Thailand’s dissolved Future Forward Party on Sunday accused Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha and the former military government of aiding former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his associates during the height of the 1MDB scandal.
Future Forward spokeswoman Pannika Wanich said at a rally that Prayut and the former ruling junta aided Najib not only by arresting whistleblower Xavier Justo at Najib’s request but also hiding fugitive Jho Low who is wanted in connection to the 1MDB scandal.
Pannika said that Prayut and the junta carried out the request at a time when the government needed foreign recognition as it had just carried out a coup against a democratically elected government.
These allegations have been reported on for several years by the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.
However, the allegations have never really been reported in Thai media despite there being discrepancies in statements made by Thai police and the free travel of Jho Low into the country despite being on an Interpol red notice.
After the statements made by Pannika Wanich, #1MDB became a top trending hashtag on Thai Twitter with over 240,000 tweets.
Sunday’s rally was the first protest that the now-defunct Future Forward party has held after it was officially dissolved by Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday.
The court ruled that loans made by party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit to the party were illegal. The court also banned the party’s executive committee for ten years.
Thanathorn and the leaders of the party said that they would protest on the streets if the court ruled to dissolve the party, a decision they said was politically motivated.
International organizations and foreign governments have criticized the court’s decision. Read More.
However, multiple Future Forward MPs told Thai Enquirer that any large scale protests would have to be after the censure debates against the government in parliament.
At least 1,000 people attended the event at the party’s Thonburi headquarters.