Who will be the next Prime Minister of Thailand?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 June 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Thailand’s recent elections produced a shock result. A popular progressive party called Move Forward won the most seats. But the leader of the government has not yet been named as the country moves through its procedures for verifying the election results.
If the head of the party, Pita Limjaroenrat, is successful, it will mean civilian rule for the first time in over a decade. But the path to that role is far from smooth. There are many challenges as military coups and court rulings have cut many previous political careers short.
Contributors: Professor Tamara Loos, Chair of the history department at Cornell University Professor Duncan McCargo, director of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen Soawanee Alexander, social linguist and political analyst Verapat Pariyawong, lawyer and legal scholar
Presented by Charmaine Cozier Produced by Louise Clarke Researched by Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Edited by Tara McDermott Mixed by Kelly Young Production co-ordinator Brenda Brown
(Damnoen Saduak floating market in Bangkok, Thailand. Credit: Valletta Vittorio/ Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to The Inquiry, I'm Charmaine Cozier, each week one question for expert witnesses |
| 0:06.1 | and an answer. |
| 0:15.0 | June 2023 Thailand Millions of people are waiting and waiting to hear a name. |
| 0:25.1 | It's been more than a month since the country's general election and its shock result, |
| 0:30.4 | but the identity of the new head of government is yet to be confirmed. |
| 0:34.9 | A progressive party called Move Forward surprised many by winning most seats, so you might |
| 0:40.2 | expect the leader of that successful party to also secure the top job. |
| 0:44.8 | However, in politics, popularity doesn't always translate into power. |
| 0:50.8 | So this week we're asking, who will be the next prime minister of Thailand? |
| 1:00.7 | Part 1. |
| 1:01.8 | Hungry for Change |
| 1:11.8 | The elections are showing us that people rejected two traditional, important, static units |
| 1:22.5 | in Thai history, and that is the military and the monarchy. |
| 1:27.5 | Professor Tamara Luz is the chair of the History Department at Cornell University. |
| 1:32.4 | She specialises in Southeast Asian history. |
| 1:35.8 | It's actually one of the most exciting moments in Thailand's political history. |
| 1:40.6 | And it's a country that's experienced more political turmoil than most. |
| 1:45.2 | The first coup in Thailand was in 1932 and this was a mixed civilian and military coup |
| 1:52.7 | that overthrew the absolute monarchy and established a constitutional one. |
| 1:58.2 | It was a bloodless coup. |
| 2:00.0 | In a constitutional monarchy, the king or queen is head of state and the prime minister is |
| 2:04.9 | head of government. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.