Is comparison insult or praise?
The first step is said and done for Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit in terms of realising his ambition to form a political party when he applied to register the Anakhot Mai or Future Forward Party this year.
No sooner had the heir to Thai Summit, the country’s largest auto parts group, announced the application, observers started comparing him to a maverick character in politics, Chuvit Kamolvisit, former leader of the Rak Thailand Party and now a TV programme host.
A political source said it was hard to know whether to see the comparison as an insult or compliment to Mr Chuvit.
The source also pointed out that the two men, despite being many years apart, have one thing in common: They share an extraordinary ability to capitalise on their exceptional oratory skills, which captivate people looking for options and new faces in the political arena.
Although Mr Chuvit, 57, now enjoys the status of being a veteran politician, when he first broke onto the political scene he courted a sizeable following. Although he was slammed by critics for sometimes shooting from the hip when discussing political matters, he had the appeal of a figure unaffiliated to the old-school political establishment, which saw support for him pour in from liberal voters.
But he has been hobbled by his own history. He made his fortune from his massage parlour business, an image which he has found hard to shrug off, according to the source.
Mr Thanathorn, 39, on the other hand, has excited younger voters, many of whom see politics as something from another universe. Like Mr Chuvit, he appears adept at harnessing the power of political marketing buoyed by a similarly direct talking style.
The only possible difference is Mr Thanathorn may be even more bellicose than Mr Chuvit when it comes to communicating his political ideas and thoughts. Mr Thanathorn has no skeletons in his closet that could undo his campaign, or at least not any that are known or rumoured to be true.
With no such blemish to hold him back, he may feel he has nothing damaging to his name that could dampen his will to speak his mind and address what he plans to do with the party he is set to lead.
The market for Mr Thanathorn’s party is made up mostly of voters aged 35 or younger who prefer unconventional politics. Most of these would be in Bangkok and other major cities. Mr Chuvit targeted the same demographic when he was active in politics.
While Mr Thanathorn may have got off to a relatively fine start with the party registration application, he has fallen short of explaining in detail his vision for the new party and how it, or he, could be a beacon of hope for young voters.
He reportedly has been warned by authorities to watch what he says in terms of outlining his party’s policies as it could be construed as electioneering, which is legally prohibited for now.
Moreover, critics caution that his words may need to be taken with a pinch of salt. They said if he meant what he said about his party being independent, he should start off by explaining how he views the country’s problems and what past policies he believes were at fault, and how they could be corrected.
Supporters of the National Council for Peace and Order say it’s not enough for Mr Thanathorn to fire a salvo at the regime and hold the military accountable for everything that goes wrong in the country.
They said a test of his party’s independence would be his critique of the Pheu Thai Party’s past policies and what he thought of the former sibling prime ministers, Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra.