Supinya mulls big move
After stepping down from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) in March of last year, Supinya Klangnarong remains active on the media front, serving as a consultant for media organisations and taking up research work on media reform and self-regulation.
But the media advocate, who has been heavily involved in media reform activism since 1997, may be bound for uncharted territory. She is reportedly being wooed by two political parties as a potential candidate in the general election tentatively scheduled for February.
As a native of Surat Thani, the 45-year-old former media regulator is a person of interest to the Democrat Party, which commands a wide support base in the South.
She is also reportedly being sought after by the newly registered Ruamphalang Prachachartthai Party, also known as the Action Coalition for Thailand (ACT), which has enlisted the support of veteran Surat Thani politician Suthep Thaugsuban.
According to political sources, the Democrat Party is looking for a candidate to fill a vacancy left by the Thaugsuban family while the ACT is hoping to pit her against any candidate in a constituency in Surat Thani province.
While it is not known through whom the Democrats have approached Ms Supinya, it is believed the ACT might have contacted her through Suriyasai Katasila, a co-founder of the new party and her long-time activist friend.
The Democrat Party is apparently aware of the ACT’s move, according to political sources.
It has been reported that in a message delivered to Ms Supinya by senior Democrat members, she was urged to choose a political institution over an ad-hoc party that has recently been set up to pursue a certain political goal, and which might cease to exist when its task is accomplished.
The message was seen as a snub to the ACT, despite it insisting it would be a “people’s party” geared toward national reform without any hidden political agenda.
A highly placed source in the Democrat Party told the Bangkok Post that core party members in the southern region have approached Ms Supinya to contest the general election under the party’s banner and in Mr Suthep’s political stronghold.
However, Ms Supinya has yet to get back to the party about her decision, according to the source.
Based on her interview with the Post, any political party that is wooing her to contest the polls will have to wait.
According to Ms Supinya, she is wrestling with the decision, which rests on whether she should enter the political arena at all. “It’s not an easy decision and I still have time,” she was quoted as saying.
Ms Supinya become known to the public in 2003 when she, at that time a member of the Campaign Committee for Media Reform, faced a criminal case and a 400-million-baht civil lawsuit filed by Shin Corp. The suit followed her allegation that the telecom firm benefited from the Thaksin government’s policies. Both cases, which were dismissed in 2006, were seen as important tests of press freedom in Thailand.
While working at the NBTC she helped push for an independent watchdog to be established.
Ms Supinya is one of very few commissioners who have taken action to protect the rights of the media under the regime’s tight rule. She regularly shares her opinions with her followers on Twitter.
She won high praise last year when she resigned from the NBTC after the Supreme Court found her and nine activists guilty of storming parliament to obstruct the coupinstalled National Legislative Assembly from deliberating bills.
Those bills were later enacted as the Privatisation and Internal Security Act in 2007.