Visitors Four shades of a political firebrand
Thai Summit’s Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit tests the limits with his long-shot insurgent campaign.
at Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit’s house are greeted by a copy of Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. The picture, associated with a host of political firebrands, depicts an old man standing perfectly still on a mountain overlooking a body of fog pushed around violently by the wind. The man is wearing a coat similar to those worn by students and protesters during the German War of Liberation. In a sense, the Wanderer encapsulates the character the media wants Mr Thanathorn to play: an aloof patrician looking mightily over the dissolution of the current regime. A one-sided ideologue who makes no secret of his intent to wage war against any and all interests that hold unjust control over Thailand’s economic and political life. “The undemocratic force in this country is big and doesn’t care about human rights,” says Mr Thanathorn, 39. “The truth is, we have to eradicate these undemocratic elements in our society by whatever means necessary. That is why it’s a fight.”
The billionaire high-ranking executive of Thai Summit, the biggest car parts maker in Thailand, has vowed never to return to the company, even if he loses his high-profile race for public office. He says he’ll formally give up his position at Thai Summit as soon as the official date of the general election is announced.
Mr Thanathorn still holds a substantial portion of the shares in Thai Summit, but he says he plans to sell them once the campaign is under way. He would then retain the dividends in cash, or keep them in a trust fund open to the public.
Returning to the company may end up not being his choice, at least according to his own risk calculations. “Going against the regime is almost suicide, but I am willing to die for democracy,” says Mr Thanathorn, who has received a number of (yet uninvestigated) death threats. “I am not afraid for myself, or for my company. I am afraid for my family.”
THE IDEOLOGUE
Mr Thanathorn has been accused of having an overly aggressive demeanour, and of parrying reporters’ questions, but in private he speaks in a quiet voice that compels listeners to lean in. His lean face, lined by a strong jaw, and the prominent hair crest may come off as threatening. “I am not aggressive,” he says, stirring three cups of instant coffee. “I am just a serious person. I would never watch American Pie, and I haven’t touched a fashion magazine in my life. I care about social, political and economic issues.”
Mr Thanathorn is one of a lengthening list of outsider candidates that market themselves as alternatives to the current regime. The ideas he represents, he says, have been in place for close to 100 years and are sponsored by a silent majority that lack a venue for expressing their opinions.
“Like a large part of the country, I did not feel represented by the current political system,” he says. “The attractiveness of this moment is not me as a candidate or the Future Forward Party, but rather the spirit of the times. Feelings that have been brewing for a long time and that will explode as soon as we give them a way to come out.”
The young and educated have found in him a refreshing option; for the most conservative sectors of the population, however, he is cause for concern. To some, his unapologetic civil disobedience is a refreshing change, but to others it remains a hard pill to swallow.
Mr Thanathorn was mentioned in the lese majeste
chart drawn up after the demonstrations of 2010, and officials have made sure the public doesn’t forget that incident, even after the issue was cleared up in court.
“I here repeat that I have never known an anti-monarchy network in my life,” he says. “I would be surprised if they didn’t make these kind of accusations — I would suspect something is going wrong.”
The soon-to-be candidate says he’s willing to talk to every person in the country, individually, to clarify his pain points. In the next few weeks he’ll tour the South and North to raise support.
Rival politicians have used his age and wealth to discredit him, often comparing him to Thaksin Shinawatra, who has lived in self-imposed exile since the military tossed him from power in 2006. For Western media outlets, however, those same attributes have invited comparisons with Emmanuel Macron, the 40-year-old former investment banker who has led a staunchly pro-business government in France since last year.
“Another way to look at it is that I am an outsider,” Mr Thanathorn says. “The only reason why I am able to say what I say and do what I do is because I am not tied to this political patronage system.” As he sees it, his professed independence allows him to endorse a policy line and blatant disregard of the regime that no establishment politician could afford.
Mr Thanathorn’s grand plan to reform Thailand starts with amending the constitution. All of it.
“I mean, have you read the thing? Elected officials have no power to enact policies outside of a 20-year plan drawn by the junta, a group of 70-year-olds who will probably not see the plan through in their lives. People died in May 1992 to turn a half-democracy into a democracy. Now, even judges elect themselves among each other.”
Mr Thanathorn’s political ideas go back to his undergraduate days as a student protester at Thammasat University. His master’s thesis at Chulalongkorn University dealt with the accumulation of wealth among the Thai elite. After remaining outside of the public eye for the better part of two decades, he says his ideology has been refined, if perhaps not moderated.
“Lenin’s State and Revolution changed my life,” he says. Mr Thanathorn’s two-floor, all-wood library is stocked from ground to roof with volumes that go from Michael Lewis to Thomas Piketty’s Capital to the complete works of Marx.
THE PLEBEIAN
At times, one gets the notion that Thailand’s future may be a few steps forward of simply guaranteeing freedom of speech and assembly. Mr Thanathorn suggests the country might leapfrog representative democracy in favour of an agora-like model reminiscent of Athenian democracy.
MPs (members of the lower legislative chamber) may no longer be needed in the future, he says.
“Today a referendum costs an average of 2 billion baht. Technology, however, now allows the government to conduct public referendums on, say, legalising prostitution, at essentially no cost.
“The idea of parliamentary democracy is still evolving, but it’s the best that we have been able to come up with in 4,000 years.”
The democratic ideas he advocates have been a part of Thai society’s fabric at least since 1932, he says, and will be easy to convince people to come back to. “We need to understand that conflicts are a mainstay of every society, but they should be resolved through words, not through guns.”
Mr Thanathorn may have a sharp and eloquent tongue, but he frequently prefaces his policy statements with a big “if”. As in, “If I become prime minister...”
The latest poll conducted by the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida) suggests that Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha is still the first choice of 38% of the population, followed by Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan of the Pheu Thai Party (13%) and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva (12%). Mr Thanathorn registered a mere 6.8%.
The candidate, however, says he’s confident of the traction the party has gained so far. “It was only three of us when I filed to register the party three weeks ago. We have come far since then.”
In the next few months, his strategy will focus on regions outside of the capital. “There is a large chunk of voters we haven’t touched,” he says. “We will start touring the South in early April, and the Northeast during Songkran.”
THE PATRICIAN
Echoing the 2016 US election, the opposition has been quick to point out the almost cynical nature of a billionaire’s promises to dismantle the oligarchic cartels that control Thailand. Unlike Donald Trump, however, the heir to Thailand’s biggest auto parts maker has done little to promote his business experience as a political asset.
Thai Summit had no business plan when Mr Thanathorn joined the company: “It was all in my father’s head.” For the past 20 years, the young executive worked to introduce modern management techniques and push the company to a regional standard. Now his focus has shifted to increasing the productivity of the average factory floor worker.
Increasing productivity will be the key to lifting the country out of the middle-income trap. “People will be paid more to do things that add more value to the company,” Mr Thanathorn says. Rising unemployment may become a serious concern for his theoretical government, with some functions becoming automated and people shifting to other parts of the supply chain.
Mr Thanathorn’s experiences on the shop floor and in the boardroom provided some of the most potent motivation for entering the public sphere.
“I tell you, being a Thai company is a liability. People outside don’t understand this small country. They say, you are like Burma. How can I do business with a company that is still under an uncivilised military government, how can that company know anything about innovation?”
Mr Thanathorn says he’s not wary of speaking out against the business community or the government, because all of his clients are foreign companies.
“In order to hurt me, the government would have to go to Toyota and ask them to not do business with me, or ask Nissan to not give me any more orders in exchange for a lower tax rate. But the price of doing that is too high. The government would lose all credibility as a guardian of a fair marketplace.”
THE MAN
Political aspirations aside, Mr Thanathorn is still a very normal father of three who drives a battered Mitsubishi Pajero Sport.
In his living room are 15 or so pictures of children squished between their parents’ cheeks, and at the window, right below Friedrich’s imposing work, is a half-built 7,500piece Millennium Falcon and a host of Legos waiting to be stepped on.
A sandy-haired child plays outside as Mr Thanathorn launches into another extended monologue. “I know that going against the regime is close to suicide,” he says, “but I am prepared to go to jail or die for democracy.”
The only reason why I am able to say what I say and do what I do is because I am not tied to this political patronage system. THANATHORN JUANGROONGRUANGKIT EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT THAI SUMMIT GROUP