Wipaphan ‘Nana’ Wongsawang has been an activist her entire adult life, fighting for student and women’s rights, amongst many other causes she has carried the banner for. She entered politics a few years ago and was a founding member of the Future Forward Party. Today she is running for Member of Parliament for Doi Saket, Sankampaeng and Mae On Districts of Chiang Mai for the Thai Sang Thai Party.Citylife sat down for an interview with her and discussed her entrance into politics, role as an activist in her youth, her vision for Thailand’s politics, her insights as to local Chiang Mai politics and other topical issues.“Thailand politics we are in a very special moment. Where the generation will transfer the heritage to the next generation. At the very high level, at the business level and even at the local business level too. In this moment it is better to go in now, study it now and maybe when the time comes you can be the one inside. I see [politics] as a long term investment.”“Many movements since my day, it’s the protest and the voice and the expression of the people, but they didn’t link with any body of power. I mean we used the streets to express what we feel, we use the media to tell what we think, but it didn’t link with any type of power. We are not sure who is taking charge of this. We didn’t evaluate what are we negotiating. We didn’t have objectives on how to negotiate and make it happen…It’s just like listen, and if you don’t listen to us you are the bad person.”“Chiang Mai hasn’t had a competitor for a long time. I think that’s a fact. For Chiang Mai, the main party – Phua Thai – doesn’t have competition. Or their competitor has never been counted as competition for a long long time.”Wipaphan ‘Nana’ Wongsawang is running as candidate number 9 for the Thai Sang Thai Party.
