhum Jai Thai and is campaigning with a view to forming a coalition with either the Democrats or Pheua Thai, depending on who wins.

Policies
“Reconciliation” is a key theme in CP’s manifesto, illustrating the party’s desire to stay in the good books of the electoral victors. But the party may find some sympathy among those parts of the electorate that despair of Thailand’s polarised politics. It may even habour ambitions of fielding a prime ministerial candidate who would be less divisive than either the Democrats’ Abhisit or Pheua Thai’s Yingluck Shinawatra. Sanan’s name has been suggested.

Economy: Aim for economic growth of 5% per year by reducing corporate tax and introducing low-cost business loans. Reduce VAT and introduce land tax.
Agriculture: Better terms for debts owed by farmers; remove excise tax on pickup trucks (and green cars).
Employment: Hugely increase minimum wage to 350 baht per day. (It currently varies by province, from 150 to 221 baht per day.)