From jungle communism to Bhumjaithai power: the rise and fall of Suphachai Phosu

Former deputy House speaker Suphachai Phosu has become the latest Thai politician to be banned from politics for life, after the Supreme Court found that he breached ethical standards by encroaching on state land.

The top court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders delivered the ruling on June 11 in a case filed by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) in September last year.

Suphachai, 68, is a key figure in the ruling Bhumjaithai Party and an influential politician in the Northeast.

In 2024, the NACC accused the four-time MP of occupying 40 land plots covering 220 rai (35.2 hectares/87 acres) in a forest reserve in the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom, his hometown and political base.

Suphachai included the land plots in his asset declarations on three occasions – on taking office as an MP for Nakhon Phanom in early 2008, following his appointment as deputy agriculture minister later that year, and after his re-election as an MP in 2019.

However, the political veteran could not produce occupancy documents for the plots in question. The NACC discovered that he bought the land from eligible farmers under a land reform scheme.

On June 11, the Supreme Court found Suphachai guilty of severe ethical violations and banned him from contesting elections or holding political office for life while stripping him of voting rights for 10 years.

The court ruled that as a political office holder, Suphachai was required to uphold ethical standards. It pointed out that his unlawful occupation of the land constituted a conflict of interest and a failure to preserve the dignity of his office.

It added that Suphachai’s previous surrender of his occupancy rights was insufficient as it had come after the NACC notified him of the allegations.

Still adamant

Suphachai greeted the verdict with defiance, declaring that the lifetime ban did not strip him of his right to serve the public.

“I will continue to work diligently to serve the people, where my heart is,” he wrote in a Facebook post on June 12.

He followed up with a series of posts showing him welcoming supporters, visiting residents, and joining events in his hometown.

Suphachai was born on New Year’s Day in 1958 in the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom. He earned a teaching certificate from Sakon Nakhon Teachers College (now known as Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat University), a bachelor’s degree in education from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, and a master’s in political science from Ramkhamhaeng University.

At one point in 1976 he dropped out of college to join the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) in its armed fight against the government.

Suphachai, who adopted the alias “Comrade Saeng”, was reportedly active in rural areas in his home province. However, he left the CPT after four years in the jungle, joining several thousand communist collaborators pardoned in a general amnesty issued in 1980.

He resumed his college studies and went on to become a schoolteacher in Nakhon Phanom. In 1986, he was promoted to school principal.

Four times lucky

Suphachai made his political debut in 2001 after being elected as an MP for his home province under the New Aspiration Party’s banner. The success came after his three failed attempts contesting under three different parties. He was re-elected three times as Nakhon Phanom MP in 2005, 2007, and 2019.

He joined other New Aspiration MPs who shifted to Thaksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai after the two parties merged in 2002. After Thai Rak Thai was dissolved by court order in 2007, Suphachai and other MPs migrated to the People Power Party, a Thaksin proxy.

However, after People Power was disbanded by court order in 2008, Suphachai joined a faction led by Newin Chidchob who defected to the rival Democrat Party in the new coalition government. The faction would later transform into a new political party called Bhumjaithai.

Suphachai, a key figure in the “Newin’s Friends” faction, was appointed deputy agriculture minister in the Democrat-led administration of Abhisit Vejjajiva. However, he lost his seat in 2011 after being defeated by a Pheu Thai Party candidate.

He returned to Parliament with victory in the 2019 election, held after five years of junta rule. He was voted in as second deputy speaker by the House of Representatives – serving until 2023.

In February’s general election, he stepped aside to allow his daughter, Supapanee Phosu, to contest the seat for Bhumjaithai. Supapanee, a former chief of the Nakhon Phanom Provincial Administrative Organisation, was subsequently elected to Parliament.