Sudarat’s last battle: Iron Lady fights to end corruption in Thailand

Dubbed the iron lady of Thai politics, Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan is refusing to rust into obscurity despite a gloomy outlook for her Thai Sang Thai party.

The 64-year-old political veteran recently announced plans to reform the party she launched in May 2021 after quitting the now-ruling Pheu Thai Party.

Her aim, she said, was to restore the public’s faith in Thai politics after years of corrupt politicians distorting the rule of law and abusing power for personal gain.

She announced the party overhaul after accusing certain Thai Sang Thai politicians of “betraying the people and the party”.

Several key party figures who left Pheu Thai to form Thai Sang Thai with Sudarat have since defected to other parties.

Among them are former MPs Anudith Nakornthap and Karoon Hosakul, both former long-time lieutenants of Sudarat. Thai Sang Thai sits in opposition, and party leader Sudarat is angry that the majority of its six MPs have sided with the ruling coalition in parliamentary votes.

Need for ‘honest politics’

Sudarat unveiled her blueprint for “honest politics” to eradicate corruption – which she blames for Thailand’s economic crisis and slow progress – at the party’s general assembly in late April.

“Thai politics these days is no longer a fight between dictatorship and democracy – it’s a fight between honest and corrupt politics,” she told party members.

Corrupt politics begins with vote-buying to gain political power, she explained. Once elected, officeholders then abuse power to accumulate wealth, which they use to secure votes for re-election.

“To pull our country out of this crisis, we need to combat corruption seriously, driven by leaders who have the political will to eliminate it,” she said.

She added that “betrayals and defections” had created an opportunity to overhaul her four-year-old party and bring in individuals devoted to building honest politics that could free the country from debilitating graft.

In mid-May, Sudarat said that quitting politics was never an option for her despite “many people, my family included, telling me it was time to stop. But they also agreed that this party could help tackle entrenched national corruption.”

The veteran lawmaker told reporters she was not washing her hands of politics any time soon, even though five of her party’s six MPs had defied the whip by voting for coalition motions.

These dissident lawmakers, she said, were unhappy that the party had opted to stay in opposition rather than joining the Pheu Thai-led government.

Last mission?

Sudarat said her party’s mission was to create a broad-based platform empowering the public to fight back against the nation’s corruption epidemic.

“Any Thai who can no longer tolerate this rotten politics can join us in rebuilding our country,” she said, urging citizens to break the vicious electoral cycle.

“If voters continue to submit to the power of money, you will get the same politicians in the next election – nothing will change,” she said, adding that the billions spent on vote-buying in the last election would only increase next time round.

“You can choose to either stay idle or rise and change the country with your own hands. Don’t underestimate your power – unity can bring changes,” she said.

However, she also dropped a strong hint that this would be her final political mission if it fails. “If it doesn’t succeed, that’s fine with me, because I can walk away [from political activities] and spend my time as I wish,” she said.

High-powered political veteran

Sudarat has served in multiple Cabinet posts, including public health minister, during more than three decades in politics.

She made her political debut in 1992 after being elected as a Palang Dharma Party MP for Bangkok and became the party’s secretary-general two years later at age 33.

Sudarat quickly made a strong impression, with her striking appearance and tough demeanour earning her the media moniker “beautiful but belligerent”.

In 1998, she joined businessman-turned-politician Thaksin Shinawatra as a cofounder of the Thai Rak Thai Party. Thaksin became premier in February 2001 after the party’s landslide election win.

However, she was among 111 Thai Rak Thai executives slapped with five-year political bans after the party was ousted in a coup and then dissolved for electoral fraud in 2007.

When the ban expired, Sudarat was named chief strategist for its successor, Pheu Thai. She was named among the party’s trio of prime ministerial candidates in the 2019 general election but quit Pheu Thai in November 2020 complaining of “unfair” moves against her faction.

Sudarat was elected as Thai Sang Thai’s sole list MP in the 2023 election, along with five constituency MPs. However, she stepped down two months later to make way for the party’s secretary-general, Takorn Tantasith.